My Manifesto
Education: Our Island’s Foundation
My experience in education has shown how damaging political indecision can be. The chaos over the past 10 years has harmed students’ opportunities. This turmoil must not happen again, in education or elsewhere.
Excellent education is a moral and economic necessity. People are our greatest resource and we must help to unlock everyone’s potential. The secondary sector has undergone major change; now we must support our schools to foster ambition and raise aspirations. Disruption caused by poor behaviour should not hold anyone back. We need to attract and retain committed teachers by making their work more rewarding and sustainable.
Culture is key to success in schools, but they cannot build it alone. The move towards governing bodies is a step in the right direction, but families and the wider community must engage too. Everyone shares responsibility for supporting our young people.
Ofsted has judged our primary schools to be good but further progress is possible. A review of primary provision must avoid the mistakes of secondary reform.
Post-16, we must complete the Further Education campus on time and support the Sixth Form Centre at La Mare until it has a permanent home. Physical infrastructure matters alongside culture, consistency and leadership.
So what ...
We now need some stability and certainty for our secondary schools. We must not let Education become a political football.
We must recruit and retain high quality teachers. Our planned rationalising of the salary scale will not cost the tax payer anything but should help recruitment. Our work to develop new terms and conditions will make teaching a more attractive and sustainable profession.
We need to review Primary School provision. If the evidence is clear that educational outcomes will be improved, then merging schools, whilst unpopular in the short term, may be the right option. But it must be based on sound disinterested research.
We need to intervene earlier to support young people who are struggling in school. This multi-agency approach, with various groups working together with the same goal, will save the tax payer money in both the short and long term.
We need to support and guide all families to see the value in education.
We must get Les Ozouets Campus built on time. This is vital to helping develop the skills in young people to help them thrive and meet the needs of our economy.
The Sixth Form Centre can succeed at La Mare de Carteret but needs to move to a permanent home as soon as possible. Ideally this will be at Les Ozouets Campus.
And finally it is essential that we complete the work started on the Education Law to make it fit for purpose.
The picture that links to this page was taken of the Grammar School Staff in Summer 1996. It was to mark the retirement of the Head Teacher, Alan Bisson.