In a schoolyard near Paris, an “oasis” to better cope with the heatwave

Since this transformation carried out during the summer holidays, "we feel the difference", attests Esther Duteil, teacher for 13 years at the Madeleine-Riffaud nursery school, surrounded by buildings and urban density.

She says she sometimes had to, during previous episodes of heat, "water the bitumen, it was so hot", to make the yard bearable. “It was stifling.”

In full sun and in a black sheet metal building, "my class is an oven", continues the teacher who "extends the breaks" so that the students can benefit from the now more breathable exterior.

In this hot back-to-school week - 34 degrees on Friday at midday break - the 93 students are happily taking advantage of the new layout which gives pride of place to vegetation rather than tar.

At the back of the courtyard, a small "river", connected to a rainwater collector, has been created, which will be used for educational activities.

For now, we're mostly just dabbling in it. “I’m so happy, it’s refreshing,” smiles Andréa, 4 years old, with her hands in the water, while her friend Joachim jumps in with both feet. In the class "it burns", and he doesn't want to go back, explains the toddler.

Before the work, the yard was “all black,” the little girl remembers. Now, the asphalt that covered the ground has been completely replaced by grass and light sandstone paving stones. Materials that retain less heat than dark bitumen and are also more permeable, allowing water to seep into the ground when it rains.

“More liveable school”

The schoolyard was already “lucky” to have five hundred-year-old plane trees: their potential for freshness was fully exploited, with “recycled polymer” seats installed all around, explains the city’s director of public spaces Gilles Jacquemoire , who piloted this “oasis courtyard” project.

For the mayor of Lilas Lionel Benharous, this type of project is "one of the ways of acting" to make the school "more liveable" during "episodes of intense heat which are increasing" in the context of global warming.

For the moment this school is the only one, among the nine in the municipality, to have such a facility, but the elected official aims to "rebuild one schoolyard per year" so that they are "progressively all greened ".

The Paris town hall, at the forefront of the subject, indicates that it has already transformed around 130 courtyards into "oasis" and plans "ultimately" to "transform all school and college courtyards" in the capital.

Other cities have launched similar initiatives, such as Metz, which aims to have all of its schoolyards green by 2026.

At the national level, however, it remains difficult for the moment to precisely count these "oasis courses" which fall under the jurisdiction of each municipality and which the Ministry of National Education has not yet identified.

The layout of courses is one of the facets of the larger project launched to adapt schools to climate change.

A major renovation plan for the 49.000 schools in France, or 50 million m2, was launched on May 9 by the government, while only 10% to 15% of the stock was subject to thermal renovation.

President Emmanuel Macron promised this week to release 500 million euros in 2024, in order to renovate within ten years the more than 40.000 establishments which still need to be transformed.