JCG submits plans for green expansion

Wednesday 25 July 2018

Jersey College for Girls has submitted a planning application to convert two potato fields into the “best kind of classroom” – green spaces for sport, archaeology, beekeeping and growing fruit and veg.

According to Department for Education guidelines, JCG Prep falls short of having enough dedicated PE space, while the area available to the secondary school is only around a tenth of what it should be – 320 square metres compared to the recommended 3,214.

But Principal Carl Howarth is hoping to remedy that through the conversion of two fields east of the Prep campus, partially funded by trips from visiting foreign students.

Under proposals submitted to the Planning Department for approval, ‘Field 800’ would make way for a level playing pitch for football, cricket, softball, touch rugby, athletics and rounders, encircled by a cross country track perimeter.

Pictured: The fields are located next to primary school JCG Prep. (Google Maps)

“Children’s access to quality open spaces for recreation and physical activity is highly important, facilitating daily exercise which helps to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce increasing levels of obesity. In addition, children’s play is fundamental to their development. Playing is learning, as it helps children develop muscle strength and coordination, language, cognitive thinking and reasoning,” Design Technology Head David Jones – one of the teachers behind the proposal – explained in a report accompanying the planning application.

Meanwhile, neighbouring Field 801’s uses will extend beyond sport – and into the realms of agriculture, apiculture and archaeology.

If approval is given to the ambitious field conversion plans, which include trenches for historic artefact digs, the school says that archaeology could feature as a GCSE subject on its curriculum to help turn students into “proficient excavators.”

“Students will learn to excavate using a variety of tools, but will also gain valuable experience of on-site recording techniques,” the proposal claims.

Pictured: Proposals for the fields. (JCG)

The school’s budding biologists would have the opportunity to scrutinise soil samples, studying wildlife within small marshland areas and learn about “the importance of beekeeping” with an onsite apiary. 

Cooking aficionados, meanwhile, would be able to cultivate their own ingredients – not just for them to enjoy, but others too. “The creation of an apple orchard and other growing areas would enable the students to cultivate fruit and vegetables for the benefit of the JCG kitchens and wider community,” the plans explained.

A footpath for pedestrians also features in the plans, allowing them to walk safely from the bottom entrance to the field adjacent to Ivystill Lane up towards the JCG campus.

Together, the school argued that the potato fields' new purposes would help students put their ecological learning into action. “To teach children ecology, we need to give students the opportunity to explore the plants and animals within their local environments,” the school said in its proposals.

Pictured: An apiary could also feature on the site to teach students about bees' important role in the ecosystem.

“This is the best kind of classroom. It’s a journey through time and space, from the smallest seed to the largest tree. This is a forest and learning space. This is the best kind of classroom, where the seasons don’t happen in books, where the learning is watching and thinking and doing, and everyone notices, everyone looks,” they continued, quoting poet Ian MacMillan.

However, not everyone welcomed the proposals so warmly. Some islanders feared that the project could cause damaging to the existing archaeological site at Les Varines. “…Flints and beautiful ceremonial axe heads were found on the exact site that JCG is proposing to re-landscape,” one local wrote in objection to the application. 

Another nearby resident who complained that they “already suffer on a daily basis the significant disruption of parents parking” to drop off and collect their children described “the thought of even more traffic” as “unbearable.” 

Others questioned why the school couldn’t simply share a playing field with other schools.

Pictured: Some islanders feared that the change would disrupt the pre-existing Ice Age dig site.

But JCG argued in its plans that the fields were in keeping with the area, and shouldn’t cause any problems for those living nearby.

They were backed by a number of other commenters – one of which was new Governor Cedric Bird, who commented: “Issues of wellbeing and a greater connection with the great outdoors is of increasing importance to all school children today.

“This is a well-considered project that addresses these issues and provides over 1,100 junior and senior school children with much-needed outdoor green space.”