Constructing schools in Guernsey is an expensive business. Comparitive school construction projects in the UK often seem considerably less expensive than local equivalents. Just picking a couple of recent examples demonstrate this:

• Queen Margaret Academy in Ayr, Scotland cost £25 million for an 800 capacity secondary school that replaces a 40-year old building from 1977 with a leaky flat roof
• At the other end of the scale Three Rivers Academy in Surry came in at £34 million for an 1,800 capacity school, funded by selling surplus land for 296 dwellings

But in Guernsey, the costs of building schools has been considerably higher. The original cost in 2014 to rebuild La Mare de Carteret as a 600-pupil high school (with an attached two-form primary school, pre-school and autism centre) was £59 million.  The project was defended at the time as “not gold plated” but it failed to gain approval. 

Another attempt to to rebuild the school was made in 2016, this time with an option to upgrade the capacity to 960 pupils included, but minus some of the original features such as a pre-school and community centre.  The estimated cost had risen significantly to £108 million.  The rebuild was broadly welcomed as long overdue, but it was partly the high cost that led (along with a proposal to combine all post-16 education on one site at Les Varendes, replacing the existing Grammar School with a college offering A-levels and vocational education on the same site) to the rebuild being rejected.

Planned LMDC rebuild, from Coe Design

An alternative proposal for education in 2018 featuring “one school with two colleges” involved using two existing sites for 11-18 education and a rebuilt Guernsey Institite to house a combined offering of existing CoFE, GTA and Health & Social Care education.

The 2019 policy letter from CfESC detailed costs of the proposal to cease use of the existing LMDC and Les Varendes sites and extend St Sampsons and Les Beaucamps for twio 11-18 schools, and a purpose built FE college at les Ouzets, the former St Peter Port school site.  Construction costs are listed as:

• £69 million – redevelopment of St Sampson’s High & Les Beaucamps High
• £13.5 million – redevelopment of the Mare de Carteret Primary School (two form entry for comparison purposes)
• £47 million for the Guernsey Institute at Les Ozouets campus

Giving a total for construction of £129.5 million.  There are additional non-construction costs allocated for for alternative transport, technology and transformation project costs.

Three 11-18 School Costs

Could Les Beaucamps be used for further education?  In terms of the gross space requirements, LBHS is a close match to the proposed new build at SPSS proposed by the CfESC business case:

• Les Beaucamps total gross area: 9,881 sq. metres (PMc report)
• Guernsey Instutute space requirements: 10,480 sq. meters, made up of
  • Performing Arts Centre,  2,200 sq. meters
  • Main Educational Space,  6,217 sq. meters
  • Vocational Workshop Buildings, 2,063 sq. meters

If so, the redevelopment costs for LMDC are less than the construction cost requirements for the 2-school model.  The 3x 11-18 would consist of:

• Les Varendes, 11-18 school, x8 form entry
• St Sampsons, 11-18 school, x6 form entry
• La Mare De Carteret (redeveloped) 11-18 school, x6 form entry
• Les Beaucamps: Guernsey Institute (CoFE, GTA, Health & Social Care)

Without accounting for building cost inflation and before refurbishment costs to transform Les Beaucamps from a secondary school to a higher education facility, the initial construction cost for the 3x 11-18 model is £21.5 million less then the two-school model.