Thursday, June 28, 2012, at 4:30 PM at Pasteur Elementary School, 15 rue du Professeur Delvalle – Nice, by Lauriano Azinheirinha, President of the School Fund Committee, Deputy Mayor for Education and Youth, and Philippe Jourdan, Academic Director of National Education Services.
The national educational project “Play Spaces in Schools” aims to provide specific areas within schools that are open to students outside school hours and dedicated to playful activities. This initiative was launched by the National Education department at the end of 2010 as part of efforts to combat violence, academic failure, and absenteeism.
Many schoolchildren spend nearly 10 hours a day at their school, including 4 hours outside of teaching time. To offer them moments of relaxation during extracurricular time, a dedicated play area, supervised by a teacher, is available within the school. Neither a toy library nor a game workshop, the originality of the concept lies in two principles:
The provision of a carefully selected assortment of around sixty non-educational toys (symbolic, imaginative, construction, or board games);
The opportunity for the child to play freely, according to their desires.
This setup allows the child to relax, unleash their imagination, interact (or not) with their peers, and develop self-confidence. For the institutions and the educational community, it helps to improve the image of the school (sometimes perceived as a place solely for work, causing apprehension and anxiety), pacify children’s behavior, reduce violence and incivility, etc.
The National Education department, supported by the city of Nice, decided to trial this system at the Pasteur Elementary School. The first play space in Nice is located within the “Library Documentation Center” of the Pasteur school. It is open during the midday break, recess, and until 6 PM. It includes around sixty toys funded by the School Fund.
