Tribune. Today in Bagnolet, in Seine-Saint-Denis, there is a fairly unique place in France: the Pêche d’or school farm. For ten years, a public school and an association, Sors de Terre, creator of The Bergerie des Malassis.
On a plot of just over 5,600 square meters, there are five single-storey kindergarten classes, a small playground, lots of vegetation, some sixty trees, a beautiful hedge, the caretaker’s house. , around twenty goats and sheep, two billy goats, a few hens and chicks, hay, animal shelters and a terrace for outdoor concerts… All on four adjoining plots. At the entrance of this particular public school, we read a sign installed by the team three years ago: “Welcome to the Pêche d’Or farm school”.
The first animals arrived in the Malassis district in 2011 and are still there. This extraordinary sheepfold, with ecological, social and educational objectives, has largely proved its worth in this so-called disadvantaged district.
In partnership with several schools, and other social or therapeutic structures, the place has become, over the years, a real neighborhood farm, and a place of reception, meetings, free, open to all, closed with a simple string and built and landscaped with the complicity of residents of all ages. The association also manages one hectare of public or collective green spaces, according to the same principle of inclusion of people and other living, domestic and wild species.
Bailiff
At Pêche d’Or, the pupils therefore know the daily life of the farm. They meet the goats that graze on the lawns of the school and meet them in the neighborhood. Children from other schools, young people with disabilities, participate in long-term educational projects or go to the sheepfold after school, with their families, quite naturally.
This place is all the more precious in this city where a third of the inhabitants live below the poverty line and many never go on vacation and where urban renewal makes green spaces at the foot of buildings inaccessible.
But this magical ensemble is threatened today. The school is dilapidated and a new, larger building is needed, comprising ten classrooms and not five, a nursery and a recreation center. On July 13, a judicial officer summoned the association and Gilles Amar, the breeder, gardener, educator and project manager “To have to vacate the premises no later than August 15, 2021”.
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