School under lockdown

In the current context of the Coronavirus pandemic, the schools like many other cultural organisations faced an unprecedented and unplanned situation. From the very beginning of the lockdown, CinéCréatis put in place a series of measures to guarantee a continuous education and keep in touch with all our students.

Use creativity in the face of unprecedented times

The current pandemic has put large sections of the world economy on hold and disrupted our societies in many ways, forcing millions of families into lockdown all over the world. Our school’s response to this situation revolves around a series of measures to guaranty the continuity of classes through remote learning using the various potential of digital, new technologies and networks.

Online work session for CC2 Lyon students.

There is a whole system in place to ensure a continuous education:

• Weekly pedagogical follow up over the phone with every student
• A careful record of the remote classes (keeping count of the hours). The missing hours, requiring onsite presence, will be made up for when the lockdown eases. Attendance and involvement are part of the general appreciation.
• Maintaining the exams to ensure moving on to the next year or graduation with all the mindfulness required in this situation while keeping a careful eye on the learnings.
• A will to maintain internships. Depending on the health and safety situation in France at the given time and the decision from the hosting organisations. In this instance, exceptionally, the absence of an internship will not prevent graduation.

Soon the end of lockdown, what comes next?

Coming back to school is planned so this return can happen in the best health and safety conditions and in accordance with the rules for all our collaborators and students.

To this intent, several measures have been implemented and will be in effect from the 1st day of return to school such as:

• Floor marking around and inside the school to materialise the required physical distance (1m),
• Creation of a circulation system inside the buildings to avoid crossing path and chances of contacts for the people on site.
• The acknowledgment and application of social distancing inside the administration offices and buildings.
• A reminder of the rules and recommended gestures through posters and daily PSA.
• An adaptation of the onsite class schedule:
  • Allowing a repartition of students in various classrooms where social distancing will be possible and visible (marking of working areas with 1m minimum between stations, no more than 15 people per classrooms),
  • Enabling entering and exiting buildings in a staggered schedule to avoid encounters in corridors or communal spaces. Same for breaks between classes which will be treated in a similar manner.
• On the first day back, a type 1 cloth face-covering (for public use) and a shield visor will be supplied. Everyone must keep and maintain this equipment (with regular washes for the mask and cleaning for the visor) to preserve their efficiency throughout the classes. This equipment will have to be kept for potential use the following academic year.
• The implementation of temperature checks with contactless thermometers. In case of abnormal high temperature, the person will be notified, immediately sent home with recommendation to get in touch with a doctor.

In addition to the daily maintenance of our school buildings which will be carried out, there will be a specific disinfection process in place. It entails:

• Hydroalcoholic solution and soap dispensers fitted in all our buildings accessible to all,
• An intensification of the cleaning schedule in the sanitary blocks and points of contact (such as handrails, doorknobs, and light switches) every 2hrs by a dedicated staff with a regular log.
• Disinfectant mist sprayed, at least once a day, in all the classrooms and communal areas by sanitizing professionals

These measures are meant to follow the current guidance from the government, we also endeavour to go above and beyond as we are aware of the complexity and the anxiety created by this unique situation.

Let’s finish on some examples of creativity from our students in lockdown

Fake Sound Challenge

This 1st year CinéCréatis Nantes exercise was meant for lockdown. It is the “Fake Sound” Challenge where the aim is to film an image or a video and create the sound effects to dupe the spectator.

“My lockdown Set Up.” 

It is an invitation for students to share the pictures of their working space under lockdown.

Cloe Cinécréatis Lyon Cc2a

Finally, as we write this article, there is a special video in the making! We gathered the testimony from our administration team, some of our teachers and our students to share how we all coped with this situation.