Staff meetings within days as ESC start work on 2-school model

Tuesday 27 February 2018

The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture has outlined its plans to engage with school leaders and staff, parents and students as the island's new structure of secondary and post-16 education is developed.

A number of meetings have been planned to kick-start the work, with primary and secondary school headteachers due to meet the ESC Committee in early March.

The new structure being planned will include two 11-18 schools, both with sixth forms, and the redevelopment of the College of Further Education as a single institution for technical and professional studies.  Governance and leadership will be devolved to the secondary schools and the College as part of plans to introduce “local management”. The reforms were all agreed by the States and are now being led by a new Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, along with a new Committee Chief Secretary, Gus Paterson.

Deputy Fallaize and Mr Paterson will lead the meetings with the primary and secondary head teachers next month, using those face to face talks to outline the Committee’s plans to implement the new structure of education in partnership with education professionals.

Following those meetings, Mr Paterson, Deputy Fallaize and other members of the ESC Committee plan to meet with as many secondary school teachers as possible, write to parents and engage directly with students. The plan is for everyone involved to have a "good understanding of the agreed reforms and what the Committee is seeking to achieve."

Pictured: Deputy Matt Fallaize

Deputy Fallaize said: "The Committee has received a clear direction from the States.  In the future secondary education will be provided in 11-18 schools and the College of Further Education will be redeveloped and expanded, not divided.  However, a great deal of planning lies ahead to shape the organisation and operation of the schools and the College.  The Committee wants to do this in conjunction with school leaders who have substantial experience as educationalists.

"The lead-up to the debate on the future of secondary and post-16 education was understandably emotive.  Very few subjects matter more than education does to the people of Guernsey and their representatives in the States. During this period there was significant scope for misinformation or misunderstanding to be repeated enough times for it to become widely accepted, especially for anyone who hadn’t fully read both the previous Committee’s proposals and the new Committee’s proposals.  As just one example, I regularly hear from parents who have been misled into believing that two 11-18 schools must result in larger class sizes than there would have been in three 11-16 schools.  This is absolutely not the case.  The 11-18 schools which we proposed and which were agreed by the States are based on exactly the same class sizes as the 11-16 schools proposed by the previous Committee." 

Deputy Fallaize admits there is still a lot of work to do: "The Committee recognises that it needs to keep all stakeholders properly informed, which means engaging directly with teachers, parents, students and the wider community.  The Committee will also strive to provide greater certainty about the future as soon as possible, including identifying the two sites for the 11-18 schools and the transition model for students and teachers.

"As a Committee we are resolute in our determination. The best committees work as a team and ours greatly benefits from both a collective joint purpose and the diverse skills of our membership. We do not expect everyone to agree with the structure of secondary and post-16 education which was agreed by the States and on which we are now leading.  We will, however, do everything possible to ensure that there is a better understanding of why the States agreed to these reforms and also to keep people informed as the details of the new structure are developed."