Select a region
Regardless of the ongoing wrangling over paying for the transformation of secondary education, the work at the coal face continues with the changes to the leadership at Les Varendes High School and the Sixth Form Centre due to take effect from this week.
Keiran James has been Principal of Les Varendes High School and Sixth Form Centre (formerly the Guernsey Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre) since 2018. Prior to that he was Director of Sixth Form Studies and Deputy Headteacher of the entire school.
He is now taking up a new role of Principal of the standalone Sixth Form Centre which is currently based at Les Varendes but may one day move to Les Ozouets if the States ever agree to any funding mechanism for the wider Transforming Education Programme. In the interim the Centre will be moving to the La Mare de Carteret campus.
While Mr James is taking up his new post, Verona Tomlin is moving to her new role as Principal of Les Varendes High School.
She has been principal of La Mare de Carteret High School since 2020 having worked at the school for a decade before that.
Pictured: Verona Tomlin and Keiran James.
With La Mare de Carteret High due to close in the summer of 2025 after its final students have sat their GCSE exams, younger pupils have moved across to Les Varendes.
Mrs Tomlin will now be principal of Les Varendes High which will be one of three 11-16 schools in the island going forward. She will lead the merger of La Mare de Carteret and Les Varendes, working with the leadership teams on both sites.
Mr James' new role will focus on the development of the new standalone Sixth Form Centre, while also leading the alignment of the curriculum across all schools in the Secondary School Partnership. He will also "play a key role in the digital transformation at secondary and post-16, for which funding has already been agreed by the States".
In a letter to parents of pupils at Les Varendes High and the Sixth Form Centre, Mr James wrote: "It has been an enormous privilege and a pleasure to lead the school since September 2018. I have benefited greatly from the support of staff, students, parents and carers, and would like to extend my sincere and heartfelt thanks to all those I have worked alongside during this time."
He and Mrs Tomlin will "work closely...on the planned transition, providing leadership support particularly for the Sixth Form".
Mr James also said he is "excited to be able to invest my energy into the development of our shared curriculum and the digital transformation, both of which will improve further the quality of education for our students and support the work of our staff".
Martin Haimes remains Principal of Les Beaucamps with Vicky Godley Principal of St Sampson's High.
Pictured top: Verona Tomlin.
Les Varendes merger plans being finalised
Roles 'ring fenced' for teachers
Sixth form centre will remain part of Les Ozouets education campus
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.