£10 million primary schools expansion plans

Monday 27 January 2014

Extensions are being planned to four primary schools to cope with extra demand on school places by 2016.

If approved, 12 new classes will be built between Plat Douet School in St Saviour, Springfield and D’Auvergne in St Helier and Bel Royal, St Lawrence. The £10.3 million project also includes plans for other schools.

A new classroom has already opened at Mont Nicolle in St Brelade and Education wants to build a specialist unit at Haute Vallée Secondary School for students with autistic spectrum disorder.

Education decided on an expansion programme at existing schools, rather than build a new one in town, as it gave greater flexibility and a suitable States-owned site could not be found.

Education Minister Patrick Ryan, said: “ESC have worked very closely with Property Holdings on these projects, which will ensure that the Island has sufficient places in its States primary schools for our children, particularly in the town area, for the foreseeable future."

The biggest project will at D’Auvergne at La Pouquelaye, where seven classes will be built to be filled over seven years. Plans for a new block comprising a library, school hall, IT suite and a new classroom at Trinity Primary School – where some classes occupy temporary structures – will be submitted later this year.

Education says it based its prediction for extra primary school places on birth records, enrolment figures and Census information.