New school governance system takes shape

Sunday 12 January 2025

Guernsey’s new system of school governance has seen some appointed, with elections edging closer.

The Committee for Education, Sport and Culture’s (ESC) says its new way of handling school governance aims to oversee schools and hold leadership accountable, a move which has an approval rating of over 95% with school leaders.

This new system includes Interim Governance Boards (IGBs) with representatives from the community, parents, and staff with the goal to provide different perspectives and improve educational outcomes.

The next step for the new system to take will be the election of staff, parent and student representatives, and in very fitting fashion for 2025, when Guernsey’s own electorate will go to the polls, it’ll be a step taken democratically. 

Over the coming weeks the process of selecting parent and staff governors will start, and once expressions of interest have been received from those who are eager, appointments will be made via peer-elections in each grouping. That means staff representatives will be elected by their colleagues; the parent/carer representatives will be elected by those with children at that school; and The Guernsey Institute will have a student representative elected by the other students.

If it’s a role that you would be interested in, you can find out more information on the States website HERE. 

ESC says that “over 95% of senior leaders in schools have expressed their support for the interim governance boards and see them as an important and valuable foundation for the Committee’s long-term governance proposals”.

Pictured: Guernsey's new group of community governors.

Lesley Le Page has been a Community Governor of Les Beaucamps High School for 6 years. She said: “It seems that these new governance boards should give us the opportunity to be even more involved with the schools to continue to see the wonderful work that they do, in a more meaningful way. We hope to create even more improvements to education, for the children that will shape our future.”

Tim Langlois, the Community Governor of the Sixth Form Centre, said: “It’s great to see all the different people who have chosen to represent the schools on the island. So far, we have undergone lots of training to ensure that we can be as effective and knowledgeable as possible when making improvements that directly affect our schools, and in turn, the lives of us all.

“It’s important that we understand how governance boards work and how we can work to the best of our ability to provide the best results for education in Guernsey.”

Kieran James, who is the Principal of the Sixth Form Centre, said this new system of governance is aiming to improve education in Guernsey.

“The value in having governing boards, especially for setting up a brand new Sixth Form Centre, is having a team that can provide different perspectives and dimensions to the work we are doing.

"The critical challenge from parents, carers and staff who will sit on the new IGBs is particularly helpful to us teachers who cannot necessarily see all perspectives, therefore hearing the opinions from all different kinds of stakeholders will be vital in making sure the new Sixth Form Centre is an ideal working environment for the young people of Guernsey. The boards have already been proving valuable and I look forward to seeing the work they will achieve going forwards.”