New headteacher to be appointed at Catholic primary

Thursday 08 November 2018

A new headteacher is to be appointed at Notre Dame du Rosaire Primary School, following the retirement of Peter McGovern.

Mr McGovern has been at Notre Dame for 23 years, taking on responsibility for the education of hundreds of boys and girls in that time, with some of those former pupils own children now attending the school too.

Mr McGovern is believed to be the longest serving head teacher in Guernsey currently, and he recently tendered his resignation, saying he intended to retire at the end of this calendar year.

Parents of current pupils were told that Teresa Cable, the current Deputy Head, will be the acting Headteacher from January 2019. The intention then is to recruit on a permanent basis from September 2019. 

The pending vacancy had raised some concerns among the Catholic community in Guernsey, and in particular among some parents of pupils at both Notre Dame du Rosaire and St Mary and St Michael primary schools.

Previously, under the 2012-16 government, the then Education Department had raised the issue of merging the two Catholic primary schools, which are mainly funded by the Church through the Diocese of Portsmouth. As neither site would be big enough to take all of the pupils from both schools, one suggestion was to appoint a single head teacher over both sites, forming one Catholic primary school.

That idea has not officially been revisited since then, when the former Education Minister Robert Sillars admitted in a public meeting that it had been a mistake to raise the possibility of merging the two schools at that time.

Earlier this year, the subject was revisited by the current Committee for Education, Sport and Culture President, Deputy Matt Fallaize, who had to answer questions in the States on the wider subject of single form entry primary schools. 

St Mary and St Michael is a single form entry school, while Notre Dame is considered to be a 1.5 form entry school. 

For now it seems that will remain the situation, as Mrs Helen Shepherd continues as head of St Mary and St Michael while a new headteacher will be appointed at Notre Dame. ESC said the Education Office has been in discussion with the Diocese throughout this process so far. The Church has not yet commented. 

Pictured: Mr Peter McGovern, Head Teacher of Notre Dame du Rosaire Primary School.