Principal’s Update

Welcome to the new term for academic staff who officially started back this week. For support staff, it’s been a rather busy summer with area moves, refurbishments and fire safety actions to improve. Examinations Department were very diligent in dealing with earlier than usual claims for awards and multiple new layers of awarding body checks and balances.

Thank you to those who came in over the “holidays” to deal with enrolments. We now have every student placed, including late applicants. Eileen led this work with James Bennett, and it has been a demanding and thorough process. Jo Turner and Jane Herlihy have offered lots of personal care to every applicant.

You may notice that La Sente Primary School has moved into the portacabins, which we exited in 2019, due to their lack of suitability as teaching spaces. La Sente has been closed due to unacceptable fire safety risks. We have works still to be carried out by Jersey Property Holdings and CYPES, like a new exit for the Life Skills kitchen, but all risks have been mitigated in the meantime and we are safe to be open. Thank you to staff for their ongoing efforts and flexibility.

The initial results for full-time are in and claimed, with very strong achievement rates. However, we saw a decline in English GCSE re-take and Mathematics is stubbornly low.  The quality team are analysing the outcomes and remedial actions required. Attendance at re-take sessions was a major challenge last year and we will be looking at whether there is a correlation between attendance and grades. Historically, below 80% had a negative outcome.

I am happy to share the news that we have a new Vice-Principal for Curriculum joining us in February 2024. Kate Hobbs is currently the Deputy Principal at Bath College, and she has an outstanding track record of success. Notice periods of 6 months are standard at that level in the UK. In the meantime, the SLT will be picking up additional leadership duties, but departments will remain unaffected.

Unfortunately, the College will be closed to students due to strike action on the 12^th of September. NEU, NASUWT and JAHT are all on strike and so we will not be operating the curriculum. The support areas will be in as usual though and Robert Moy will deputise for me.

We will be open as usual Battle of Britain Day, now moved to the 14^th of September. All classes will operate as usual. The schools have an INSET day, but they only timetable 3 INSET days a year so they need that day, whereas we programme ten days a year. Clearly, if you are a single parent and you cannot find childcare, you will need special leave and to organise cover for your class with your Head of Department.

Last week, Rob and I met with Kenyan educational leaders, External Relations, Skills Jersey and GR8 (sponsors of our charitable foundation for students) about developing a partnership between Utalii College (the best Hospitality college in East Africa) and ourselves. I plan to visit them in 2024 to set up student and staff exchange, facilitate sharing of educational practice and support the transition of Kenyan workers to Jersey in a range of sectors where there are skills shortages. There are 1000 Kenyans working in Jersey; they face unemployment in Kenya so the relationship with our government is mutually beneficial.

Unfortunately, the Council of Ministers did not support the business case for better funding for apprenticeships. We are not recovering costs from the Government or from employers and there is a shortfall of about £500k. The Minister for Children and Education supports our case but there are many demands on the public purse. This has been the case since at least 2016.

I met the numerous new staff joining us today who are very talented and interesting. They spoke of the warm welcome and friendly atmosphere here so thank you for supporting them to settle in. They are …

I look forward to seeing everyone in the Great Hall for a face-to-face welcome back meeting on Friday at 0930am. Tea, coffee and mini pastries provided 😊.

Have a great week,

Jo