Written by children, for children

Tuesday 02 July 2024

Families visiting Guernsey with young children can pick up a free guide designed by local school pupils this summer.

A group of Year 1 pupils from Blanchelande College have been considering 'Why visit Guernsey?' as part of their lessons this term.

The five and six year olds - led by staff including class teacher Sharon Carvill - spent time gathering information about local landmarks, visiting them, drawing pictures and writing their own descriptions. 

All of this information has been put together in one handy guide with a number of copies donated to the Tourist Information Centre in St Peter Port so visitors can pick one up. 

"They've been making a brochure of places that people might want to visit in Guernsey, particularly if you've got young children," explained Ms Carvill.

"They've visited a few places and they've decided what it is good about those places and what facilities they've got there. They decided that mums and dads like places with toilets and car parks easily accessible, and then they have put their ideas together. We did a display in school with all their work and then we've taken that work and put it together in a brochure."

Pictured: The Year 1 class at Blanchelande created the Young Visitor's Guide to Guernsey which they presented to Guernsey Information Centre Supervisor Ed Mann earlier this week.

While the pupils have really enjoyed this project, Ms Carvill hopes other children will enjoy the results too.

"This has given a real purpose to the work that they're doing and it will now be available to other children as the tourist office will stock this for the summer, so if you come and you've got a young family you can take a brochure and find your own favourite places to visit."

Guernsey Information Centre Supervisor, Ed Mann was really impressed with the guide book when he received copies of it on Monday.

"It looks lovely and I think it's going to be really fun to give out to people with young families," he said. "I think they're going to really appreciate what the children have done.

"We do have a small leaflet, but nothing to the extent of this, and I think it's going to be really helpful for families with young children."

As for the children themselves, six year olds Freya and Zeke told Express that they've enjoyed putting the guide together.

"It's about places we went to, like the Folk Museum," explained Freya. "That's a museum next to Saumarez Park and it has an olden days watch in.

"We did it (the leaflet) and it was very fun."

Zeke also enjoyed working on the brochure. "I felt like I was actually an adult," he said.

Freya wrote about and drew a picture of the Folk Museum while Zeke documented a visit to the reservoir.  "I liked going down the routes and exploring," he said. 

Pictured top: Freya and Zeke with the Young Visitor's Guide to Guernsey they contributed to.