A school adapted to the COVID [PHOTOS]

The teacher Karine Villeneuve, in the company of the small Leslie

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June 12, 2020 20h34

Updated at 21h03

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A school adapted to the COVID [PHOTOS]

Normand Provencher

The Sun

On 11 may, the elementary schools in the province have gone back to school not like the others. After a long confinement, professors and students returned to class in a mixture of excitement and apprehension. This was the case at the school Saint-Michel, in the area of Sillery, which had made our reporting team. A month later, The Sun returned on the spot to see that everyone has adjusted to the new routine imposed by the health crisis.

“Hello Rosalie! Hello Leslie! Are you well? When you have filed your things, go wash your hands.”

On 11 may, the elementary schools in the province have gone back to school not like the others. After a long confinement, professors and students returned to class in a mixture of excitement and apprehension. This was the case at the school Saint-Michel, in the area of Sillery, which had made our reporting team. A month later, The Sun returned on the spot to see that everyone has adjusted to the new routine imposed by the health crisis.

This directive, Karine Villeneuve repeats it ad nauseam at any time of the day to her students for kindergarten. His other bits of cabbage 6 years, Apollo, Paul, Augustine, Sophie, Zoe, Juliette, Allie and Jules, also have the right regularly to the same directive. It is 8am. All her little world runs without saying a word, in the greatest calm.

The pupils of Madame Karine, like all those of the school Saint-Michel, have never had hands as clean. Upon their arrival in the class, at the exit of the playground and back, before and after snack, before and after going to the toilet, to the output of the class, all must submit to a ritual of health. Twenty times in total in the day.

“The first day has required a lot of adjustment, it was necessary to repeat the instructions, especially how to properly wash hands. The students were put in the soap and pass them under the water,” says Louis-David Hamel-Ratté, his colleague from the next classroom.

Karine Villeneuve has learned to deal with an environment and teaching methods different from what they were before the pandemic. His class has nine pupils under the age in order to comply with the detachment physics. In the hallway, any object or clothing is allowed on the hooks or in the lockers. Here and there, posters are reminiscent of the safety instructions and the protocol to follow if a student presents symptoms similar to the COVID-19. Up to now, no case has been found in the school.

The regular washing of hands is entered into the habits of the students.

The Sun, Patrice Laroche

“Students are to remain at their work table. There are more trips or games between friends. Before, they could pick up their equipment. We have worked with a lot of autonomy that way, but now I put everything on their desktop in the morning,” says the teacher.

The essential mask

As everywhere, the mask became an object must, but no teacher does all day long. “When I’m in front of the class and the table, I’m not. My voice does not. But as soon as I do bring me closer to a student, I put it”, she says.

The decrease in the number of students per class resulted in the formation of more groups, 28 in total, which has forced management to reshape its workforce. Teachers of music, physical education, fine arts and English have become classroom teachers.

When the time comes to recess, students need to take in a row, on a red line at 2 meters of distance.

The Sun, Patrice Laroche

This is the case for Louis-David Hamel-Ratté, who has abandoned his clothes for a physical education instructor to take charge of a kindergarten group. “It is a big adaptation. I am accustomed to in a gym where it rolls. The dynamic in the classroom is different. Fortunately, I received a lot of help from my colleagues.” The young professor manages to move his students as often as possible : dance, yoga, exercises with chairs…

On the wall of her classroom, the different stages of the day are listed. In the morning : toilet, quiet games, chat, physical education, breakfast, work, snack, outside time, dinner. The talk of the day focuses on the fireflies. “It’s been two weeks that we are in the critters. I’m going to spend a small video. It is a bit scientific. I look forward to see how they will react.” An episode of Passe-Partout, for a snack, and is also on the agenda.

The quiet ambiance, where everyone follows the routine, which is momentarily disturbed by the arrival of the photographer. Everyone wants to be portrayed. The boys awoke to find out who is the most bastard of the class, or even school. The palm would be tantamount to a certain Stephen…

The physical education teacher, Louis-David Hamel-Ratté, became proprietor of a kindergarten class at école Saint-Michel because of the multiplication of groups.

The Sun, Patrice Laroche

To the first floor, in a class of 3rd year, Edith Marmen is surprised by the capacity of adaptation of the students from the back in the classroom. “There was anxiety at the beginning. We were scared for them, but they are super good. They are very rigorous. When they sneeze, they come to pick up the disinfectant. They will wash their hands one at a time. They are really champions.”

Less difficult than expected

“There was a lot of apprehension, this was not back to normal,” says the school’s director, Marie-André Couillard. But we reviré edge quickly. It’s less worse than we had imagined.”

Each week, a student returns to school. Despite all that, 28% of parents have decided, for medical or other reasons, to keep their toddlers at home. In absolute figures, on a traffic normal of 459 pupils, 332 children have returned to school Saint-Michel. History of not letting anyone down, the institution has delegated a teacher to do follow-up teaching at a distance.

The regular washing of hands is entered into the habits of the students.

The Sun, Patrice Laroche

Edith Marmen has chosen to maintain a virtual link emotional with five of its schoolgirls remained at home. “We jasettes of girls every week, just for fun, there is no pedagogical approach.”

The school operates at full capacity. It was necessary to redevelop the premises to accommodate seven additional groups. Transformed into a classroom, the staff room has been moved into a portion of the gymnasium; the other half welcomes the children of the daycare.

Like everywhere, the cleanliness of the premises became a subject of surveillance at all times. Three concierges day and two of night watch to the grain. Alexandre Boivin is one of them. “Each time the students get out of the classroom, I spend to clean up the tables, the desks, the door handles, faucets. I like it better do more than not enough.”

The police of 2 metres

When it comes time to go out for recess, all the kids will be placed on a red line, in the proverbial distance of 2 meters. The measurement is more difficult to enforce outside, mentions Louis-David Hamel-Ratté. “It is necessary to repeat. We play to the police of 2 metres. This is not in the nature of the child (respect distance). I have who are very active. I let them play soccer. There are some who have so much need. They are sitting all day.”

On 18 June, the teachers of Saint-Michel will wish happy holidays to their little protected. All will shut down in notebooks and computers, wishing to return to a normal life in the fall semester.

“It’s a good thing we came back. It has helped to close the loop with students. They were glad to return, ” says Marie-Andrée Couillard. There are no assessments, we consolidated the acquired. But one feels that there is a certain fatigue caused by vigilance. This fall lasted only a month and a half, it was nice, everything went well, but it should not be the next is still like that.”

Le Soleil