TEXT_Organised in a U-form, this school complex from the epoch of Jules Ferry should have been enlarged by the construction of a fourth wing between the two adjacent party walls on the street side. This solution would, however, have plunged the schoolyard into shadow and hidden the attractive robustness of its iron and brick architecture from the street. For this reason, our solution proposed the prolongation of one of the U-shaped arms and the opening up of the courtyard to the city via a light and transparent screen. The new volume - which was designed to contain the school hall and two classrooms – is lent a certain purism by the choice of terracotta as a facing material and by the curtain wall which is slipped behind one section of the original façade as a means of relativising the respect in which the institution is held.