Herm Children To Be Schooled In Guernsey

From September, the four children from Herm will go to Vauvert Primary five days a week.

Parents on Herm were told about the decision on Tuesday (23 May)

The move is a trial, which will be reviewed in a year.

Currently, one teacher, Mary Carey, is teaching four primary pupils of varying ages, four days a week. For the other day, they go to Vauvert in Guernsey.

Education Committee president, deputy Andrea Dudley Owen, says the current set up isn't ideal:

"Educating a range of year groups in one small class in Herm, means that we’re not delivering for the children against a core element of our Education Strategy, which is to ensure that our curriculum at all phases reflects the needs of all learners and is appropriately broad, diverse and ambitious."

But, alongside a desire to offer the four children a better education, deputy Dudley Owen says savings will also be made:

"We cannot ignore that this decision will save between £60,000 and £85,000 a year. We understand that this decision may not be welcomed by everyone in Herm, but we are focused on what is best for those children’s education and development, and on working with the children and their families to make this transition a success."

Guernsey's director of education, Nick Hynes, wanted to thank teacher Mary Carey for her work in Herm over nearly 20 years:

"We have discussed this decision at length with Mary and it’s clear that it is very challenging to teach extremely small groups of children of mixed ages within the primary phase, particularly when there are fewer than five children at different ages and different stages of development."