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#1: Girls: Leading Amalgamees Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 2:26 am
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We have several cases where schools are absorbed by the Chalet School.

We have St Scholastica's (Hilary Burn, Nancy Wilmot, Betty and Elizabeth), the Tanswick School (Diana Skelton, Primrose Trevoase) and a temporary joining with St Hilda's (Monica and Gillie Garstin, Mary Murrell, Kitty Anderson). In addition, when the school opens in England, they absorb most of the students from the Medbury school, including
Clare Danvers, Vicky, Alixe and Mollie Mcnab and Monica Marilliar.

A complete list of amalgamees can be found at http://cscharacterguide.googlepages.com/mergers.html

How did you feel the leading lights of these other schools fit in with our own girls. Were there any tensions you felt could have been resolved differently? Were you happy with the way these girls ended up fitting in – or did they fit in at all, do you think?

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:52 am
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I tend to forget that a lot of the St Scholastika's girls weren't originally CS girls. Hilary and Nancy in particular just become typical CS girls, returning to teach and in Hilary's case marrying a doctor! Maybe if there wasn't that big gap between New/United and Exile then it'd be different.

The Medbury girls don't really make much impression, and the fact that Primrose etc were previously at Tanswick never seems to be mentioned again after Bride. I do quite like Feud because it's quite original - even though the "merger" storyline's been done before - compared with most of the other later Swiss books, and the idea of the two rival "gangs" of girls works quite well.

#3: Author: Karry, Location: Stoke on Trent

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:17 pm
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I think the medbury amalgamation works because they are coming into a new school building along with the 'established' school. The 'other' chalet school always seemed strange to me - almost as if the proprietors looked around and said 'I know - we will sell to another school with the same name!' Surely they would have recommended a school with a similar ethos (Summerhill perhaps)?

#4: Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:46 pm
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Karry wrote:

The 'other' chalet school always seemed strange to me - almost as if the proprietors looked around and said 'I know - we will sell to another school with the same name!' Surely they would have recommended a school with a similar ethos (Summerhill perhaps)?

I don't think the other Chalet School sold the school to 'our' Chalet School rather it just closed and a lot got sent to it afterwards. Hilda says

Quote:

"Last term, its new headmistress died after a long illness and as there is no one to carry on, it had to close. We are fairly near Tanswick, so quite a number of its pupils have to come here..."

I think Medbury was the same whereas St Scholastika was sold to them.

I thought Fued was realistic especially with the rival gangs eventually becoming friends and I loved Medbury joining up and hearing more about Monica

#5: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:34 am
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The Tanswick group always seemed odd to me. The Chalet School did seem to agree to take all the necessary girls in at the last minute, even given that the school was planning a move to Europe in the next year or two, and the vast differences in education and discipline from the schools. Almost all of the girls are a problem - the seventeen year olds are in the fifth form, the younger girls are discipline problems, etc. A few problem new girls can be absorbed, but for a teacher to get four or five problems in a form of twenty some girls would seriously throw off the class, to the other students' detriment.

The Medbury girls are a nice addition, and the fact that we see them in Monica Turns Up Trumps adds some nice depth to it. For St Scholastica's the girls all seem to blend in immediately, with the exception of Betty and Elizabeth, even the mistresses who wouldn't have been used to the trilingualism.

I like the St Hilda's episode - it seems very realistic, with the little cliques of girls, and automatically defending your own school, even if you realize that it isn't quite right, and even some of the mistresses having problems. Although if I had been Miss Annersley, I would have been tempted to give Miss Ashley a short sharp talk over behaviour appropriate to a mistress, and an ultimatum - behave like an adult, or take a years' leave.

#6: Author: Fi, Location: Somerset

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:13 pm
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I think the "Saints" merged so well with the Chaletians because they already knew each other so well. They had played games against each other and joined up for other activities such as the sales of work. Many of the Saints were already friendly with the Chaletians and knew about trilingualism and other school traditions so it wasn't such a shock when they were expected to continue with these.

I haven't yet read "Bride" (it is next on my list as I am doing a read through) so can't comment on the Tanswick merger.

I felt that the St Hilda's girls found it so difficult to merge because of all the upheavel that they had had. Moving to Switzerland and then to the Platz and finally the illness of their headmistress must have left many of the girls and staff feeling distinctly unsettled. Being faced with hundreds of Chalet girls who had become well established in the area and had strong school traditions and policies must have been quite intimidating. This led the members of the smaller group to band together more strongly as a mode of defence and made merging the two groups effectively more challenging.

Quote:

Although if I had been Miss Annersley, I would have been tempted to give Miss Ashley a short sharp talk over behaviour appropriate to a mistress, and an ultimatum - behave like an adult, or take a years' leave.

I agree with this. I think Miss Ashley made a tricky situation worse, until she rejoined her school the staff of both schools seemed to be getting along quite well. This would have set a better example for the girls to follow.

#7: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:40 pm
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I think the St Hilda's situation was more difficult because it was only temporary. They still had their own uniform, own prefects, own loyalties, and the CS staff couldn't insist that they set those aside and become fully integrated into the school. With the other amalgamations, it was just a question of time, even if there were a few hiccups along the way - the older girls, who were more likely to cause problems, would soon leave and the younger ones would settle down and become real CS girls.

#8: Author: Sunglass, Location: Usually London

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:24 pm
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The only amalgamation I remember registering was that of the Saints, really. (I'm not sure I've read the books where the Medbury or Tanswick mergers take place - and I'm not sure which they are, but I'd be delighted to be enlightened.) The Saints were set up by EBD, really, as kind of mild cultural imperialists, arriving from England, appropriating the local saint, and trying to appropriate CS girls as pupils, maintaining an entirely British intake, school ways and monoglot education, and - like some member of the Raj in an ill-fitting pith helmet and tight clothes, unsuitably dressed and shod for the Tiernsee. Of course it heightens the international glamour and relative sensitivity to local ways and problems of the CS, which I assume is part of EBD's point in introducing a much more stringently British school. (Also, Miss Brown, an unattractive-voiced older woman in tweeds is a less demonic proto-version of Miss Bubb, and contrasts with the CS's good-looking, melodic-voiced staff.)

The fact that the old Saints fit in fairly seamlessly is in some ways rather unlikely, I would have thought - even though they've been across the lake for a while (how long, exactly?), and know the CS ways to a limited extent, in terms of having matches and sharing services. It would still have been a culture shock to cross the lake and put on the brown and flame, and have lessons two thirds of the time in another language. I suppose EBD had to do something with Saint S's, as it's hardly likely that a small school with an exclusively UK intake and education could possibly have flourished in Austria when it didn't accept Austrians. Plus it offered an opportunity to introduce new or newish characters to the CS, who weren't individual new girls, and to show on a larger scale the sort of integration she always shows on an individual level.

#9: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:56 pm
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Sunglass wrote:

The only amalgamation I remember registering was that of the Saints, really. (I'm not sure I've read the books where the Medbury or Tanswick mergers take place - and I'm not sure which they are, but I'd be delighted to be enlightened.)

Tanswick was 'Bride Leads'. I'm not too sure about Medbury - it would have been around the time of 'Lavender' or 'Gay', I think.

#10: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:34 am
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miss_maeve wrote:

Sunglass wrote:

Tanswick was 'Bride Leads'. I'm not too sure about Medbury - it would have been around the time of 'Lavender' or 'Gay', I think.

The Medbury girls joined in Goes To It - they are also mentioned in Monica Turns Up Trumps - and include Monica Marilliar, the McNab girls, Jocelyn Redford, Gwyladys Evans, Myfanwy Tudor, Ernestine Benedict and a few others.

#11: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:44 pm
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I find myself quite surprised that Monica Marilliar was sent to the Chalet School - after all, the whole point about her going to Medbury in the first place was because her father wanted a smaller school for her, feeling that she needed more individual attention and to be made to work harder than was happening in the school she was at. So either EBD forgot this, or she made an incredibly thorough reformation....

#12: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:31 pm
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But then, don't forget at that time the CS was quite a bit smaller, having left nearly all the Continental girls behind.

#13: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:42 pm
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True, but it was still quite a lot bigger than Medbury!

#14: Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:29 am
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At the time of Goes To It there are around 80 pupils at the CS, including the Medbury influx – Medbury had 25 girls normally but only around 12 or so came to the CS, it says.

She (EBD) doesn’t really deal with the Medbury girls as a merger issue at all – they arrive, they are immediately absorbed and it’s assumed that they are the same type of jolly, straightforward schoolgirls as the CS girls are. What stands out to me about their merger is what we see of Monica – practically the only time she speaks in the book is to bring a message from Miss Annersley! And she does this about four times, all at near-crisis situations (ie “come quick, the triumvirate are missing!”; “come quick, the siren’s just gone off!”; “come quick, there’s a Colonel in the Hall waiting for us all!” – why would Miss Annersley trust such a new girl, albeit a Prefect (I think) to do all of this deputising for her? Or was Monica just ‘handy’ in every case – if so, possibly Hilda had a case for stalking... Laughing

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