Victoria College to make £500k improvements

Wednesday 18 April 2018

Victoria College has received more than half a million pounds from the Education Department to make improvements to areas such as digital technology, special needs teaching and access to scholarships and bursaries.

The fee-paying school will receive £450,000 in 2019 and £117,000 in 2020 after it produced a five-year strategic plan highlighting the future challenges facing both Victoria College (VCJ) and Victoria College Preparatory (VCP).

The Education Department told Express this report is unable to be released, as the content depended on how much funding was to be approved, but they have confirmed the five-year strategic plan includes investment in:

• Extra teaching support for students with specific difficulties, as well as improvement of teaching skills within the current staff as recommended in a recent ISI report.

• A special educational needs co-ordinator, as recommended in a recent ISI report, to improve the transition for students needing support between VCP and VCJ, as well as those joining from other schools.

• Digital Technology equipment and teaching skills to ensure facilities at VCJ and VCP are in keeping with latest developments.

• Scholarships and bursaries to enable more students from all backgrounds to access Victoria College Prep education.

• Public awareness of the college opportunities and services to improve business links, fundraising and student numbers.

The payment of £567,950 was first agreed with the Board of Governors in October 2016, to be spent on a capital project replacing the porta cabins used on College Field, with a new permanent classroom block.

But the project was put on hold and the money was returned, as it wasn’t enough to cover the costs of the work needed.

Pictured: Jersey's Education Minister, Deputy Rod Bryans, agreed the payment of £567,000 to Victoria College earlier this month. 

Now the Education Minister, Deputy Rod Bryans, has approved another request by the Board of Governors to receive £567,000 for this five-year plan instead, on the condition it is paid back in full by 2023, which they expect to do via fundraising and increasing student numbers forecast in future.

Chair of Governors, Brian Watt, said; “This is excellent news for the students at Victoria College (VCJ) and Victoria College Prep (VCP). We have been working on the five-year Strategic Plan for some time and this funding means we can now start to invest in the schools as planned to ensure our students have the highest quality support in all areas and an excellent education that fully prepares them for the future. Confirmation of the funding was needed before we could finalise our Strategic Plan.

“This funding is not new money, it was already put aside by the schools but we do not have enough to complete the capital project so we will use it to advance some essential improvements more quickly than would otherwise be possible. We plan to return the funds to the capital budget by the end of 2023.”