Commencer un itinéraire SALT à Champagne-en-Valromey (France)

[Luc Barriere-Constantin]

(Version française : find the english version at the end of the french version)

Hier (26 juillet 2017), Simone, Lorenzo et Luc ont commencé à accompagner une école Montessori dans un petit village français, Champagne-en-Valromey. Le but de cet accompagnement est de «ré-enchanter la cours de récréation». Le dessin développé par un petit groupe de l'association des parents illustre la pensée initiale. Certains membres de cette association (Crystal) avaient déjà été exposés à l'approche SALT / CCV à travers les autres travaux que Marlou et Loli ont entrepris il y a quelques mois avec les Amitoyens, à Ferney-Voltaire.

La discussion sur le processus a commencé avec un petit nombre de parents engagés et d'enfants. C'était l'occasion de créer des liens entre les parents, les enfants et l'équipe de facilitateurs. Les enfants ont été un peu timides au début, mais comme nous les avons rapidement impliqués à travers des histoires et des dessins, ils ont lentement commencé à négliger leurs jeux et leurs jouets et ont choisi de participer activement aux discussions. Ils étaient particulièrement présents pour la création des rêves individuels de leur aire de jeux et les interactions avec les adultes pendant le développement des rêves en petits groupes étaient fascinantes. Leurs contributions ont été substantielles et bienvenues par tout le monde, car elles étaient claires quant à ce qu'ils voulaient et à ce qu'ils aimaient pendant cette période récréative. Une zone consacrée à la résolution des conflits a été mentionnée dans tous les rêves en petits groupes, sur demande des enfants. Pour certains d'entre eux, il était préférable de s'attaquer à cette question non pas pendant le temps récréatif, mais plutôt après.

Au cours de cette première étape d'accompagnement, nous ne sommes allés que dans les rêves des petits groupes, car il y a plus de parents et d'enfants a impliquer, et comme l'a clairement mentionné l'ensemble du groupe, les enseignants et les autres membres du personnel doivent également faire partie de ce processus. Des discussions préliminaires ont déjà eu lieu et il y a un accord général pour participer à la suite du processus. Les séances suivantes se feront certainement en septembre, car plus de parents seront disponibles, ainsi que les enseignants et le personnel de l'école.

L'ambiance joyeuse et l’intensité des discussions au cours de ces quatre heures ont transformé cette session en un moment magnifique. Les parents et les enfants ont des relations solides et sont prêts à faire de leur école un endroit merveilleux pour apprendre et partager avec les autres. Ils ont commencé leur voyage et nous continuerons d'être avec eux dans les mois à venir pour faire de ce rêve une réalité.

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Starting a SALT journey in Champagne-en-Valromey (France)

(English version)

Yesterday (26th July 2017), Simone, Lorenzo and Luc started to accompany a Montessori school in a small French village, Champagne-en-Valromey. The purpose of this accompaniment is to “re-enchant the school recreation”. The drawing developed by a sub-set of the parent’s association illustrates initial thinking. Some of the members of this association (Crystal) were already aware of the SALT/CLCP approach through the other work that Marlou and Loli have undertaken some months ago with the Amitoyens, in Ferney-Voltaire.  

We started discussing with a dedicated number of parents and children about the process. It was an opportunity to create connections between parents, children and the team of facilitators. The kids were a bit shy at the beginning, but as we rapidly involved them through story telling and drawings they slowly began to neglect their games and toys and chose to actively participate in the discussions. They were particularly present for the creation of individual dreams of their playground and the interactions with adults during the development of the small group’s dreams were fascinating. Their inputs were substantial and welcome by everybody as they were clear about what they want and what they like during that recreation time. An area dedicated to the conflict resolution was mentioned in all the small group’s dreams, upon demand of the children. For some of them it was a preference that tackling this issue should not be done during recreational time, but rather after.

During this first step of accompaniment, we only went up to the small groups’ dreams as there are more parents and children to be involved and - as it was clearly mentioned by the whole group - teachers and other school staff will also need to be part of that process. Preliminary discussions have already taken place and there is a general agreement to participate. The follow-up sessions will certainly happen in September as more parents will be available, as well as teachers and school staff.  

The joyful mood together with the seriousness of the discussions during these four hours transformed that session into a beautiful moment. Parents and children have strong relationships and are willing to make their school a wonderful place to learn and share with others. They started their journey and we will continue to be with them in the coming months to make that dream a reality. 

[Hur Hassnain]

Thank you very much Luc and team for posting this - very interesting indeed. You are using very interesting participatory and activity based tools in SALT. Working with children I have learnt that parents could somehow be the perpetrators themselves - providing a platform for creating a harmonised environment for learning from each other can be very useful in many contexts. E.g., conducting a child-led research in Uganda for War Child UK we learnt that children felt unsafe within their own homes even more than they were in their schools. Please read a blog about this here: http://gendereval.ning.com/profiles/blogs/children-measuring-their-... 

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Meanwhile here is a recent posting by Hur on taking feedback from children http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-can-we-collect-an...

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Stephanie, thanks for articulating it so well. Why do you find SALT useful? Warm hello!

[Stephanie Caldy]

Thank you for your comments everyone. The first picture Luc posted is a "Mind-map" we made to start up this project of "re-creating an enjoyable atmosphere in the playground" and to explain to other parents our vision and goal. As SALT users and fans ;) it was obvious for Xavier and I (from the Amitoyens) to propose your methodology. And our first meeting was a success thanks to our great facilitors, Luc, Simone and Lorenzo !

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Luc, I am inserting our Facebook conversation here as others might find it useful.

Rituu At Constellation Luc Barriere-Constantin please share more about this pic. I find it so fascinating

 

Luc Barriere-Constantin That's an illustration of the way parents from the Montessori school see their journey toward "re-enchanting the playground". It includes the SALT /CLCP, the facilitators, the partners from the education sector, friends, their motivations, questions and their hopes. It was developed during a brainstorming session by the parents and with the support of two persons (not from the Constellation) who had been exposed previously to the SALT/CLCP. They were fascinated by the approach and wanted to introduce it as a way to work with the other parents in that school.

 

Rituu At Constellation This is an excellent - you are involving all actors in the system to response to an issue. I also saw read your blog where you mentioned children. I like to follow this approach too. This is also a great example of community to community transfer. Congratulations Luc Barriere-Constantin. What does re-enchanting the playground mean?

 

Luc Barriere-Constantin "Ree-enchant the playground" could be translated by "re-creating an enjoyable atmosphere in the playground". The issue is to create a joyful environment where children are happy and where they can play safely. This had apparently disappeared during the past years.