In 2019, The Journal released a list of the worst schoolyards in Quebec. Five years later, it is clear that most of them have been greatly embellished. Here is what has changed or not in the various unloved playgrounds in our ranking.
With a PowerPoint presentation in hand, a primary school boy himself convinced his school administration to add shade to the playground after a heatwave, leading to the planting of 25 trees.
“Them, [l’école]they called it a “forest,” says Léo Lamoureux mockingly, pointing to an area where until recently there were only a few small trees.
“But now we’ve made it a bit more like a forest,” says the man who is part of the green committee at Saint-Barthélemy school in Montreal.
Leo Lamoureux, 10, has reason to be proud. Thanks to his initiative, 25 trees were planted in and around the courtyard of the Sagard pavilion last May.
The students not only participated in the planting, but also in the selection of species.
The boy can identify which tree was planted by whom and name the different species. Like the Saskatoon berry that he himself helped plant with the students in his class.
Léo Lamoureux, next to a Saskatoon tree that he and his classmates planted last May. Photo Dominique Scali
Over the years, many of these shrubs will become large enough to provide shaded areas.
It was during the heatwave of May 2023 that Léo had the idea. He was in 3rd grade at the time.
“I said to Dad, ‘It’s really hot. We should put some shade in.'” He remembered an old elm tree that had played that role when he was in elementary school, but had since been cut down.
No budget
After speaking with a teacher, he met with the school administration, armed with a PowerPoint presentation.
The school didn’t have a budget for this, the boy says. But Leo had a card up his sleeve: his father had heard about organizations like Soverdi, which can carry out turnkey planting projects and thus reduce the bill thanks to their own financing.
The project then went up to the Montreal School Services Center.
If it were not for the young age of its instigator, this project would resemble many others.
In most of the redeveloped courtyards that I visited The Journalthere are trees around, but also in the middle of the recreation area. These islands of plants not only beautify the place, but also neutralize the heat islands.
Even the colored marking
Even colored markings contribute to this since they reduce black surfaces, explains Mariane Pineau, coordinator of the Material Resources Department at the Marie-Victorin School Services Center.
An island of trees planted by Canopée in the middle of the courtyard of the l’Envolée primary school in Laval, which received a poor rating in 2019. Photo Dominique Scali
In Laval, an organization is working hard to demineralize this suburb that has long been “concreted over everywhere,” admits Sabrina Vermeersch, project manager at Canopée, which has helped green around thirty schools on Île Jésus since 2021.
You might think that adding trees everywhere would hinder children’s play, but it’s quite the opposite, explains Ms. Vermeersch.
Indeed, an American study published in 2015 in the journal Current Obesity Reports concluded that adding natural and varied spaces encouraged children to move more.
Is it too hot in your child’s classroom during heat waves?
