Friday 17 January 2020
A series of short films will explore some of the advantages of the education reforms that are currently being introduced having been approved by the States in 2018 and 2019.
The first film has been released today. It looks at the need to consolidate the number of secondary schools and the benefits of 11-18 schools.
There will be six films ranging in length from 90 seconds to three minutes. They will be published on Fridays over the next five weeks. The films can be viewed on the new Lisia School Twitter and Facebook accounts. These social media channels will also publish a range of new and existing information. The film can also be viewed at www.youtube.com/statesofguernsey or by clicking here
In addition, from today staff and parents will also regularly receive a newsletter from Lisia School Executive Head Teacher, Liz Coffey.
Anybody who is interested is welcome to be at Beau Sejour at any time between 4pm and 8pm on Monday to find out more information or ask questions about the education reforms. And presentations will soon be held in the island's schools and elsewhere after a series of successful presentations to parish officials over the past two weeks.
These initiatives follow a commitment made by the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture to improve communication about the education reforms which are now under way and in the second year of a five-to-six year transition period.
Deputy Matt Fallaize, President of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, said:
'We are determined to improve communication so that parents, students and others in our community have as much information as they want about the education reforms and as importantly have opportunities to ask questions of Committee members, school leaders and advisors. We are committed to having good quality dialogue with as many people as possible in order to replace the many myths about these reforms with sound information and facts and to listen to people's questions, concerns and hopes.
'The first short film touches on the benefits of 11-18 schools and on why we need to make education fairer for all students by removing the unacceptable level of inequality which is built into our current system of four small schools. At the moment many students have a limited choice of subjects and different choices between schools based on nothing more than where in the island they live. This will be put right in the two new 11-18 colleges. And some of our students, particularly those at La Mare de Carteret, have endured wholly inadequate facilities for far too long. At the two new 11-18 colleges every student will have access to facilities of a high standard previously unknown to large numbers of students. Of course change on this scale is challenging for all of us, but it presents great opportunities and benefits for our students and we are not going to lose sight of that objective.'
Commenting on the 11-18 college structure, Mrs Coffey said:
'The benefits of 11-18 provision are varied and numerous. They give you size, scale, depth, and breadth, and, really importantly, you're able to recruit from a broader pool of teachers who want to teach across the full age range. To provide a quality education for our young people, one-person departments need to become specialist teams who support one another.'
Future films in the series will cover subjects such as how students will be supported in the colleges, the amount of inside and outside space and how transport plans will be developed working with residents who live near the colleges and other interested parties.
