Opened school initiative in France

The initiative promotes the social and academic integration of students and contributes to ensuring educational success for all.

The ‘Opened School’ initiative, which was set up in 1991, provides activities for children and young people in colleges and high schools during school holidays, and on Wednesdays during the school year. It offers a programme of activities in the field of education, culture, sports and recreation.

The initiative is based on the voluntary participation of school heads who are free to organise their projects at school level. To ensure the effectiveness of all of the implemented actions, each school builds its activity programme within a defined educational project part of the school plan. The latter is subject to a vote of the board of the school representatives.

Students participating in the Opened School initiative are enrolled in workshops in small groups of around a dozen students, depending on the activity. ‘Opened School’ offers the opportunity to open the institution to its territory by mobilising all available resources, including cultural resources, and by involving social partners and local associations. To this end, heads of schools develop partnerships with associated organisations or local authorities. They approach the departmental delegates of the General Commission for equal opportunities for territories (Commissariat général à l’égalité des territoires (CGET), delegates of the Prefect present in the priority areas of the city or policy or the culture services of city councils and general councils.

In the perspective of a local network dynamic, convergence is sought with the local schooling support contract (contrat local d’accompagnement à la scolarité) or the scheme ‘City Life Holidays’ (Ville Vie Vacances). Where there is a territorial educational project (projet éducatif territorial - PEDT), the ‘Opened School’ operation aims to be part of it.