New pupils flocking to school to keep class open

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’Allevard school in Crêts-en-Belle­donne (Isère) to improve the figures.

Pupils helped by handing him “birth certificates” for the sheep in names such as “Shaun le mouton”.

One organiser, Gaëlle Laval of the FCPE parent federation, said: “Numbers 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.”

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.

“It was built new and cost €82,000 and comes complete with state-of-the-art whiteboard... and a lawn recently trimmed by some new pupils.”

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 – offering free Viagra to local couples.