Back to school: increased numbers and health measures

The Administrative Councillor’s back-to-school press briefing was held at the Pavillon Geisendorf, which is home to a school canteen with 200 seats, extracurricular premises and equipment available to the entire district. “A venue which bears witness to my desire to provide children with high-quality infrastructures, both during and after school hours”.

In Geisendorf, as in many of the City’s schools and nurseries, a number of additional tasks await the staff involving cleaning, ensuring social distancing measures are respected, managing the flows of children and limiting the number of adults gathering in one place. These protective measures – and the wearing of masks if a distance of 1.5 m between adults cannot be maintained – are required to ensure that everyone concerned can return to school in complete safety. It should be noted that the wearing of masks is also recommended for both children and adults in schools and extracurricular facilities if the safety distance cannot be guaranteed. Early childhood professionals are not, however, required to wear a mask.

To cope with the increase in extracurricular numbers, the Administrative Councillor welcomes the provision of 300 additional seats in the Contamines, les Allières, l’Europe and les Pâquis school canteens. Extracurricular facilities have been set up in Budé, les Allières and les Genêts.

Shuttle bus for 80 pupils in Le Corbusier

Temporary classrooms are currently being installed in the area of Le Corbusier. Shuttle buses will be organised for the 80 children who will attend les Crêts-de-Champel school for 4 months until the work is complete.

The installation of temporary classrooms at several sites from 2022 will be subject to a new planning process in collaboration with the City’s Department of Planning, Construction and Mobility.

With regard to school canteens, the City will manage the Budé, les Crêts, les Genêts and Trembley canteens directly while the other school canteens will rely heavily on the involvement of associations. A think tank is currently exploring different means of improving the organisation of the school canteens in terms of both student comfort and supervision. Furthermore, the City is conducting a survey to assess the impact of the school canteen procurement process on the environment.

Perspectives

This year, more than two-thirds of pupils will have the opportunity to enrol in the discovery workshops and mobile workshops via the extracurricular staff directly. Christina Kitsos believes that these workshops are a “key lever in providing numerous children with access to culture and sport” The Administrative Councillor intends to broaden the range of workshops on offer next year.

It should be noted that the back-to-school allowance (ARS) has been granted for the eighth consecutive year. Accordingly, families are granted 130 francs per year for a child in primary school (180 francs for a child in junior high school). For the first time, it is now possible to submit your application online. In order to improve the information available to families, a hotline (088 33 88 99) will be available to answer questions. Christina Kitsos would like to extend provision of the ARS to families living in hardship without any distinction of status.

The new magistrate’s perspectives also include an assessment of the early childhood system with regard to the supply, the services provided in order to satisfy families’ expectations and the governance within the sphere.