Educational activities
The 2025–2026 programme
Each year, more than 2500 schoolchildren and students from the region participate in the mediation and educational activities projects (meetings with authors, readings of guest books, writing competitions, Great Urban Investigation in the city) offered by Quais du Polar. One The training day is also offered to teachers, librarians and librarians.
- CLASSE REPORTER
During this project, Quais du Polar invites secondary school classes to step into the shoes of reporters!
Before the festival, a professional journalist visits the class to talk to the pupils about their job and guide them in preparing their podcast, newspaper, blog, etc.
During the festival, pupils have half a day to interview authors, the public and the organising team, or to moderate a meeting with a guest author. They then have to create a podcast, newspaper or blog to report on their experiences.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Discover the creations of the classes participating in the 2024-2025 project :
> Articles by Year 8 pupils at Jean Moulin Secondary School (Lyon 5th arrondissement)
> Podcasts by Year 7 pupils at Chevreul Lestonnac Secondary School (Lyon 2nd arrondissement)
- THE BIG SURVEY FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN
Two days of investigation entirely reserved for schoolchildren!
This “treasure hunt” allows students to discover certain districts and cultural places of the city of Lyon in a fun way, by gleaning clues along the way to solve a starting riddle.
Every year, Quais du Polar organizes the Great Investigation for schools. This event, open to all, is extremely popular with all schools, colleges and high schools in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region. Due to this high demand, we limit registration for the Great Inquiry to two classes per school in order to allow participation in the event to as many people as possible and are forced to refuse certain requests. In this context, we remind you that any registration is only effective once validated by the Quais du Polar team and that it is equivalent to a commitment on your part. If you cancel the following year, you may not be given priority the following year.
> Go here to register your school for the 2026 Great Survey.
- MEETINGS WITH AUTHORS
Quais du Polar invites teachers to work with their classes in advance on the works and worlds of authors invited to the festival, in order to prepare them for special encounters during the dedicated days. Throughout the year, the Quais du Polar team supports them in developing these exchanges, which can be prepared as part of teaching several subjects.
In recent years, meetings have been held with French and international authors such as Jean-Luc Marcastel, Sandrine Bonini, Alice Brière-Haquet, Douglas Preston, Niko Tackian, Laurent Martin, Olivier Adam, Sylvie Allouche, Stéphanie Benson, Serena Blasco, Jamey Bradbury, Marine Carteron, John Connolly, Kishwar Desai, Caryl Férey, Mimmo Gangemi, Emmanuel Grand, Peter James, Craig Johnson, Joëlle Jolivet, David Joy, Guillaume Le Cornec, Marin Ledun, Jérôme Leroy, Marcus Malte, Peter May, Deon Meyer, Marie-Aude Murail, Jean-Hugues Oppel, Bertrand Puard, Patrick Raynal, Claire Renaud, Olivier Truc, Jean-Christophe Tixier, Benjamin Whitmer, Qiu Xiaolong and many others…
Meetings can be prepared as part of several classes focusing on francophone works and foreign languages.
School events in 2026:
> Primary : Meeting with Sarah Barthère (Les Énigmes de Kyoto, Rageot), Large school dictation with Colin Thibert (Le Disparu de Blackwood, La Joie de lire)
> Secondary school : Meeting with Natasha Farrant (Le Secret de Golden Island, Gallimard Jeunesse)
> High school : VF Meeting with Mabrouck Rachedi (La Chouette a sept jours pour sauver le monde, Actes Sud), VO Meeting with Matthew Blake (Sophie L, Buchet-Chastel), A book, a series with Olivier Norek (Surface, Michel Lafon) et Slimane-Baptiste Berhoun (filmmaker of Surface series)
You have a question, or you would like to register your class for one of these events?
Contact Sara Guillaume : mediation@quaisdupolar.com – 09 83 22 33 47
A look back at the educational activities of 2025
Mediation actions
- Thriller behind the walls
Initiated in 2002 by the Rhône-Alpes Agency for Books and Documentation, Quais du Polar took over this organization in 2012, supported by the DRAC and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region. Several of the festival’s guest authors go to different prisons in the region, in order to strengthen the “inside/outside” link, to (re)discover black and detective literature to inmates, and to raise their awareness of this genre.
- Le Prix des Lecteurs – Mention Polar derrière les murs
Created in 2003 on the initiative of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes – Livre et lecture (formerly ARALD), Savoie-biblio and Ocre Bleu, the prize is awarded by the inmates of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region’s prisons, responsible for designating “the” French-language crime novel of the year from a selection of 6 novels chosen by the festival’s partner booksellers.
Since 2012, the prize has been coordinated by the Quais du Polar association, in collaboration with teams seconded from partner municipal and departmental libraries, the National Education Department and cultural associations, which run reading circles within the establishments, in conjunction with the Prison Integration and Probation Services (SPIP), so that prisoners can (re)discover black and detective literature.
- Meetings in a hospital setting
For several editions, Quais du Polar has initiated and developed a close collaboration with the cultural services of several hospitals, such as the Saint-Luc Saint-Joseph center, the Medical-Surgical Center for the Rehabilitation of the Massues or the Ferme du Vinatier.
Contact
mediation@quaisdupolar.com
09 83 22 33 47