The CBB :: View topic - CS admissions procedure

I think to gain entry to the CS you should have

- A relationship to one of the founding families/Guernsey clans.
OR
- An interesting backstory
OR
- Be related to a CS Old Girl
OR
- Be an honorary goddaughter/ward of Joey's.

If you do not meet any of these criteria, you may get a place but if so it is quite possible you will be shunted around the school to wherever there's a space for you, thereby running the risk of spending three years in one form. You also should not have an objection to sudden name/age/peer group alterations.

I find the way we're always told that Hilda interviews the parents, rather than vice-versa, amusing as well, though :lol:

If there is a space in the school, Joey just has another baby to fill it up

ammonite wrote:

It's hard to believe the CS could fit in the pupils from another school as they do in Feud, especially when they couldn't fit in four or five extra girls during the previous term (Wins the Trick).

I know, this bugged me when I first read Feud! Where do they find the extra room for an entire school to move in with them and be comfortable?

"Now as to yourselves. We are very full up this term-too full to be able to allot separate formrooms to St Hilda's, as Miss Ashley told me she had hoped. The only thing we can do is to fit you in among our own girls as far as possible. We've done that already with the dormitories, as you know. I hope we can manage it with the formrooms.

"The Abbess told me that if it had been only one, she'd have managed it somehow. But when it came to four, it couldn't be done. And Kathie Robertson certainly couldn't take a single other child

Should I send him a prospectus and say we can't take her this term, but shall have one or two vacancies next?"
"It would be one way out. On the other hand, what will they do with the girl during this? Send her back to her old school, I suppose. I hope they won't let her kick her heels at home until September. Fourteen's a bad age for that sort of thing."

She probably also needs to figure out at the interview whether the parents are the types to sue or otherwise make trouble in the likely event their daughter is caught in a flood/avalanche/motorboat accident etc.

[Perhaps the CS was built by the same engineers who constructed the TARDIS? It looked small on the outside so that the school could always plead they were full up when it suited them, but was much bigger on the inside... :roll:

Plas Gwyn wasn't left empty when the Maynards moved to Switzerland - Ernest Howells moved in with his sister Gwensi, as the Rectory for some reason wasn't suitable for him. Then when Ernest moved out again a few years later, the Maynards decided to sell Plas Gwyn rather than hang on to it any longer.

Isn't there some staff accommodation at Unter die Kiefern as well? I thought that was where Herr Laubach lived but I could be confused. It seems a pretty large building - which the school extended before the start of CS in the Oberland. As you say, Alison, it's surprising they felt they could keep it empty.

"What on earth put that into your head?" she asked. "I don't think it would be a good idea at all. For one thing, I don't suppose they have any school furniture down there, not to speak of books and stationery and all that. It would mean moving what we should want down for just the time we should be there and I don't suppose they'd agree for a second."

"They have furniture of some kind there," Gillie said. "We saw it, all heaped up in the middle of the rooms and covered with dust-sheets."

"Yes; but I rather think I've heard that they use that place as a guest-house. It almost certainly isn't school furniture. And another thing, it would make the lessons awfully awkward. Ashley and Miss Kent can't teach everything, you know and I don't suppose they'd feel like engaging extra staff on their own without Miss Holroyd's permission."

"Wouldn't some of the Chalet School mistresses come down and help out?" Gillie asked, looking rather blue. This was something she had forgotten.

"Why should they when they can teach us in form up here without the bother of trapesing up and down in all weathers? Of course they wouldn't! It would upset their whole timetable too. Where's the point of it?"

They did have to hunt for an extra dorm for Mary Lou and Clem in Three go and Clem's father had to literally get down on his hands and knees and beg for a place :lol:

What a waste of a building :shock:

. Hmm, it's just asking for a mysterious buyer to come along and take it over ...

Maybe Rosalie secretly took photos to use as possible blackmail material if anyone threatened to sue later on when their daughter had an accident?

Didn't the prospectus mention that three languages were spoken in the school?
Why did some of the girls sound surprised when this fact was mentioned by the old girls?
Surely it must have been ( or should have been ) made clear in the prospectus that girls are supposed to speak the languages on 2 days of a week.

You'd think it would've been very strongly emphasised in the prospectus, as it's one of the main advantages that the CS would've had over other schools which parents/guardians might have been considering ... as you say, it does wear very thin when girl after girl seems totally amazed by it :lol:

Yes, it's a big relief in Lintons, where you actually see the girls reading the prospectus with their mother, who also tells them that Mademoiselle emphasised the trilingualism in the letter accepting them as pupils.

Author:	Alison H [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:23 pm ]
Post subject:	CS admissions procedure
Just started wondering about this, seeing as today's the day on which pupils in England find out if they've got into their first choice secondary schools or not. By the later books, the school is very popular and presumably pretty much "full". We're told about certain rules for admission - they don't like having more than 25 girls per form, they prefer not to take new girls in the last term of the academic year and, after the problems with Yseult Pertwee, they don't take girls over 16 (except when Peter Chester puts everyone in an awkward position by making a direct appeal to Madge for the school to take Naomi Elton). However, there never seems to be a problem finding room for anyone at short notice, and they are able to find form space and dormitory space for all the girls from St Hilda's in Feud. OK, the reason for this is practicalities being ignored because they'd spoil plots , but it would be unusual for an exclusive private school, which took pupils on application rather than on a selective entrance exam, not to have a long waiting list. I don't know anything about applying for private boarding schools but I'd assume that, whilst these days there's probably an entrance exam and interview process because of the increased emphasis on academic success, in CS times it would have been a case of getting your name down: there are stories about parents getting their babies' names on waiting lists shortly after birth. So do we assume that the CS was just never full, which doesn't sound very good ? Are there any mentions anywhere about someone being told that there won't be a vacancy for them until next term/next year ... rings a bell somewhere but I can't think where, and I might be getting it confused with applications for further education.

Author:	Loryat [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:58 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
I think to gain entry to the CS you should have - A relationship to one of the founding families/Guernsey clans. OR - An interesting backstory OR - Be related to a CS Old Girl OR - Be an honorary goddaughter/ward of Joey's. If you do not meet any of these criteria, you may get a place but if so it is quite possible you will be shunted around the school to wherever there's a space for you, thereby running the risk of spending three years in one form. You also should not have an objection to sudden name/age/peer group alterations.

Author:	2nd Gen Fan [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:02 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
The way they move through the school is rather random as well - often according to academic ability (or the Maynard name!) rather than age. Surely this must make it harder to keep the forms to twenty-five girls each?

Author:	M [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:18 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
I think there is a reference in Problem to them being full when they get the letter about Joan Baker and they considered asking her to wait until September. In Changes one of the reasons that Len, Con and Margot are not in the same form is that a lot of the forms are full so they have to be slotted in where they can.

Author:	Sunglass [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:41 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Loryat wrote: I think to gain entry to the CS you should have - A relationship to one of the founding families/Guernsey clans. OR - An interesting backstory OR - Be related to a CS Old Girl OR - Be an honorary goddaughter/ward of Joey's. If you do not meet any of these criteria, you may get a place but if so it is quite possible you will be shunted around the school to wherever there's a space for you, thereby running the risk of spending three years in one form. You also should not have an objection to sudden name/age/peer group alterations. I'm always amused that when interviews are referred to, the phrasing always has Hilda interviewing the parents, rather than any suggestion there might be a bit of give-and-take on both sides, because even if Hilda has to establish the girl's previous educational level, and whether her parents can afford the fees etc. they're also there to figure out if the CS is right for their daughter! (I know, I know, of course it is - it's the CS...) But clearly the phrasing is correct, as Hilda needs to establish whether the prospective pupil has earned the right to be admitted by virtue of being interestingly problematic or a CS relative! She probably also needs to figure out at the interview whether the parents are the types to sue or otherwise make trouble in the likely event their daughter is caught in a flood/avalanche/motorboat accident etc.

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CS admissions procedure http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7418

Author:	Alison H [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 6:13 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
To be fair, after Captain Carrick did a bunk and left Madge to bring up Juliet I think that's understandable ! Seriously, I don't think it's odd to ask for bank references or accountants' references (Joan Baker's grandfather says he can supply references) to show that the parents can pay the fees: the school is a business, and it would be very awkward if someone's parents didn't pay the fees and all they could do about it was threaten to chuck out the poor kid in question. I find the way we're always told that Hilda interviews the parents, rather than vice-versa, amusing as well, though .

Author:	Thursday Next [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 6:22 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Alison H wrote: I find the way we're always told that Hilda interviews the parents, rather than vice-versa, amusing as well, though . I think that actually was the case with the better public schools. Yes the parents might change their mind but in the main the competition to get into the schools was so high that the head was in the position of choosing who they wanted.

Author:	ammonite [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:15 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
If there is a space in the school, Joey just has another baby to fill it up

Author:	JB [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:22 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
ammonite wrote: If there is a space in the school, Joey just has another baby to fill it up Perhaps that's why Miss Wilson has such a detailed knowledge of when Joey's children were born (this came up in another thread today). Rosalie is so overworked because she's drawing up complicated charts so the next Maynard offspring can be fitted in. Imagine how much of a problem, those quads could cause. It's hard to believe the CS could fit in the pupils from another school as they do in Feud, especially when they couldn't fit in four or five extra girls during the previous term (Wins the Trick). I can understand they'd show flexibility towards girls who have parents in the San eg Evelyn Ross in Challenge but the "not over 16" rule irritates me. Why couldn't they just say that they only accept older girls in special circumstances instead of going on about it so much?

Author:	emma t [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:57 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
JB wrote: ammonite wrote: It's hard to believe the CS could fit in the pupils from another school as they do in Feud, especially when they couldn't fit in four or five extra girls during the previous term (Wins the Trick). I know, this bugged me when I first read Feud! Where do they find the extra room for an entire school to move in with them and be comfortable? In this case, the Chalet school does come up trumps. Also does this other school pay the Chalet authorities fees to stay with them? I suppose there is a waiting list, but if you are a member with Maynard/Russel/Bettany clan than you automaticly jump that list, being part of the family which hardly does seem fair when you think about it!

Author:	Alison H [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:41 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Just being serious, I do find the whole thing rather random. Scholarships are just awarded as and when, rather than e.g. there being one place a year for an able pupil/a pupil who has relatives at the San, but whose family are unable to afford the fees, or a place being reserved for someone who was particularly good at sport or music. & we never see a situation whereby they don't have enough places, and have to decide to give priority to girls who either have sisters who are already pupils or who have relatives at the San and so need to be close by. Hilda says in New Mistress that Upper IV always has the lion's share of new girls. Most of them would've been 13, the traditional age for starting public school, so it would make sense that parents would put their daughters' names down several years in advance for them to start at 13. It just puzzles me that there's always room for people at short notice, often in the middle of the academic year, sometimes even in the middle of term! Surely such a wonderful school would be full to capacity and have a long waiting list? & the Feud thing makes no sense at all. OK, it wouldn't make much of a story if a book started with someone's guardians being eaten by aliens or whatever and we were then told that the school had no vacancies so the person in question went elsewhere , but it still doesn't make sense! The Frys, the Rutherfords, the Bakers and various other people no sooner have to ask than a place is found, and they don't even have any "connections" to play on.

Author:	Nightwing [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:44 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
emma t wrote: I know, this bugged me when I first read Feud! Where do they find the extra room for an entire school to move in with them and be comfortable? Perhaps the CS was built by the same engineers who constructed the TARDIS? It looked small on the outside so that the school could always plead they were full up when it suited them, but was much bigger on the inside...

Author:	Abi [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:48 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Maybe they keep emergency places free for girls likely to provide a good plotline?

Author:	ChubbyMonkey [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:07 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Don't they have to utilise several spare dormies for the Feud girls, though? And I might be wrong, but I'm sure that at the beginning the other school's staff were going to teach their pupils... I think that that was the thing with that, is that they had the extra staff as well, as opposed to just taking loads of new girls and then everyone being more overworked trying to deal with it.

Author:	Pat [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:09 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Hadn't they just finished one of those convenient extensions at the start of Feud?

Author:	JB [ Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:40 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
This has been bugging me all evening so i had a look at the beginning of Feud. Miss Wilmot tells the St Hilda's matron that they'll squeeze the girls in somehow. The pupils are mixed with the Chalet School girls for work and sleep and in the beginning of term assembly, Miss Annersely says: Quote: "Now as to yourselves. We are very full up this term-too full to be able to allot separate formrooms to St Hilda's, as Miss Ashley told me she had hoped. The only thing we can do is to fit you in among our own girls as far as possible. We've done that already with the dormitories, as you know. I hope we can manage it with the formrooms. It is very bizarre. There's mention of spare dormitories. There was some building work done but this was to move St Nicholas to the school proper.

Author:	Rob [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:25 am ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
The only girls I can think of who were actively refused entry during the current term, due to places being unavailable, were Maria Balbini in New and Audrey and Celia Elliott, Solange de Chautmontel and Val Gardiner in Wins the Trick. In the Austrian and Swiss years, the CS seemed to be constantly being extended in one way or another, so I suppose the amount of space was always increasing. Similarly, Plas Howell was supposed to be so big that presumably the school could continue to grow exponentially without space being an issue. Throughout the series dormatories were forever being swapped around and altered and there was always the correct number of both common rooms, despite the changing house arrangements, and form rooms, despite the fact that there were some years when there was more forms than in other years! The big space/admission problem for me is at the Big House. The house is (relatively speaking) so small that some of the form rooms are on the first floor and admittedly the kindergarten is moved to the mainland and some of the older girls go to Welsen, but would this really give enough space to incorporate the Tanswick Chalet School? As far as St Hilda's goes, I haven't read Feud in a while, but isn't it one of the books that is majorly hacked about? Is there anything more concrete in the full version about how the CS is able to fit in a whole school's worth of girls at short notice? Is/was the way the CS takes in the St. Hilda's girls a realistic storyline? Nowadays I'd imagine that the school would end up working in a series of porta-kabins, although admittedly being a boarding school this would make it more difficult to be open during building works than it would at a day school. Is it likely that a neighbouring school would offer to take in the girls, or is Miss Ashley's idea that they just need accomodation more realistic? During my current re-read I was suprised to read in one of the Tirol books that both the CS and St Scholastica's have girls with relatives at the San - I had always thought that, especially in the early stages, it was definately and destinctly the CS which had the special relationship with the San. In light of this discussion however, it does make me wonder (this might make a good drabble if anyone wanted to take it on?) whether perhaps the CS had no places available and so they had to refer the prospective pupils on to St Scholastica's. In fact imagine if this had happened during the term of Lintons, how different the story would be if Gillian and Joyce had gone to St Scholastica's rather than the CS. Actually though, the more I think about it, the more I think it likely that Gill and Joyce would have found it easier to settle in at a typical school like St Scholastica's, rather than a more specialised one like the CS!

Author:	Abi [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:38 am ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
The hardback has exactly the same wording. It does mention that Gillie, on her first morning, wakes up in a cubicle of her own, so presumably they didn't end up having to add beds to existing dormitories, which you'd think would be an easy way of creating extra space. But if they mixed the girls up there must have been a major re-shuffle of dormitory places overnight! And there are even new bathing lists - Gillie is fourth bath! How on earth did they manage all that as well as all the usual beginning of term stuff which presumably went on?

Author:	Pado [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:05 am ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Poor Rosalie - no doubt she ended up pulling an all-nighter getting the new arrangements sorted out. They must have had an enormous supply of extra furniture lying about; even to add a couple of beds plus cubicle curtains to each dormy would be a masssive undertaking. In terms of admissions, perhaps they originally allotted 24 girls to a form with the expectation that someone related to the San would end up filling the last spot? (Yes, I know, I'm struggling to avoid blaming EBD for her inconsistencies...)

Author:	Fiona Mc [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:02 am ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
They did have to hunt for an extra dorm for Mary Lou and Clem in Three go and Clem's father had to literally get down on his hands and knees and beg for a place I think a lot of place would depend on the year. I know many private school's don't have many places in Form 1/Year 7 and have long waiting list and yet they do have places in younger years or later years. Friends of mine started their son at the private school they wanted in Year 5 rather than wait until Year 7 as they heard it was almost impossible to get your child into the school in that year unless you had their name down in year dot, another harassed the school they wanted until the school finally gave in and accepted their son. I guess what I'm trying to say is certain years may have more availability than other years depending on how many want to go to the school that particular year. At St Braival there were 4-5 Fifth forms which the Swiss school never managed to gain again. And I could see Carnbach having plenty of places for older girls in it's early years as they lost most of their pupils to Switzerland. And I could see girls from Carnbach getting priority in the Swiss branch which is what happened in Coming Age despite the lack of places. I also know school here in Australia that do give priority to people with older siblings in the school

Author:	Sunglass [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 9:52 am ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
I know that the entire plot of Wins the Trick depends on the CS being unable to find room for the girls, so that they're roaming around on the Platz causing trouble, but the reason given for why the CS can't take them is a bit odd, if you think about it: Quote: "The Abbess told me that if it had been only one, she'd have managed it somehow. But when it came to four, it couldn't be done. And Kathie Robertson certainly couldn't take a single other child Surely there's no necessity to take all four as a job lot? The families don't know one another in advance of the girls happening to meet at the Caramie, and one assumes each parent/guardian would have approached the school separately about their own daughter/s, rather than offer them as a bunch, so it's a bit contrived as excuses go. Especially when, at the start of Problem, they agree to take Joan Baker several weeks into the summer term (a term they don't like to accept new girls in anyway, even when they arrive on time), and despite being full, apparently because they worry (on no grounds) about her 'kicking her heels' in idleness for a few months if they say no: Quote: Should I send him a prospectus and say we can't take her this term, but shall have one or two vacancies next?" "It would be one way out. On the other hand, what will they do with the girl during this? Send her back to her old school, I suppose. I hope they won't let her kick her heels at home until September. Fourteen's a bad age for that sort of thing." In fairness, what Joan would do if the CS didn't accept her is hardly the CS's responsibility! I know they take their responsibility to the relatives of San patients and medical referrals seriously - which makes sense - but there doesn't seem any reason at all for them to accept Joan at such an inconvenient moment... I know it works for the plot, because it gives Rosamund a chance to integrate and become more or less middle-class before Joan arrives, but having made such a strong case for why they shouldn't take Joan, you do find yourself wondering why on earth they finally do!

Author:	Loryat [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:43 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Sunglass wrote: She probably also needs to figure out at the interview whether the parents are the types to sue or otherwise make trouble in the likely event their daughter is caught in a flood/avalanche/motorboat accident etc. CS parents are surprisingly casual about such things. In Feud, haven't they just built an extension or a staff hostel or something so fortuitously (sp?) they have loads of space? (And, surprisingly, no new girls to put in said space). The staff hostel always sounds much cooler than living in one of the school houses. You can picture them all getting bevvied over there and discussing the doctors, and groaning when a promotion means they have to go and live in the school proper.

Author:	Alison H [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 3:08 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
When Miriam Ashley, quite reasonably, suggested that St Hilda's could use the building at Unter die Kiefern, which St Mildred's abandoned in Mary-Lou because it got too hot there , and which only ever seemed to get used thereafter as somewhere for Old Girls to stay in Coming of Age and as a scarlet fever free zone in Trials, she was told that the building was used for visiting Old Girls or relatives of San patients to stay in. I know that the Russells - who would've been the majority shareholders in The Chalet School Limited - were well-off, but fancy keeping a big building just empty most of the time like that! Having said which, there's no suggestion either that Plas Gwyn was rented out when the Maynards first moved to Switzerland. Obviously they all just had so much money that they could afford to hang on to empty buildings indefinitely . The staff hostel sounds very cool .

Author:	Llywela [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 3:12 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Plas Gwyn wasn't left empty when the Maynards moved to Switzerland - Ernest Howells moved in with his sister Gwensi, as the Rectory for some reason wasn't suitable for him. Then when Ernest moved out again a few years later, the Maynards decided to sell Plas Gwyn rather than hang on to it any longer.

Author:	emma t [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:00 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Nightwing wrote: [Perhaps the CS was built by the same engineers who constructed the TARDIS? It looked small on the outside so that the school could always plead they were full up when it suited them, but was much bigger on the inside... Being a Dr Who fan, I like this idea Nice one, Nightwing!!

Author:	JB [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:05 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Llywela wrote: Plas Gwyn wasn't left empty when the Maynards moved to Switzerland - Ernest Howells moved in with his sister Gwensi, as the Rectory for some reason wasn't suitable for him. Then when Ernest moved out again a few years later, the Maynards decided to sell Plas Gwyn rather than hang on to it any longer. I think he was having a new, modern rectory built as the old one was too big and unsuitable for him and Gwensi. Isn't there some staff accommodation at Unter die Kiefern as well? I thought that was where Herr Laubach lived but I could be confused. It seems a pretty large building - which the school extended before the start of CS in the Oberland. As you say, Alison, it's surprising they felt they could keep it empty.

Author:	Rob [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 9:49 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
JB wrote: Isn't there some staff accommodation at Unter die Kiefern as well? I thought that was where Herr Laubach lived but I could be confused. It seems a pretty large building - which the school extended before the start of CS in the Oberland. As you say, Alison, it's surprising they felt they could keep it empty. Wasn't it the former St. Nicholas' building which was turned into accomodation? Herr Laubach had one flat, Frau Mieders another and I think there was a third? However if so, why could St. Hilda's not have used Unter die Kiefern? Rob hasn't got this far in his re-read so is hazy on the details!

Author:	Nightwing [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 9:58 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
I think they didn't have any appropriate furniture for a school? I could be wrong, though!

Author:	ChubbyMonkey [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:01 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
I found this: Quote: "What on earth put that into your head?" she asked. "I don't think it would be a good idea at all. For one thing, I don't suppose they have any school furniture down there, not to speak of books and stationery and all that. It would mean moving what we should want down for just the time we should be there and I don't suppose they'd agree for a second." "They have furniture of some kind there," Gillie said. "We saw it, all heaped up in the middle of the rooms and covered with dust-sheets." "Yes; but I rather think I've heard that they use that place as a guest-house. It almost certainly isn't school furniture. And another thing, it would make the lessons awfully awkward. Ashley and Miss Kent can't teach everything, you know and I don't suppose they'd feel like engaging extra staff on their own without Miss Holroyd's permission." "Wouldn't some of the Chalet School mistresses come down and help out?" Gillie asked, looking rather blue. This was something she had forgotten. "Why should they when they can teach us in form up here without the bother of trapesing up and down in all weathers? Of course they wouldn't! It would upset their whole timetable too. Where's the point of it?"

Author:	Kathy_S [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:23 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Herr Laubach is certainly living there, given how much of the plot turns on reactions to Miss Ashley's "oh, good, that frees the space up then" reaction to his death. (No, that's not a direct quote, but it's how it came across: as incredibly callous.)

Author:	Selena [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:39 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Fiona Mc wrote: They did have to hunt for an extra dorm for Mary Lou and Clem in Three go and Clem's father had to literally get down on his hands and knees and beg for a place Maybe that's the key...the point of Miss Annersley's interviews was really to see who would actually beg for a place? Maybe Rosalie secretly took photos to use as possible blackmail material if anyone threatened to sue later on when their daughter had an accident?

Author:	Liane [ Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:19 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Unter die Kiefern was having work done on it, there was a mention of the furniture being in the middle of rooms covered in dust sheets.

Author:	Alison H [ Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:19 am ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Didn't Clem say something about her dad thinking that if you've got the money to pay then you can just get what you want? Maybe he offered a bribe! It makes me feel quite uncomfortable to think of a 13-year-old girl realising something like that about her dad and then saying it to someone else ... I've a vague recollection of someone else's dad offering to pay well in advance, but I might have imagined that. Ah, found the relevant bit of Feud. A new building was built for St Nicholas's. Part of the old building was made into flats for the Dennys, Herr Laubach and Frau Mieders and her mother and sister, but the rest was empty (presumably waiting for another member of staff to retire and decide that they couldn't bear to move far from the school). Unter den Kiefern was having repairs done on it during Feud, but the girls tell Miss Ashley that it's usually empty unless a friend or relative of someone at the School or San wants to stay there. What a waste of a building . Hmm, it's just asking for a mysterious buyer to come along and take it over ...

Author:	JB [ Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:46 am ]
Post subject:	Re: CS admissions procedure
Alison H wrote: What a waste of a building . Hmm, it's just asking for a mysterious buyer to come along and take it over ... Would you like some bunny food, Alison?? No wonder there's such a pressure for chalets on the Platz when the CS have an empty building and a half-used building (we're told this several times when people are house hunting).