Music, dance or sport: classes not (quite) like the others

Volleyball, basketball, chess but now also table tennis, judo and rugby, the dominant sport side. Music and dance, the dominant artistic side. Accessible from CE1 and CE2, Classes with flexible hours are still gaining momentum in eight Mulhouse schools for the next school year. Registrations are open until May 30.

In Mulhouse, there is obviously a continuation in the ideas in school matters. And rather than purring, the start of the school year is generally synonymous with new things, like the Classes with a sports and artistic project, whose registrations take place until May 30 (read below). “The objective is to open children up to culture and sports, during school time, in addition to general education. As with the Musical and Orchestral Educational Device with a social vocation (Demos – read our article), enrolling in these classes requires motivation from the children at the start, but also the involvement of the families. The ambition is to offer the best to children for their academic success and their development,” comments Chantal Risser, Deputy Mayor for Education.

Journey

Experimented since the start of the 2021 school year with CE2 children from the Pergaud (volleyball), Haut-Poirier (basketball) and Brossolette (chess) schools, the sports project classes are being maintained, and even developed, for the year. school year 2022-2023. To the three initial schools of the system, there are three new ones, for as many sports disciplines, always from CE2: judo at the Koechlin school, rugby at Pierrefontaine and table tennis at the Jean Zay school. “The idea is, each time, to offer real courses to children, from CE2 to CM2. We are not necessarily addressing children who are members of a club, but students who are motivated to learn. Some will take a license afterwards, others will not, some will continue in college in the sports section for high-level studies, others will practice in simple leisure”, nuance Alain Hemmerlin, responsible for Sports Actions at the City.

Investment

“It is in the schools that our talents of tomorrow are to be found, underlines Magali Magail, general manager of theAsptt volley-ball, present this Tuesday in May at the Pergaud school, with some of its players, vice-champions of France. Beyond sports practice, these classes promote social diversity, girls and boys play together, it is also the challenge for tomorrow. » « We are really in the discovery of the discipline and in the learning of the basic techniques. We also work a lot on mobility, ”comments Martin Panou, one of the physical and sports activity educators involved in the system. “Last year, for the launch, we had 40 students registered and we selected 24 of them in this Class with flexible sports hours (CHAS). For the next school year, we are already seeing more children interested. Our CE2 students enrolled in the system also tour the current CE1, to present them with these classes with a sports project, underlines Patrick Heitzmann, director of the Pergaud school. These classes require an investment from the children, who commit themselves for three years (Editor’s note: from CE2 to CM2), for a weekly session of 1h30 to 2h, led by sports educators during school time. » All in direct connection with the support clubs of the system (Mulhouse Table tennis, Esperance Judo, Rugby Club Mulhouse, Aspt Volleyball, Mulhouse Basket Agglomeration, Brossolette chess sheiks), likely to intervene during the year and/or to welcome students during matches and training.

Dance at Freinet

So much for the sports component of these classes not quite like the others, which can also take on a cultural side, through the classes with artistic music project offered for a long time, from CE1, in the Pierre Brossolette and Jean de La schools. Fontaine (2008), but also Cour de Lorraine, from CE2, for six years. And here too, if these Classes with flexible hours aim first and foremost to offer a new range of possibilities to children, innovation will also be the watchword for the start of the new school year.

Tested in a select committee of eight students during this school year, the system will concern 18 children from the Freinet school, from CE2, at the start of the school year. “The children will come one afternoon a week to our premises in Conservatoire for 1h15 of classical dance and 1h15 of contemporary dance. They will also have one hour of weekly musical training provided directly in their school”, detail Anne Fischer-Petit and Alexandre Jung, respectively dance teacher and director of the Conservatory. And as for the predominantly sports classes, the 18 students in the dance artistic project class will continue their studies up to CM2.

learning and well-being

If priority is clearly given to children who already attend the schools concerned, nothing prohibits pupils from other sectors of Mulhouse from applying, by way of derogation, to these classes with arranged hours, mainly artistic and sports. “We share a common vision with theNational Education. The success of this type of device is based on partnerships with the National Education, but also the Conservatory and the sports clubs involved, underlines the mayor of Mulhouse Michèle Lutz. I believe in public school, which is this fundamental base on which young Mulhouse residents build themselves, both in terms of learning and well-being with all the actors mobilized for the best. Since their creation in 2008, classes with flexible hours have benefited nearly 3,000 students from Mulhouse, for a total cost estimated at more than one million euros. And let it be said: the device is free for families.