The donation will be used by the school for additional mental health provision, in addition to funding their International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP). Deloitte has also donated 85 laptop devices to the school to be allocated to students.

Siobhan Durcan, Partner at Deloitte Jersey, commented: “After an extremely difficult year, this donation is a thank you to Hautlieu School for all that they have done to support their students, staff and community. We’re proud and privileged to work with Hautlieu as a school partner. They, alongside so many schools and teachers on the island, have been critical to promoting the wellbeing and education of our island children and getting them back into school.

“Under normal circumstances, Deloitte staff would be volunteering regularly but in 2020 we were unable to do as much as we would have liked to. That is why we wanted to support the school in another way and the funds will go towards much-needed mental health initiatives and future schemes”.

Nick Falle, Headteacher at Hautlieu, added: “We are so grateful for Deloitte’s generosity after a different year for our students and staff. Working with Deloitte has been great for Hautlieu and we can’t wait to strengthen this partnership in 2021”.

In March last year, schools in Jersey were temporarily closed in an attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19; this disruption undoubtedly had an impact on many local children and staff.

Deloitte has an ongoing partnership with Hautlieu School as the firm supports the International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP). The IBCP programme is an alternative to A-Levels and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) and presents students with a mixture of both academic and real world vocational learning.

This initiative is part of Deloitte’s Five Million Futures school volunteering programme with a further 26 schools across the UK benefiting from sponsorship. Aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the initiative focuses on reducing inequality and helping people to overcome barriers to education and employment. It aims to support people to get to where they want to be, through access to education and employment, raising aspirations, improving skills and developing leaders.