France: schools prepare to reopen Tuesday for part of schoolchildren

Text by: Nicolas Falez Follow

In France, just over a million kindergarten and elementary students are expected in schools in France this Tuesday, May 12. A return on a voluntary basis and with a very strict health protocol. In recent days, the directors of the establishments have been mobilized to prepare the schools for these new instructions. Report in the department of Mayenne, in the west of France.

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"  It's a little scary anyway. We are a bit in the unknown. And yet she knows her school perfectly. Brigitte Cabaret has been director and mistress here for over 20 years at Simone Veil school in Saint-Pierre-des-Nids. For several days she has been working to adapt the premises of the establishment.

“  We have set up differentiated entrances and within the school each child has a path and he does not come across children from other classes at all. There is no mixing between the different classes. "

The canteen will remain closed, for lunch it will be a picnic for everyone. Change also inside the classes. “  This class is being developed. It is a class where there were 26 students. There are 7 students. So when the children arrive, the first thing we do: the children wash their hands, go in their place. They will have personal equipment, they have no access to collective equipment at all. This is why you see shelves that are turned over and all the collective material is removed.  "

► Read also: France: worried parents hesitate to send their children to school

Not everyone will go back to school

Here, in the department of Mayenne, we are in green on the map of France of the epidemic, yet on a staff of 120 students, less than 30 will return to school this Tuesday morning.

Throughout France, the recovery in prices will be very gradual. Some school principals have already alerted parents to the fact that safety measures and barrier actions to be taken into account within school establishments have been taken into account, very few children could return to their establishment.

Lola, 11, is in CM2 class, she is not one of the selected students. She heard the news on Saturday in a video from the director of her school. She is very disappointed.

Already, I'm not with my friends. Even if sometimes I can see them in FaceTime, it's less good than laughing for real or running together or just chatting. And then I'm an only girl ... here, I'm a little bored.

No return to school this Tuesday for Lola, 11, in CM2 class

Lucie Bouteloup

► Read also: France: the reopening of schools contested despite a very strict protocol

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