Note to school rhythms – South West

A ncienne director of kindergarten on the right bank of Bordeaux and vice-president of the Senate today, Françoise Cartron (PS ) is familiar with the school. In 2013, she was rapporteur of the bill on rebuilding the desired school by Vincent Peillon. A new parliamentary working mission entrusted to him by Manuel Valls in October. This was to assess good practices and blockages born of the reform of school time. The report was presented last night the Prime Minister and his colleagues of Education and Youth and Sports.

“South West” The law school’s refoundation which you have been rapporteur advocated new rhythms. Were you not judge and jury in taking stock?

Françoise Cartron I was convinced of the need to change school timetables, which had the particularity in France to have days extending and weeks halved by Wednesday. I went with my walking stick, saying ‘ooh my, I will perhaps meet great difficulties, I am here to convince and to find solutions. ” But I did not have to! Yet I have been in contact with 1,200 communes, or through questionnaires sent to elected through direct visits to 12 different departments, including Gironde and Landes.

because surprise is that nobody wants to go back …

Indeed! The mayors who have had to train municipal staff do not want to give up and they all say the establishment was so complex that they do not want to undo everything. Three quarters of communities are finally satisfied with the proposed activities and 95% even believe that the children are happy.

The other surprise is that rural municipalities, we thought that ‘they would struggle to find facilitators, are doing fairly well …

the country has been troubled because the report to school is very deep. Elected officials know that the attractiveness of the area through a school that is not second class. In addition, community life is important. quality workshops appeal to retirees, volunteers, but also staff spent full time, with training, while small towns were often around the school as personal part-time.

The reform therefore did not create inequality?

I believe on the contrary that it benefits the poor. In some municipalities, there were school and nothing else. It did not matter for parents who could afford to offer music activities or pony for their children. So, those saying “oh, so that’s to paint, it’s not worth it, it is already doing.” Except it was not the case for everyone. The establishment of workshops, usually free for all, revealed and fulfilled inequality. One of the striking examples is in the Landes: 10,000 children were extracurricular activities, they are now 30,000

What about fatigue children often pointed by them. teachers and parents?

teacher, I have always heard that some kids were tired and no longer learning anything in the afternoon. The problem is mainly that the practices of children have changed. They fall asleep with the TV in the room or tablet. Now researchers confirm that the blue light of the screens has a negative effect on sleep. In addition, the families have not given up sleeping late on Tuesday while there are now school on Wednesday. Let us look on it instead of criminalizing new rhythms.

It’s still more complicated for small kindergarten …

While . And the rare cases where children from their nap is wake up to go to the workshops are not a good practice. For 2-4 years, napping is the best solution.

Are the effects of the reform on learning measurable?

n ‘have not enough experience. But teachers said they were ahead of the program and that they were in February that they were previously in April.

Some cities, like Bordeaux, chose to focus activities on two hours or an afternoon full week. Is it not contradictory to the spirit of reform?

A little, but it gives flexibility and it does not matter as long as we do not concentrate activities on Friday, which has the effect of lengthening the weekend and proves inadequate with the interests of the child.

the cost for municipalities was often denounced. Are state aid sustainable?

In any case until 2017, after I do not know. Maximum for municipalities in difficulty, this may represent 95 per child, plus 54 euros CAF. The difficulty still is that the CAF files are so complex that only half of municipalities have benefited from the difficulties being increased for municipalities with fewer than 1000 inhabitants. It remains a point that can evolve.