children discover nature thanks to their school

“For our students, this garden is an adventure!” When the Lyon town hall offered the teaching team at the Michel-Servet school access to enclosed, poorly developed communal land, no one hesitated. It must be said that the establishment, built at the end of the 19th century, is located at the exit of the Croix-Rousse tunnel. Its very mineral courtyard is set between tall buildings.

So, children and adults alike enjoy regular outings in the garden. A schedule was established with the town hall and two other schools in the area. By signing an occupancy agreement, each class can go there every three weeks.

This Friday, for the first time this school year, Isabelle Berger and Emmanuelle Claude are taking their kindergarten students there. One has a small and large section class, the other a complete multilevel, “small, medium, large”. The “grown-ups” are delighted to find this familiar place again.

The “little ones” will discover it. We still have to get there… “Some people walk very little on a daily basis, that’s visible straight away,” observes Isabel, one of the two atsem (specialized territorial agent for nursery schools). Especially since the 1st arrondissement of Lyon enjoys a very particular topography: sandwiched between the Saône and the Rhône, it includes the famous “slopes” of the Croix-Rousse, a very marked relief. Some streets go around rocky escarpments, called “balmes”. “A densely populated, very built-up district, with strong heritage and topographical constraints,” summarizes Mathilde Cortinovis, first deputy of the district.

It takes about thirty-five minutes for the forty children to get there. “We also work on endurance,” Isabelle Berger assumes, taking a key out of her pocket. She opens a mesh gate which she closes behind the last student: the garden belongs to the municipality but is not a public place. Once inside, the children are among themselves, away from the dangers of the street.

Here, everything is allowed

A narrow asphalt driveway, a flat part circumscribed by a low wall – which also serves as a bowling green for a local association –, a small building barely larger than a garage, an outdoor tap, nothing more. But trees, bushes, thickets, growing on the slope, steep in places. The two teachers remind us of the rules of the game. It is simple: “You can do everything except hit each other and pull up the plants.” No other instructions are given, and that is the goal: “Here, they have the right.” The right to play in the earth and leaves, to pick up sticks, stones, to climb trees, to run… This freedom offered to them matters a lot to Isabelle Berger: “The interest of this garden is that it is not organized. It’s not a square, there is no play structure or slide.”

His colleague adds: “Some children immediately go into fantasy. They go hunting dinosaurs, make a fire, mark out a castle… While others are lost, unable to go on an adventure or tell stories. .. You learn it little by little.” Three little girls are playing around in the sand. They make “a poisoned soup” which they offer to their mistress with a big smile. She screams loudly: she prefers the “birthday cake” shown to her by a group of boys busy planting “candles” on a mound of earth.

Happiness guaranteed

Further on, an endless race is organized: the children climb between the thickets, leaning on the roots, then run down the path. Isabel admits that on her first visit, she was worried: “They are going to fall! Get dirty!” Then she adopted the philosophy of her colleagues: “Let them live, these children!” According to everyone, the benefit of these mornings is global: getting around town, gaining motor skills, self-confidence, taking initiatives, organizing games by communicating with others…

“There are much fewer arguments and fights than in the courtyard,” insists Emmanuelle Claude. Moreover, in the garden, the more time passes, the less we see our students: they no longer come to ask us to intervene. This is their moment.” In a “note” stuck at the start of the school year in the children’s liaison notebook, she anticipates any parents’ fears and immediately announces: “The children come back dirty, tired, but happy!”