New pupils flocking to school to keep class open
Children at one rural school are used to seeing sheep in the nearby mountains, but not in their playground... until now.
A flock of them has been signed up as pupils to keep a class open.
Parents arranged for a farmer to bring in a few dozen sheep to protest at plans to close one of the 11 classes because of a shortage of five pupils.
Mayor Jean-Louis Maret signed up 15 of the sheep for Saint-Pierre-d鈥橝llevard school in Cr锚ts-en-Belle颅donne (Is猫re) to improve the figures.
Pupils helped by handing him 鈥渂irth certificates鈥� for the sheep in names such as 鈥淪haun le mouton鈥�.
One organiser, Ga毛lle Laval of the FCPE parent federation, said: 鈥淣umbers seem to be the only thing the Education Nationale looks at, so we thought this would open their eyes.
Now Mr Maret has a meeting with the head of the education authority in June. We hope they will accept our case to retain the class.鈥�
She said if he did not, the CP and CE1 classes, which will have to take extra pupils, will have more than the 24 per class which President Macron has said he wants by the end of his presidency.
If the class closes, they plan to sell off its empty classroom on leboncoin, she said.
鈥淚t was built new and cost 鈧�82,000 and comes complete with state-of-the-art whiteboard... and a lawn recently trimmed by some new pupils.鈥�
The mayor of Montereau in the Loiret has also come up with an unusual response after a class was cut in the village school due to declining numbers 鈥� offering free Viagra to local couples.
