Blanchelande College buys school site for £1.4 million

The college had been renting the Vauxbelets site since it moved there in 1999. Credit: ITV Channel

Blanchelande College - Guernsey's catholic secondary school - has bought its 40-acre site at Les Vauxbelets for £1.4 million.

The school has been based there since 1999, with the trustees renting the site from the De La Salle brothers since then.

The religious order runs hundreds of schools, colleges and universities around the world - including Jersey's De La Salle College.

The Blanchelande College Trust will take ownership of the 18th century house, school buildings, playing fields and some commercial units.

The deal will see the school's trustees pay for the site over a 10-year period, saying "the agreement has been carefully considered on both sides" to ensure the future of the catholic school in Guernsey.

In a letter to parents, the trustees say the site's purchase will allow future investment in the school's facilities:

"The purchase brings the strong benefits of permanence, and of course, will be a more sound basis for effective fundraising for the further improvement of our educational facilities.

"Parents, former students and other supporters of Blanchelande regularly make generous donations to enable improvements to the physical development of the estate, and they will now do so knowing that the college has the security of ownership."