Video campaign to save rural school

A WHOLE village in the Dordogne has worked together to create a video campaigning against plans to cut one of the classes at the local school.

Parents, pupils, traders - and even residents of the old people's home - got involved in the project in Cadouin which they hope will show the strength of the 400-strong local community ahead of a decision on the school's future this Friday.

The video was shot and edited by a first-year film student, Hugo Dufour, whose mother runs the local library. The filming culminated in a "flashmob" outside the abbey, with the whole village invited to take part.

The distribution of rural school classes is being examined by education authorities and there are plans to close the nursery class at Cadouin from September.

One mother said: "We could have got out the banners, handed out leaflets and taken to the street, but we wanted to do something more constructive and educational."