The pupils who build the courtyard's shadow with their hands

JumpSalt is known today as the municipality with the lowest per capita income in Catalonia. Also one of the towns with the highest concentration of migrant population: nearly 40% of residents are of foreign nationality. But what headlines have overlooked in recent years is that almost half of this town's surface is still orchards and pastures. The Monar canal, parallel to the Ter river, marks the border between the built-up Salt and the agricultural zone. Few facilities surpass it, except for a large institute built on fertile land. Located on the border with Girona, surrounded by greenery and with magnificent views of the Mare de Déu del Mont, lies Vallvera. A secondary and vocational training center with more than 1,200 students, inaugurated in 2008, which contrasts with its surroundings by being a large gray sheet metal center with a concrete-filled courtyard. "In winter it's a refrigerator and in summer an oven, there's no in-between!", laments the director, Ferran Maimir, who started this academic year with a direction very focused on working for the renaturalization of the courtyard, but with a different method: that the students themselves build the shade with their hands.

Since this winter, students have had a new bench to rest on. It's not like the others: it's made with rammed earth, an ancient construction technique using raw earth. And on top of it rises a large pergola of wooden joints covered with reed panels. It is the result of the collaboration project woven with Orígens, a workshop school for bioconstruction, which for a whole trimester has driven tailor-made training in response to the center's concerns. "This idea was born from collecting student opinions – explains Isabel Mora, science teacher and quality coordinator at Institut Vallvera –. There were different complaints, contributions, where the courtyard had a great need for shaded areas and spaces to sit and be calmer during break time.

A hundred students have participated in the project, from kneading earth for the bench to sewing the reeds they have collected in the gardens, as well as making the wooden joints for the structure. “I think this opportunity opens many doors for students,” reflects Oumaima, a student who built the pergola. “We must be free to decide on our center. Our institute is like a second home because we spend six hours a day there and it is very important that our voice is heard.” Sheila Cobos, a trainer from the Orígens school, highlights that the students have been able to participate in “making the courtyard their own” and, moreover, “using the natural resources we have in the environment.” The students themselves collected the reeds in Pla dels Socs, in the gardens, and cleaned, cut, and wove them one by one in teams to make the panels.

Inclusion and sense of belonging

The pergola, made of wood, has become a perfect metaphor for the team construction process. As Joan Pascual, from the Orígens workshop school, explains, the fact of being a "structure with many small elements, but fitted together, has allowed for a bit of tolerance in the margins of error when making cuts, because in the end all the pieces together act as a whole and it is what has made possible a large piece with students who were touching natural tools for the first time". The fact of encountering the reality of the workshop and the real pieces is what pleased Hidaya the most, a student of the crafts subject in 4th year of ESO. "I thought we would do technology – she explains while building the roof of reed panels –. But here we build things with our own hands without computers or notes, helping each other and collaborating."

The reality in the classrooms of Institut Vallvera is very diverse. They were the first center in the Girona region to offer the basic vocational training cycle, which is done in what would be 3rd and 4th year of ESO and should allow them to obtain their diploma. Like all other primary and secondary schools in Salt, it is classified by the Generalitat as having maximum complexity. In practical terms, this means that while nine out of ten students in Girona obtain their ESO, at Vallvera this only happens in 60% of cases. Difficulties at home are also very often added. Tired of seeing students evicted every week, the educational community of the institute is part of the platform Teachers for the Right to Decent Housing, which denounces the educational tragedy of minors who lose their homes. "Many of the students are better off here than at home – explains Joan Collet, technology teacher, while thinking about all the other projects that can complement this one –. But they are not very academic. They would spend all day here building, they loved it".

After the workshop hour, it would be Maria's turn for tutoring. Joan asks her if she prefers to stay, and she nods with conviction. She resolutely takes the steering wheel and begins to peel reeds: “I like to work,” she says.

A meeting space

The first heatwaves arrive, and the bench has already become a new meeting space. “It is very well received and no one has damaged them”, details Maimir. The management is so happy with the project, which they were able to finance thanks to a European project, that they are already thinking about the next school year. Beyond the pergola, two benches next to the basketball and football court have also been covered. “Now we have to finish making porches for all the benches”, adds the director of Vallvera. In the meantime, they are already thinking about how to use the pergola as a space for tutoring as well, to get out of the classrooms. And also other actions to renaturalize the playground with the Orígens school. This winter the garden has also been planted, and the technology students have repaired a fleet of twenty bicycles that the center has for outings. “L’Institut Vallvera is part of the network of green schools, a program of the Department of Education that aims to encourage, help and collaborate so that educational centers undertake actions to face the challenge of sustainability”, says Marta Guillaumes, a professor of biology and geology and a member of the Green School commission.

The objective is to gradually green the large block of concrete and sheet metal of the Salt orchards, while the students make the playground their own, football is not prioritized as much, and new student talents are discovered. To the diversity and complexity of the centers, in recent years the problem of heat in classrooms and playgrounds due to the effects of climate change has been added, leading to extreme situations. Last June, different educational centers in Girona reached 30 degrees and some teachers opted to hold classes in the playground. But not everywhere there are porches or enough shade from trees. “It’s very hot in the summer”, lament Maria and Hidaya in unison. Diago, while playing ball with his classmates, looks towards the bench and assures: “Surely we will be fine here, we will come to rest; we feel it is ours”.