Parents threaten to leave island in case of school closure

Parents of children in Herm say they will leave the island if the school closes once more.
The primary school is the only one on the small island, serving a population of around 60 people and their families.
Guernsey’s Education Committee shut down the school in April 2023 due to a lack of financial viability.
However, after dissent from islanders and other Guernsey politicians, it was re-opened four months later.
Parents in Herm say that if it should close again, they’d be forced to leave the island.
Callum Page, Herm’s engineer, says: “If it happens – the school closure – then we’ll leave in September 2026.
“We’re here to raise a family with a school and without a school, we’ll be gone”.
In last week’s States debate, Guernsey’s President of Education, Andrea Dudley-Owen, stated that at the beginning of the next school year, there could be just one pupil at the school which would cost £200,000 to operate.
Herm Island’s leaseholder, John Singer, disagrees.
He expects to have four school pupils in Herm by September; there are eight pre-schoolers currently living there who’ll need to be educated in the next couple of years.
Parents say the school’s closure would change the island’s working demographic entirely.
Herm parent Fiona Hastings says: “I’d not have come if I thought there was not a school for them to go to. If the children have to commute [to Guernsey] it wouldn’t be something that we would consider.
“If we lose the school, families will not come and you’ll end up with a different type of workforce here”.
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