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School: School Mergers
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5617
Author:  Róisín [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:24 pm ]
Post subject:  School: School Mergers
Mergers with Other Schools: At several points the Chalet school merges with other schools (St Scholastica's; Monica's School in Goes to It; Tanswick and St Hilda's.

Does this work as a plot device, or does it get repetitive and contrived?

Are the mergers shown realistically?

Please join in below :D
Author:  Emma A [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
I read about the St Hilda's merger faily recently, and rather enjoyed the way the two schools were put together. It was a temporary arrangement, and I don't think that an alternative would have been feasible with the continued illness of the St Hilda's headmistress. I quite liked that it was a teacher who helped to make the divide wider than it needed - I'm sure we've all known that sort of person! I'm not so sure about the rescuing of Minette being effective as healing the breach, but most of the animosity was led by Jack and Gillie anyway, so it made sense that the other girls followed their lead.

I don't remember details of the other mergers, apart from the Saints, who merged quite readily, I think, mainly because the girls knew each other already, so there were lesser difficulties than if they had been complete strangers. The Saints must have hated the trilingualism, and I don't think EBD portrayed well the struggles the older girls, in particular, would have had with other languages. The Seniors who had only one term to go would have thought, "What on earth is the point of trying to speak German two days a week for a term?"

I do like that in the post-Tanswick merger, girls educated on the Tanswick lines were still having problems with lessons several books later. Why they were merged at all seems a strange decision, since any parent who would consciously choose a school with a learn-at-you-own-whim ethos for their child, would not likely approve of one as regimented at the (real) Chalet School's.

I don't remember "Monica's" school merging with the CS... Must retrieve copy :oops:
Author:  Tor [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
Quote:
I do like that in the post-Tanswick merger, girls educated on the Tanswick lines were still having problems with lessons several books later. Why they were merged at all seems a strange decision, since any parent who would consciously choose a school with a learn-at-you-own-whim ethos for their child, would not likely approve of one as regimented at the (real) Chalet School's.

I don't remember "Monica's" school merging with the CS... Must retrieve copy


I always thought that that was rather odd in the Tanswick situation, too. However, could it possibly stem from the short notice of a school closing. It seems waiting lists etc are the norm for private/public schools, especially desirable ones.

And I never picked up on the merger in Goes to It, either (details cut from the paper back?). Was it so smooth as to not really feature in the plot? after all, the school itself was in a new place, and having to start afresh itself, so the general upheaval may have made the transition easier.

Interestingly, I just read this article about a failing school in Carlisle:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/29/richard-rose-academy

which says:

Quote:
From today, the school, which has struggled to contain conflicts between pupils who were merged from two rival schools last September,


So it seems mergers are a problem in real life too!
Author:  MJKB [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
I think a local school closed when the CS opened in Guernsey and the girls were scattered among a few schools including the CS.
Author:  JB [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
I like that we see the practical difficulties of merging with the Saints (ie the house system), and that we see the staff and pupil perspective, and how the "them and us" mentality changes over the term. It's a logical merger. As we've discussed many times before, the whole issue of tri-lingualism doesn't stand up so well to close scrutiny. :roll:

I agree with Emma A that the Tanswick merger is odd given the very different style of schooling. It does, though, make a change to see how a group of new girls with very different ideas fit into the school and it's a good way to do that.

Feud is one of my least favourite books but I find it realistic that the older girls can see the benefits and get on with it (and are even eligible for the Therese Lepattre scholarship), while the middles are the problem. I'd have liked to see Miss Ashley developed a bit more.

I wouldn't have described it as a merger in Goes To It. Monica's school closes and the pupils are dispersed but they join the Chalet School in its first term in England rather than fitting into an established school. I think this is a good plot device to account for getting a good number of new girls to get the Plas Howells school off to a good start.

Beth Chester certainly came from another school in Guernsey. I can't remember if her previous school closed or not but it wasn't a school of which her parents really approved. This is all mentioned at the end of Janie Steps In.
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
The St Hilda's merger and the Tanswick merger were both quite interesting in that they created new plotlines, the "feud" plotline - although it could have been done as a feud between 2 different gangs of CS girls, I suppose - and the storyline with Diana (presumably no "real" CS girls would have behaved like that :lol: ).

Rivalries between neighbouring schools are common - they are round here, anyway! - but it would be difficult to show that with a boarding school ... unless the rivalry was with one of the "village schools" which EBD is always slagging off! The merger with Monica's school was presumably just a way for EBD to get the school's numbers up again quickly after it lost so many pupils due to having to leave Tyrol.

I actually thought it was a shame that St Scholastika's was closed, because I liked seeing the matches and snowball fights and so on between the two schools, but I suppose that the storyline of having another school nearby had run its course and merging the schools was a way of keeping the best St Scholastika's characters.
Author:  Meg14 [ Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
Quote:
I suppose that the storyline of having another school nearby had run its course and merging the schools was a way of keeping the best St Scholastika's characters.


Yes and I think that it gave the books a new lease of life as well. After all Joey had finished and this gave the characters left something new to focus on. I also liked the way that the pupils are realistic about the change. They don't immediately fit into the Chalet School and I can't remember who but someone says to Joey that the two schools are having problems fitting together and they won't immediately all feel part of the same school. And I like the way the seniors are portrayed as being rather apprehensive about starting at a new school at the beginning of the book.
Author:  Sunglass [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
I remember being sorry too that the Saints weren't there across the lake any more, even though, as others have said, they'd pretty much played out their part by then. I like the scene in the train at the start of New CS where there's a joky misunderstanding where the CS seniors leave the Saints alone together so they can talk freely about the merger, and the Saints think they're being ostracised (although my favourite scene in that whole book is Madge and Joey planning the redecoration of St Scholastika's and complaining about the green walls...)

I remember less about the other, later mergers (though the plot involving the identical Minettes was one of the moments I thought the Swiss books had jumped the shark irrevocably!) But in fact all the other mergers I can think off offhand play off a version of the original Saints plot, when you come to think of it - as the Transcripts Site cheekily puts as a blurb on Feud:

Quote:
Yet again, the CS merges with another, clearly inferior, English school that had the temerity to show up in the same general neighbourhood...


Again, the St Hilda's girls, like the Saints, are presented as being struck by the pretty CS dormitories and chic uniform, the anti-slang fines, the trilingualism, the excellent exam results, high academic standards, the authority of the CS prefects etc. One can entirely understand their clannishness, and the resentments that flare up between CS and St Hilda's factions (and I think EBD writes these well, maybe because for once, there's a reason for dislikes and petty arguments, rather than just one CS girl happening to take a dislike to another), but for once it would be very interesting to have seen a merger with a school that was different to the CS, but equally good.

Or I'd have adored to see a situation where the CS had to merge for a term with another school, but on the other school's turf. Can you imagine CS girls having to spend a semester at the 'slacker' CS with the orange uniform and no-rules ethos, and the prefects worrying about the effect on Emerence Hope and other demon middles?
Author:  Kate [ Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
Sunglass wrote:
Or I'd have adored to see a situation where the CS had to merge for a term with another school, but on the other school's turf. Can you imagine CS girls having to spend a semester at the 'slacker' CS with the orange uniform and no-rules ethos, and the prefects worrying about the effect on Emerence Hope and other demon middles?

Someone needs to drabble that. :)
Author:  jennifer [ Mon Feb 02, 2009 7:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
I also find the Tanswick merger rather contrived - I don't see, for example, why the CS took *all* the girls. In particular, they have a batch of girls who, at 17 or so, will probably be leaving school at the end of the year, or the year following at best. However, they're only at about 5th form standard, and struggling there. The school won't have them for long enough to bring them up to standard, and has to put up with a fair amount of disruption merging them into the classes. It would have made more sense to only take juniors and middles, for example, or to require a minimum academic standard to be accepted.

The St Hild's merger is nice in the way that it shows the conflicts between the two groups at different levels, from juniors to mistresses, and is a bit more realistic in the immediate need to find a new home for the girls.
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: School: School Mergers
Only one of the mergers was a true merger! St Scholastika was actually sold to the Chalet School, the rest simply closed down and the Chalet School eventually picked up most of the pupils. Monica's school did, presumably to boost numbers again and it read more like there was a group of new pupils rather than a merger. Tanswick- I could understand why so many parents sent their children to a stricter school such as the Chalet School because the pupils ran wild and so many parents weren't happy. Hilda does say to effect that she felt she had to take them.
I actually liked these first three additions/mergers. I didn't mind St Hilda bunking in at the Chalet School and was glad they kept the school seperate and didn't combine for the long run
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