Hello everyone,

My name is Jennifer, I am the mother of a 6-year-old girl who is fortunate to attend a school that supports her blossoming. Unfortunately, that is not the case for all children. Some of them do not find their place in a traditional school setting. Yet their families’ modest incomes do not allow them to turn to a different environment. With your support, I want to give every child the possibility to choose a school that will adapt to their needs.

Are you interested in this project? Want to know how it started? Here is its story.

The beginnings

Imagine... a mother. A mother who has a dream for her daughter: to give her all the tools and the strength she will need to face a world that can be violent, unfair and often unsettling. This learning must be gentle because a child learns better when their rhythms are respected. This mother wants to pass on values she considers essential: self-respect, respect for others, respect for the environment, self-acceptance, acceptance of others, adaptability, open-mindedness, etc.

"_School should always aim to give its pupils a harmonious personality, and not to train them as specialists._" Albert Einstein. That is what this mother believed too.
And she did not see how the national education system could offer all that to her daughter (between class sizes, the inability to adapt learning to each child, imposed schedules, etc.). That is how the idea of homeschooling was born.

The little family was living quietly when, one day in 2016, the mother received a phone call that would change the whole family’s life.
Another mother, somewhat like her, suggested joining in creating a private independent school...

Imagine a little... the dream: creating a tailor-made school for her daughter! This opportunity would also allow her to return to work because there would be more free time. Pure happiness for the whole family.

So I agreed to embark on the crazy adventure of creating a school. Yes, that mother was me!

So off I went with a few other moms on this crazy adventure of creating a school. In hindsight, I tell myself that we truly are ready to move mountains for our children.


Carrying out the project

Because yes, at the beginning everything is beautiful, everything is rosy. You are carried by enthusiasm, you are motivated, nothing seems impossible.
Little by little, you discover everything it entails: paperwork, safety standards, authorizations, unhelpful administrations, searches for funding, etc.
But nothing discouraged us.

In the end, we were able to hold the first school opening on September 17, 2018 with 15 children aged 3 to 12. We had managed to recruit a teacher, an educational assistant and a young person doing civic service. We had generous donors who gave us equipment, furniture, etc.
The School of the Children of the Adour was born. We had won! Or so we thought...

The project's setbacks

We hadn’t counted on life’s twists. Things that are hard to predict (the director abandoning us, a civic service volunteer who chose a different path, a teacher who couldn’t find her place, unexpected financial problems...). In short, the mechanisms were not yet well-oiled and morale was at its lowest.

That’s when the association that sponsored the school decided to cease its activities, including the school.

Fortunately, a few other parents and I had created an association in parallel to organize events aimed at easing the school’s expenses.
Thanks to our association, we were therefore able to take back management of the school in August 2019. Yes, we had come too far to stop there; we had been through too much and above all, we still wanted the school of our dreams for our children!

We set out to restart, but on new, solid foundations. We especially did not want to fall back into the same problems.
We were more motivated than ever, except that money was desperately lacking. Our misadventures had cooled off some people and rumors circulated that we would not reopen the school. Indeed, we ourselves did not know if we could reopen.
Only 5 children remained and the fees from 5 children would never cover a teacher’s salary.

We were ready to give up when, miraculously, a promised donation of €2,000 arrived.
It wasn’t enough but it gave us hope.
So we launched the recruitment of a teacher one week before the national school year started. Tense.

We managed to open on September 22, 2019. This time, we had the dream teacher, a great director with experience in the National Education system (18 years) and even another volunteer teacher. This team perfectly embodied Victor Hugo’s quote: "_school teachers are gardeners of human intelligence_".

This time, we had won! The children were happier than ever, as were the staff and the parents.

We were therefore confident that we could finish building solid foundations.
As a result, a great educational project was born (https://www.lesenfantsdeladour.fr/pedagogies/) and we were able to clarify the school’s needs. We even had promising improvement projects.
In short, we had found a nice balance.

Meanwhile, we organized events to raise much-needed funds. We sought grants, but private independent schools are not entitled to any subsidies.
And the promised donation of €2,000 did not come through. Anxiety.

More twists

Then COVID-19 appeared. It traveled quietly and caused schools to close one after another, including ours...
In one way, COVID-19 helped reduce the school’s expenses and obtain financial aid.
On the other hand, it forced us to cancel the events that brought funds into the school’s coffers.

The projects aimed at improving our operations fell through! So did the implementation of scholarships for families and the modernization of school equipment.

But now you understand that we do not give up that easily. It is not a virus that will make us abandon our dreams, right?

What is the school of our dreams?

Above all, we want each child to be understood, heard and therefore respected. Everyone has their personality, character, tastes, abilities and weaknesses and we want their individuality to be preserved.
Thanks to this, they keep their self-confidence and school learning is facilitated.
We also want to teach them how to manage their emotions, conflicts, group life—in short, to give them as many tools as possible to face life.
All of this we have managed to put in place since the school was created. But we dream of even more...

We dream of a large building on a large partly wooded plot. There would be various workshops, a kitchen meeting health standards for children, a vegetable garden, animals, etc. Also lots of sports, artistic, scientific and multimedia equipment.
We would like to welcome children up to the Baccalauréat and why not create a boarding house.
We could thus develop children’s abilities as fully as possible in all areas of school, social and daily life.

Today, thanks to the support of local elected officials, we are in the old public school of the small village of Préchac/Adour. The premises are certainly adapted but limited.
A single classroom for pupils aged 3 to 12 nevertheless allows for very different experiences than National Education and 16 pupils maximum allows education to be adapted to each child.
We have noticed that children learn better by experience than by theory and that is what, despite our limited means, the teaching team manages to offer the pupils.
Imagine if we had more resources! But one thing at a time, we are not there yet :)

And the fundraising campaign?

Some time ago, a family contacted us because they dreamed of enrolling their child in our school.
I spent 30 minutes with a mother who explained how perfect this school would be for her son. She loved everything: respect for the child’s rhythm, emotion management, respect for his needs while offering a secure environment, and also parental involvement in the school.
"_School makes of a pupil either common metal that is rejected, or a precious jewel that dazzles._" (Henri Rolland de Villarceaux). This mother was certain that our school would make her son a “precious jewel that dazzles.”

The only hitch was the price.
Although our school is well below the average cost of alternative schools, it remains a budget.
For this family, where the father does not work (he is disabled) and the mother is pregnant and works part-time, it is simply impossible.

**I experience this as an injustice.
Why should the choice of education be conditioned by price, social status or position?
Why couldn’t a child who is disengaging from school be given a second chance to flourish in their learning through a different school because of money?
Why couldn’t a disabled child have a schooling adapted to their needs because of money?**
Personally, I find this unfair, don’t you?

All of this led to a realization: to launch a fundraiser to create scholarships for these children in need.

Thanks to these scholarships, children could benefit from tailored schooling while still following the national curriculum.
But that’s not all. The school could benefit from the diversity necessary to learn values such as acceptance of others, respect, adaptability, etc.

So I thought: there are many fundraising appeals for schools in Africa, Nepal or other countries in need. Those campaigns are very successful. But there are children in need in France too; why not try a fundraising campaign here as well?

Thus, we could offer scholarships to these children in need to enable them to join our school where they will thrive.

How does it work?

Here are the goals we can achieve according to the tiers. If we reach:

- 1000€: we create 2 scholarships of €500 (for 2 children)
- 2000€: we create 2 scholarships of €500 (for 2 children) + 1 scholarship of €1000 (for 1 child)
- 3000€: we create 2 scholarships of €1000 (for 2 children) + 2 scholarships of €500 (for 2 children)
- 5000€: we create 2 scholarships of €1000 (for 2 children) + 2 scholarships of €500 (for 2 children) and we will purchase school equipment
- + over 5000€: Wow! we create 2 scholarships of €1000 + 2 scholarships of €500, we purchase equipment and we organize educational outings

For practical reasons, the school will collect the donations and deduct the scholarships from the tuition fees of the selected families based on means testing.

Want to learn more about the School of the Children of the Adour? Join us on https://www.facebook.com/Ecole-des-Enfants-de-lADOUR-842972079394322 and on our https://www.lesenfantsdeladour.fr/. You will discover the team, how we operate and the children’s work there.

Whatever the amount, everyone can participate in this fundraiser. No need to create an account or register, it’s quick and card payments are 100% secure.

If you cannot contribute financially, share this fundraiser as widely as possible. THANK YOU!