The government has not yet unveiled the directives that will have to be applied in leisure centers, with or without accommodation, in the face of the coronavirus. Municipalities will build on the experience of reopening schools. The situation is more delicate for the Aquitaine colonies.
In Bègles, near Bordeaux, the mayor EELV is confident. Clément Rossignol-Puech admits to being still very busy with the reopening of nursery and elementary schools, the second wave of which will end on May 25, but he is also starting to prepare for the opening of leisure centers this summer.
We will have the experience of the reopening of schools and nurseries. We will apply similar measures: a strict sanitary protocol for the maintenance of the premises, rather outdoor activities, such as cycling or hoop games. Agents and educators will already have been trained.
The municipality thinks it can accommodate as many children as usual between 100 to 150 this summer. It has spacious premises, a refurbished building with a courtyard for the little ones, a school next to a vast park for the older ones.
On the catering side, the municipality of Bègles will also maintain the same system as for schools: a picnic or a cold meal or even perhaps a hot meal.
Registrations are not yet open and messages from parents are starting to arrive recognizes Clément Rossignol-Puech. He plans to reassure them very quickly.
In Bordeaux, Arielle Piazza, Deputy Mayor in charge of Sport, Youth and Student Life cannot commit to welcoming the same number of young people this summer. 3,000 at the peak in July. Everything will depend on the gauge of children stopped.
We do not yet have very precise instructions, especially on small trips. Should we stay at 10 for example? It might be complicated. We expect it to loosen up after June 2.
But Arielle Piazza is not worried.
With the two supervisory ministries, the Ministry of Solidarity and Health and that of National Education, we will find solutions. We launched the Covid back to school in a very short time. We were able to test with our sports and cultural partners. We already have the basics.
Especially, adds the Bordeaux elected official that we will alternate learning holidays and the leisure center.
What are learning holidays?
THE “learning vacation“, and the “educational summer camps“, the Minister of National Education mentioned this brand new concept on April 15th. La Jeunesse en Plein Air says it has always done so. This secular network for holidays and educational leisure, founded in 1938, has defended since its origins “new education” through the discovery of nature, astronomy, the manufacture of tools, recalls Maurice Testemale, president of the JPA des Landes.
It is not school learning but it is an important educational moment. The risk is that the ministry wants to complete the learning that could not be done at the end of the school year.
We are in uncertainty
In the Landes, the Youth in the Outdoors federates three organizers of camps: Les Francas, the League of Education and the Pupilles of public education. Three movements of popular education which each summer welcome 3,000 young people from the Landes and who are today in uncertainty. Their supervisory ministry, the Ministry of National Education remains silent on stays with accommodation, deplores Maurice Testemale.
We thought that on May 14, during the interministerial meeting on tourism, we would know more, but no. The next date announced is June 2 new date. It’s done very late!
To date, none of the three associations is able to say which stays in their catalog will be possible. But they have already planned to cancel some of them. About ten out of the 40 offered by Les Francas.
Everything that required taking a bus and a train such as stays at Puys du Fou in Vendée or those in Paris or Corsica. If it takes three buses to get the kids out…
Will the other stays be maintained? Everything will depend on the government’s announcement:
If on June 2, we are imposed a list of measures as long as your arm, this myriad of constraints can weigh down the economy of these associations.
Maurice Testemale was mandated this Tuesday morning to write to the Prefect of Landes in order to organize a round table with the State services concerned and give “a little perspective and a little hope on how these services will interpret the instructions“. JPA hopes “a little flexibility and derogation“.
Because the Covid has damaged the economy of these associations. The Education League and the Pupils of public education have had to close the structures they own since March 16. Two months without cash inflow before a very gloomy summer to come.
Registrations for this summer have started but very timidly. The Education League recorded a drop of 70%. While summer camps were already out of favor, the coronavirus epidemic worries parents who are reluctant to bring their children back to school.
Sports holidays surely without accommodation
With its 70 disciplines, its 210 teams and its 7,500 members, the SAM, the Athletic Sport Mérignacais is the biggest sports club in Aquitaine. If the association has given up resuming sports activity before September, (the health directives are too restrictive), it is ready to welcome young people this summer.
Each year, it organizes a stay abroad, intended for young Mérignacais who cannot go on vacation. To date, it is maintained but it changes destination and rather than in Italy, it is in the Basque Country that it will take place. Registrations are closed. Twenty teenagers aged 11 to 17 could leave from July 6 to 17 at preferential prices. A stay that is full but recognizes Julien Fel, in charge of communication, “There is a good chance that it will be canceled“.
The children could then fall back on reception without accommodation. From June 29 to July 17, the SAM will receive around thirty young people instead of around forty. The program is stopped: surfing, beach volleyball, mountain biking, tree climbing. Outdoor activities only. Because since May 11, collective and indoor sports are prohibited.
We navigate by sight. We are awaiting the government’s next speech and the new directives that will apply from June. But we have to move on, urges Julien Fel
For this 19/20 season, the Sam has already received nearly 200 young people during the school holidays.
