‘No more tears of separation or disappointment’

In his 60 years in Guernsey, Dick Taylor has witnessed many transformations within the island’s education system and is convinced the latest reforms are both necessary and based on sound scientific principles. The former deputy Education director explains why he welcomes the changes Shutterstock picture THIS is a great year for all you parents out there; it’s the last year any of you will receive that envelope. No, not the one containing your income tax arrears – they only stop with the arrival of the undertaker. But that envelope informing you which school your 11-year-old child will be attending from September. From now on they all know years ahead where they will be going, together with all their school mates, and remain with them until they reach the school leaving age. No more are friends to be separated, although new ones will join them as they become the new intake at the high schools. No more tears of separation or disappointment. I’m sure, like we who have sensed that anxious knot in the stomach as that envelope hits the door mat and our child’s slight tremble of the hand as they slit open the missive that would determine their future few years and possibly, for some, their future life, it will not be missed. Nor will the querulous parental question uttered through clenched teeth and rictus smile, ‘well, is it College, Grammar … or High School (in English law prevailing at the time and in Guernsey by committee resolution known as secondary modern)?’ For my family the situation was compounded by the fact that being the parents of identical twins they might have been selected for different schools, which in the event was resolved in a bitter-sweet fashion, for in playground language ‘they both failed’. At the heart of […]

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