The model is clearly no longer suitable. Long confined to a large rectangle of asphalt, the schoolyard must reinvent itself. In Rennes, it has been several years since the transformation project began, notably with the adaptation of sports equipment. Deemed to be too gendered, football fields tended to leave a central place for boys, placing the others, particularly girls, on the sides. But we had to go further. Monday evening, the municipal council did so by adopting two standards for the development of schoolyards but also children’s play areas. Stated objective: “to set an ambition and a framework”, specifies the education assistant Gaëlle Rougier.
In these documents, the technical services responsible for transforming the lessons will find all the recommendations issued in consultation with teachers and children. “The classes were very mineral because it was easier to maintain, to monitor the children and better to preserve the pants. The observation is now shared that their appropriation was not the same if one was small or tall or a boy or a girl. These are spaces for play and discovery which should allow everyone to flourish,” argues Gaëlle Rougier.
In this new standard, a large part of the efforts will be devoted to revegetation, with a shading percentage of minimum 30% which will be imposed in order to fight against heat islands and global warming. The principle of revegetation will even be systematic. Each bitumen or permeable development must therefore be justified.