Select a region
Despite being ear marked for demolition, the 50-year old La Mare de Carteret High School site will be used as a temporary home for the island's sixth form centre from September 2025.
An announcement this afternoon confirmed the plans put together by the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture after it had to drop its preferred contractor from the planned rebuild of the Post-16 campus at Les Ozouets.
The campus - which is already home to the performing arts centre - is due to have a new sixth form centre, and college of further education built in place of the former St Peter Port Secondary School.
The plans for this transformation of secondary and post-16 education provision can be traced back as far as initial talks to rebuild the island's four secondary schools - then St Sampsons, Les Beaucamps, St Peter Port and La Mare de Carteret.
St Peter Port school closed in 2009, after the new St Sampson's school had opened. Les Beaucamps has been rebuilt since then too.
Pictured: Guernsey's four current secondary schools are Les Beaucamps, St Sampson's, La Mare de Carteret, and Les Varendes (formerly the Grammar School).
ESC said today that the plan to use La Mare de Carteret High School for the 6th form centre is a temporary one, and it will enable the move of students from La Mare High into Les Varendes as planned in September 2025.
No time frame has yet been confirmed for the expected delays to the building of the new Post-16 campus at Les Ozouets but ESC has said they hope the temporary use of La Mare for the 6th form centre will be for one year only.
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, President of ESC said this temporary option offers certainty for everyone in the short term.
"Following our announcement last week that the States had withdrawn from using R.G. Falla Limited to build the new Post-16 campus at Les Ozouets, we wanted to share with the community as quickly as possible our plans for ensuring we maintain momentum and continue to deliver the re-organisation of Secondary and Post-16 education agreed by the States.
"While it remains incredibly disappointing that we have been forced into a situation where there will almost certainly be a delay to the full opening of the new Post-16 campus, the plan we are developing secures the transition from four 11-16 secondary schools to three 11-16 schools from September 2025 as planned. It also maintains the recently-changed primary school feeder model, which parents are now familiar with so they know which secondary school their child will move to after primary school.
Pictured: Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen.
"Moving the Sixth Form Centre to a temporary home at La Mare de Carteret High School is clearly something we would have rather avoided, but we believe at this stage is the best option to ensure momentum is maintained in other important parts of the re-organisation of Secondary and Post-16 education.
"We considered whether it would be possible to transition students from La Mare de Carteret High to Les Varendes in September 2025 as planned, while retaining the Sixth Form Centre on the same site. While technically possible, this would require substantial reconfiguration of the site to make room for the additional students transitioning from La Mare. More than 60% of Sixth Form lessons are taught in the main school rather than the Sixth Form Centre, so there simply isn’t the room to accommodate what would be approximately 1,300 students in total on the site as it is now.
"The community has made its feelings about such a large school very clear in recent years, which was another consideration of the Committee before determining that moving the Sixth Form Centre to a temporary home, for what we hope will be one year only, is currently the best option."
Express would like to speak with parents of students currently in secondary school year nine or below who may be affected by this decision. You can contact us by emailing editor@bailiwickexpress.com or by commenting below this article on our website or social media channels.
Costs of Les Ozouets delay not yet known
States drop education campus contractor
Clarification wanted on education savings and timescale
Education capital projects "continuing as planned
New post-16 campus secures planning consent
Union awaits "coherent vision" for post-16 project at Les Ozouets
For kids' sake, Bob, please don't go...
OPINION: "Investment in education is the best investment we can make"
New school model delayed by a year
States commits to new education model
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.