Jersey minister plans bilingual school in French and English

The new curriculum will focus on Jersey culture, history and geography

There could be a bilingual school in Jersey in future, according to the education minister.

Deputy Rod Bryans outlined the idea in the education business plan for 2015.

He said it would mean Jersey and French students working together and potentially open up French universities for Jersey students.

As part of the business plan, Deputy Bryans said the island would need to develop its own curriculum to reflect its unique heritage.

English and French are both official languages of Jersey, with prayers in the island's parliament said in French.

Deputy Bryans said: "The new curriculum has been more localised. We are a different place to England and they are localised in Ireland and Scotland, and it has been long overdue here."

Curriculum aims

• Collaborate with cultural services and voluntary groups to secure access to the key sites and local expertise needed to learn from them

• Introduce a "Jersey Cultural Passport" through which children and young people are able to track their access to and learning from the Island's historical sites and cultural experiences

• Support schools to achieve the Rights Respecting Schools award as part of the Island's commitment to the UN convention on the Rights of the Child

• Start teaching languages at an earlier age and make language subjects compulsory at GCSE level