Falling birth rate could cut primary school sizes

Nick Hynes, director of education, said "difficult decisions are needed"

Falling birth rates in Guernsey could see more of the island's primary schools reduce the number of reception classes they have.

Castel Primary School told parents in a newsletter it was considering the move from September.

Paul Montague, Guernsey representative for the National Education Union, said there were fears this would lead to fewer classes, with more pupils in each, adding to teachers' "very, very tough" workloads.

Nick Hynes, director of education, said the appeals process was still ongoing and may change any plans to consolidate classes.

'Very very tough'

Mr Montague said: "Class size increases are obviously problematic in itself.

"But when you add to that the increases in the youngsters coming with quite serious learning needs and post-pandemic issues and spreading of the Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) more thinly, our colleagues are finding it very very tough."

It is not yet clear if the larger classes will get more support staff to help teachers cope with the increase in pupils.

Mr Hynes said: "Difficult decisions are needed about the number of forms at some schools, as clearly the more classes you have the more it costs to operate.

"We try to place children in their catchment area school wherever we can, but on rare occasions this might not be possible when balancing that desire against the need to run as cost effective a system as possible."

'Really painful'

Some parents are questioning the move after their children were refused a place due to the class being full.

Deputy Peter Roffey said the move would make sense: "We know the number of school age children in primary and even secondary schools is going to drop significantly over the years ahead.

"I know it is really, really painful to be talking about rationalising schools because all schools are loved and all schools are communities.

"But if you have 10 good schools but only have enough children to fill eight, you can't keep the other two open to just stop people getting upset."