Jante Waalen turned 4 a few weeks ago and has been attending the Lambertus School in Netersel ever since with eleven nephews and nieces. This week they are all twelve for the last time. Meike is the eldest and will go to secondary school in Bladel after the summer holidays. Twelve grandchildren at one primary school is quite unique, according to director Rudolf Buur. “I don’t think it occurs anywhere else in the Netherlands.”
Grandpa Frans (69) and grandma Maria (66) have four children. Kees, Frank, Irma and Carin all continued to live in the village. All their children are now in primary school in Netersel.
Grandpa Frans himself also attended the Lambertus School. “I was there with two sisters and two brothers. The fact that all our grandchildren attend school together at such a small school is really special,” says Frans.
“It’s very nice, because you see each other every day,” says Meike. Many cousins are also friends with each other. Liv and Wies are in group 2 together and prefer to work together on the horizontal bar on the playground. Neel and his sister Meike are in the combined group 7 and 8. “That’s quite fun, but sometimes she’s also a bit annoying,” says Neel with a big smile.
Director Rudolf Buur: “There are 112 children at our school, so these twelve from one family, that’s a lot. They almost take over the school. The nephews and nieces get along well with each other, but also with the other children. It’s also nice that the parents meet here almost daily at the gate.”
In all groups, except group 6, there is a child from the Waalen family:
- Meike in group 8,
- Neel in group 7,
- Martin in group 5,
- Math and Rafke in group 4,
- Luud and Guus in group 3,
- Dorus, Wies and Liv in group 2,
- Bram and Jante in group 1.
Grandpa Frans and grandma Maria are also often waiting for grandchildren at the gate to babysit. “We regularly pick up two, three or four of them from school, fortunately never all twelve, because they can also go to others,” says Frans with a laugh.
Meike will be the first of the twelve to leave at the end of this week. After the summer she will cycle to the Pius X College in Bladel. “We are really going to miss Meike”, says Guus from group 3. “Because Jante only turned 4, it only took us a very short time to go to school together”, Meike says a little wistfully.