Greening Schoolyards: Education Directors Claim The Right To Make Mistakes

The workshop organized as part of the Andev congress, devoted to green schoolyards, was sold out on October 21, 2021, as the demand from elected officials has become so urgent in recent months to green schools. The capital opened the ball in 2018 with its Oasis courses and is a model for cities that are starting out. Paris today has 75 green schoolyards. “Since the start of the Oasis project, I have received two to three calls per week. More than 150 cities have contacted us ”, explains project manager Raphaëlle Thiollier. It is because with covid and the threat of global warming, many mayors are also launching themselves, manu militari, and too bad if the services are struggling to keep up.

The session on green schoolyards, held as part of the Andev congress, was sold out on October 21, 2021, as the demand for green schools from political authorities has grown in recent months. With its Oasis courses, the capital set the tone in 2018 and serves as a model for new cities. Today, there are 75 green schoolyards in Paris. "I've had two to three calls every week since the Oasis project began." "We've had over 150 cities contact us," says project manager Raphalle Thiollier. It's because, in response to covid and the threat of global warming, many mayors are launching themselves, manu militari, and it's too bad if the services can't keep up.

Between the decree and the start of the 2021 school year in Tours, the services had six months to plant three schoolyards totaling about one hectare. "Diagnostics (networks, firemen, etc.) and co-construction had to be done concurrently, while firms were mobilised in the midst of the covid crisis. Not to mention the topographic surveys, which were completed in record time! », says Laurence Chapacou, landscape projects manager and project leader for the Récré en Herbes project. As a result, the work began on August 8, 2021, and was not completed before the start of the school year, causing instructors to break out in cold sweat. Laurence Chapacou will be unstoppable for the next courses to be planted in 2022: "It takes at least 14 months from the start of the consultation to the finish of the job," she says, describing it as an incompressible time.