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As a florist, Clara produces "innovative, original and wildly lovely" floral designs, and she has some ideas which could do the same for Jersey.
Clara put the flowers down, and told us five things she'd change about Jersey if she had the chance.
I’d love all children to be given ten minutes of guided meditation at the start of their school day on a daily basis. It can easily be made age appropriate, but by investing these ten minutes a day, I am convinced by the time our children reach GSCE level/ A level and beyond, their ability to be mindful of themselves, of others and the greater good within their communities will be second nature and decrease the ever escalating mental health issues that abound in our societies. Mental health should be as important and discussed as readily as dental health.
There is an increasing number of vacant shop spaces in town and the face of our high street is becoming dull with only the larger well-known brands being able to afford the very high rents. In the UK they are getting around this issue by land lords being open to small business owners renting their spaces for very short term periods.
A pop-up. It’s a win-win.
Pictured: Clara thinks that the high street in Jersey could do a breath of fresh air.
The public would have more variety to choose from, it may even encourage them to stop going online, and shopping would become a pleasure again, the landlord would be getting some money, and the small business would be getting a marketing leg up in an ever competitive world and our high streets would be interesting and really busy with life.
This is an on-going issue amongst so many Islanders and I totally respect this is a very sensitive issue amongst non-dog owners. BUT, our climate is not that of the South of France where our beaches are rammed with sun bathers lying cheek by cheek, consistently for 5 months of the year.
I am a dog owner, and I am the first to not want a dog of any size rushing across my patch, cocking their leg, raiding my picnic or invading my peace when I am on the beach, but our tides give us huge beaches when it is out and there are many beaches in the Island that people don’t even go to.
Pictured: Delphi, Clara's dog, enjoys exploring the beautiful beaches of Jersey.
Let’s un-nanny state this. On the grisly rainy summer days, when beaches are empty, dog owners should be allowed to exercise their dogs on the beach at any time.
I would like to see more compromise. We could have designated beaches, or at certain tide times only, more constraint in hours during Summer school holidays, but lax during term time, but to have a blanket ban from 1st May through to end September is absurd.
I think we have great schools here on the Island and feel very fortunate to have educated my children here, and mine have been well catered for. But I think our secondary education system needs to work better and there needs more options.
There are many children that I am aware of that it is not working for. To have either fee paying or one state school only for all A-Level students seems that we rather short change our young people, which in turn makes us short change our future for growth. This is an age when there is huge diversity in individual needs and requirements and one size or two sizes just don’t fit all. How about a mixed State secondary for children of less ability to thrive at A-Level?
Pictured: Clara has three teenage daughters all at school on the Island.
Whilst on Secondary schools, this is an age as well when children stop running around the playground, climb and ‘play”. All this movement and energy releasing, pleasure giving, endorphins and wellness that the primary school aged children enjoy is lost. I think two PE sessions a week simply is NOT adequate nor enough if we are to manage our children’s health and wellbeing.
If schools stayed open even another 30 minutes extra, so pupils left at 4pm, and there was a compulsory half hour each day of movement, the wellbeing of our teenagers would greatly improve. It could be aerobics, yoga, dance, climbing, anything- not just ubiquitous team games. It could even be choice based, I bet there would be an overall improvement in physical, mental and emotional wellbeing and less stress put on teachers having to deal with unhappy teens.
General education on the importance for recycling needs to be magnified throughout the Island. We have a recycling centre which is pretty impressive but more need to be done to educate on the consequences of not recycling, not just a letter through the post which is collected with a pile of other flyers and trashed.
Pictured One of Clara's creations for her Wilde Thyme customers
Visual messages, would be helpful. This may cost initially but if we don’t ALL really become conscious of our waste the long term costs will be far far greater to our next generations of human, plant and animal life. I know some parishes, like Trinity have great recycling initiatives and information but I know others just don’t have this. There should be no excuse for any one not to be able to recycle.
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