The Toulouse-Lautrec high school creates the aprons of Grain de sel
It is an ambitious collaboration. The inclusive restaurant “Grain de sel”, asked the students of Première “mode” of the Toulouse-Lautrec high school, to design and manufacture the aprons of the servers of the establishment, which will welcome young employees with Down’s syndrome.
The holidays are coming. In Marie-Pierre Cassagnaud’s room, the course ends. And in the minds of the students, there is a beautiful project.
“They are the ones who had the idea. They are the ones who shape the collaboration with the restaurant Grain de sel”, announces the professor in the preamble. The idea? “Some time ago, the restaurant managers came to us to design aprons for their employees. They gave us the specifications and the students got to work.”
Objective, to empower these high school students with this concrete project.
A project finalized at the end of the school year
We are in the process of creating an associative microenterprise, to carry out this order. For several months, on a crafted prototypes while thinking about fabrics. We were also asked for adjustments, to take into account the handicap of future servers”, summarizes Anaïs. “It’s really an interesting project that motivates everyone.”
The teacher resumes. “It’s true that we had to adapt to the morphology of these people with Down syndrome who are on average smaller and wider. And also describe attachments.”
The objective is to have all of these service aprons ready before the end of the school year.
“We have fallen behind with the Covid. Many students have been absent in recent weeks. But, we will all be ready by juggling the holidays and the weeks of compulsory internships”, adds Marie-Pierre Cassagnaud who is collaborating on this project. with another teacher, Marie-Laure Rueffi-Cout.
For the cost, young high school students have the objective of not exceeding a maximum of 50 euros each.
“Obviously, we go much slower than a traditional company. But they are there to learn. Above all, they discover the rigor of working with a company that brings its specifications, its schedule, its requirements. It’s a plus in their course. We were lucky that the work on “Grain de sel” was a little late. This allows us to stay in the nails”, admits the professor.
For students, this allows them to get out of theoretical lessons. They are all very happy. If for them, this project will be one of the highlights of their schooling, the micro-enterprise named “Uniform Universe” will be able to serve future generations, for new ideas, new projects.