Border village Barnflair ‘fights’ on Ascension Day to preserve its school: thousands of people see it happen

Aren’t schools closed on Ascension Day? Yes, but not today in the border village of Barnflair near Ter Apel. There, on a quiet road in a forest, the doors of the Holy Gerardus School are open, children are playing in the square, parents are walking around.

‘Our gem in the forest’

They are not here to receive lessons or to pick up their children, but to protest against the threatened closure of the school, the only one in the village, at the end of this year. Banners illustrate that protest. “After 65 years we are not done here yet,” reads the text on one of them. ‘Don’t let us go, our gem in the forest’, the one on another.

These words are directed against the organization Primenius, which the school falls under and which recently announced its closure due to an expected sharp decline in the number of students. Now more than thirty children are taught here, and according to Primenius, forecasts indicate a significant decline.

“But we want the school to stay, we are doing everything we can,” says Kim, one of the parents present here today. She had lessons here herself, son Daan now goes to school here and would like to continue to receive lessons here. “Look how beautiful the school is here, in nature, you wouldn’t close something like that, would you?”, says Kim. “We made banners together and most of the parents and children who are not on holiday are here today.”

Participation council

Lianne Roelfes and Niek Muller are overjoyed with this great ‘readiness for action’. Lianne is a member of the school’s participation council, Niek is its advisor. Both announced last week that they would fight for the preservation of the Heilige Gerardus School. “Including through this protest,” says Niek. “We want to see whether the school can stay here, for example through a merger with another school. And those forecasts concern Barnflair, but we believe that the immediate area, such as the area just across the Drenthe border and Rütenbrock, the German border village, has real potential when it comes to families with children. This needs to be investigated further.”

Lianne says that all these and other arguments are sent to Primenius in a letter. “Because as a participation council we have advisory rights. And next week we will also have a consultation with the same Primenius because of a parent consultation we held. And it indicates that 95 percent of parents want the school to stay.”

Oval races with three thousand spectators

While Lianne tells her story and receives support from mothers Ilona Kuiper, the Carnival Princess of Barnflair (“My father went to school here, so did I and now my child”) and Monique de Rijk who lives just across the German border, it gets busier and busier on that quiet road where the school is located. That road leads to the famous Polderputten stadium, where on every Ascension Day dozens of drivers participate in oval races with their cars and about three thousand people come to watch. The same goes for today. “And that’s why we have our promotion today, so we attract a lot of attention,” says Lianne. “Normally very few people come here, today a lot.”

Mike Alberts is one of those passers-by. He is twenty years old, comes from Valthermond and comes to watch the oval races every year. He stops for a moment to look at all those banners. “I didn’t know that this school was in danger of closing,” he says. This is a great day for them to take action, that’s right, because they would never get so much attention otherwise.” That’s right, because rows of cars pass after him, the occupants of which now know that Barnflair not only hosts car races but also a school battle is being waged.