Monday 12 October 2020
Plans are being developed to try and support off-island students who may wish to return to the Bailiwick during the Christmas holidays.
The States of Guernsey is aware that students and their families may be concerned about the pandemic beyond the Bailiwick and may be worried about how best to manage the challenges of returning home for the holiday period. The States is carrying out scoping work to understand the extent of these challenges, particularly in relation to the capacity of travel links, before determining any measures that can reasonably put in place.
A survey has been emailed to the more than 500 students who receive States-funding, seeking to capture whether they intend to return to the island for Christmas and whether they have already booked travel. We would ask parents to help by encouraging their children to complete the survey.
In addition to travel information, it is important that students and their families understand any mandatory self-isolation requirements upon their return. While we do not know at this stage the specific Public Health requirements which will be in place during the Christmas period, currently anyone arriving from the UK must, by law, self-isolate for 14 days. States-funded students have been provided with information about what self-isolation means in practical terms. They have also been asked if it would be possible for them to safely self-isolate at their family home if and when they decide to return.
While the Student Finance team are able to contact those students who receive some States funding, there are between 150-200 students who do not access this support. Any student who does not receive States funding, but who would like to complete the survey and be kept informed about our work in this area, is asked to email studentfinance@gov.gg.
