Lockdown conditions in France

[CroissantsAtDawn]

Ive seen lots of threads with people worrying about lockdown.and how they would cope/ it would be enforced.

Last night, following the President's announcement I received a text message from the government confirming the lockdown for 15 days and linking to a site with details.

From 12 today we are only allowed out to go to work if work from home isnt possible, buy groceries, see a doctor, help elderly/vulnerable family in need (with reminder about barrier actions), to let a dog do its business or for individual physical activity close to home.

Each time you need a paper dated and signed explaining why you are out. Infringements are fined 38-135 euros. The paper can be downloaded and printed, shown on your phone or just hand written.

100 000 police and army personnel are being deployed to enforce the conditions.

No mention of how children can exercise. Just that parks etc are closed and there should be no family or friends gathering.

We are going to test going out early for run with 1 DC each and hope that is allowed in "individual activity". If its not I ll stand on the doorstep and watch them run up and down the road (2 highly active boys living in a flat....)

Well our head has said the primary will open on the 11th and the collège/lycée on the 18th, with the implication that it’s all in on those two dates, not staggered til the 25th. So we’re all a bit sceptical. I honestly don’t see how it’s workable.
We have exactly enough classrooms for one per class, so there’s no way they can all be in in groups of 15. Our 6ème and 5ème are on a separate site with no cantine, we walk them to the primary school to eat. We have two primary sites, the big one with the cantine and a reasonable amount of outdoor space, and a tiny one with no cantine and a teeny playground. We can’t mix three sites worth of children for lunch. And we’d have to transfer meals to sites with no cantine to enable them to eat at their desks. Just that by itself if going to make it almost impossible.

@Makiwa, we got that too! Must be standard so. My DD is in MS in maternelle here.

FancyPants20 it must be unless we're in the same place. We'll be completing it after hearing what the government has to say tomorrow. DD2 is dying to get back to school and, like BurneyFanny, we don't have vulnerable people in our entourage so we most probably will send her in on the 25th.

@FingonTheValiant

Are you a teacher? In a privée or public?

Something that I can’t get a handle in here is how these decisions get made at the local level. How can your head teacher make that decision in advance of the govt vote? Who points out to them that the school cannot follow the hygiene rules? And who checks within schools that they are adhering to the rules? I know that in DHs school, the proviseur will just do a Gallic shrug if someone points out that there isn’t any soap in the toilets, or that DH is put in his usual tiny, windowless classroom with no hope of social distancing even just 10 students. Who challenges the headteacher / proviseur?

I’m an elected PTA member with the FCPE. We have regular meetings with the school and town hall reps about this sort of stuff. The FCPE also has regular meetings with the recteur d’académie.

Watcha yes I’m a teacher. Collège/ lycée privé, with two primaries attached. DH the same.

I assume if they vote against it he’ll have to change his plans, but for now that’s what he’s saying.

I have no idea who’s going to be checking on these things. All the staff are really concerned. A couple of colleagues are married to A&E staff and they’re saying their partners can’t believe we’re going back, they’re not sending their children back (although theirs are all big enough to stay home alone). When I was phoning families before Easter the parents who are soignants were sure we wouldn’t go back til September. The comment that it’s a political decision is spot on.

There’s concern our head will push ahead regardless of conditions (if opening is allowed) because of non-payment of fees if we stay closed.

The 6ème and 5ème site has one set of toilets each for boys and girls. 4 sinks each. For 12 classes. The big site has more, but then it’s 4ème - terminale. Even if there’s soap, hand washing will be a nightmare.

@BurneyFanny

Do the FCPE exist in école privée ? What about teachers unions? Who advocated for teachers in the école privée ? It definitely Seems to make a difference when the families are paying customers.

Not a clue I'm afraid, the private system is not on my radar. I suspect they have their own associations parents d'élèves though.

I don't think you can differentiate public/privée by saying the parents are paying customers. We are in privée. The teachers salaries are paid by the state. The very small amount we pay (40€/month) goes to running the buildings and the ogec.

Our teachers rarely strike, but that has nothing to do with how much we pay. It is more to do with the ethos of the Catholic education system.

We still have no news as to when college will reopen. Dd3 will be going as soon as she can.

@Frenchfancy

This is a genuine question as I am not remotely Catholic and no experience of the ecole prive system ... why is striking against the ethos of the Catholic education system? Is it a religious decision to not join unions? Are all privé in France by default Catholic?

If the teachers at your school felt that it was unsafe for them to return to work (because they had a head teacher like Fingon's who was pushing them back to avoid non-payment of fees), and the school did not reopen this year as a result, would you (as a parent) continue to pay the fees?

My kids are in public schools, and DH works in a public college / lycee, so despite having lots of friend who send their kids privé I really don't know much about them or how they run at all.

I'm not sure that catholics are anti strike as such, more that there is a work ethic, and a priority onto the well-being and education of the children rather than the teachers. It may be that the teachers are just better treated so they don't feel the need to strike. It seems to me that they get more support from the parents as well. There is very little absenteeism. That may be more to do with social demographics than religion.

I know more about the primary level than the college as I was the school treasurer for 10 years. In the 15 years we were involved in the primary school our teacher never went on strike. And in the 10 years I've been involved with college I don't think there has been strike action (maybe 1 or 2 teachers but nothing that has effected us.)

We are still paying the school fees but not the cantine bill (which is m ore than the school fees)
Private schools in France don't have to be, but most of the sous-contrat ones are. (7300 catholic, 300 jewish 6 muslim)

Social demographics are clearly a factor - teachers struggling in v deprived areas, facing recurrent discipline problems, without enough furniture in their classrooms, let alone other equipment, and parents who are often far less engaged than in the private sector, are probably more likely to strike.

The unions in the private sector are also traditionally more right-wing and they are less influential, partly because of how jobs are allocated in the public/private schools - a lot of people ask unions to intervene in the public system around the time of nominations/mutations, especially professeurs d'écoles, many of whom really struggle to get a definitive posting, even after 10 years in the job. The unions fight their corner, those teachers remain union members and are more likely to follow calls to strike.

IME, our students who get the CAFEP to teach in private schools are very aware that they are quite lucky: posts are few and far between, they teach in a far more privileged environment and they can stay in their region, so they are less inclined to make waves by going on strike.

BFMTV seem to be fairly confident now that lycées will remain shut until June...

This is not meant to be challenging, it's a genuine question...if you are thinking of keeping your DCs home until September aren't you worried there will be a second lockdown around October time when flu will be re-emerging and putting more pressure on ICU beds? In which case kids will be off school again.

Roll on 3pm...might know more then.

Do we know more? I don't think I do. They might open up, but then again they may not, depending.

We will need to know which zone we are in first I think. I thought you could see the direction of the strategy but a lot of ifs and buts.

Well we know the year groups. It’ll be 6ème and 5ème, not 3ème and 6ème. The plan to bring back the lycéens seems to be out the window. I can’t tell if they’re now planning to bring back all years of maternelle and primaire on the 11th though.

I’m really concerned for primary teachers with the “paediatric masks will be provided for children who show symptoms” remark. Surely at the point they’ll have to quarantine the whole class and the teacher. That was the point of small groups and no mixing according to the conseil scientifique, it’s easier to quarantine them.

And masks only for teachers if social distancing is impossible. I’d have thought that’s a given in schools. So apparently they think we can stand at the front and be safe.
The 6èmes and 5èmes will have to wear masks. That’ll be quite tough for them.

Lots of parents complained to me that in languages we’re not doing enough oral work during the confinement, with 15 kids in masks I don’t think we’ll be doing much oral work after the confinement either...

Assuming that it’s passed... then I guess it’s over to the teaching unions, schools, the Marie’s and the Academies to work out how / if they can open and respect the gestes sanitaires and social distancing.

I can’t tell if they’re now planning to bring back all years of maternelle and primaire on the 11th though.

It sounded like they are to me but I had a petite section screeching in my ear so I may have missed the finer details...

I was also wondering about it, as the MS one is driving me absolutely bonkers as she WILL NOT STOP TALKING. It still says progressive return though?

We might have to wait and say how they classify different areas in terms of risk before any of the details of exactly what will happen make sense.

I can’t tell if they’re now planning to bring back all years of maternelle and primaire on the 11th though

I think this is a yes, but... only where they can be reduced to max 15 per class and observe social distancing. Which will inevitably lead to splitting / alternating classes (depending on how many people send their children back) - but it’s the school that will have to work that out.

I can't see Haut Rhin being anything but high risk. Not sure about new cases, as they don't publish those for Grand Est since mid-March. But despite more people getting out of hospital than going in, still plenty of patients there.

Does this proposal still have to be voted through-is it likely it will be?