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#1: Women: New Teaching Staff Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:16 am
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New teaching staff are a common feature in a school with as many terms documented as the Chalet School. The most prominent example is the woman with a book devoted to her experiences in this - Kathy Ferrars - but there are lots of other examples too. A full list of mistresses by order of their appearance in the series is here. They include part-time, local staff, such as the Denny Duo and Herr Anserl, as well as Matrons that come and go, as well as new staff taken on every time the school moves, as well as Old Girls (although we have kept the Old Girls as Staff discussion separate and if you have any more thoughts on it the link is here.)

Some teething problems that are experienced by the list above are Tristan Denny's experience as being the first male to teach the girls; Matron Webb's and Maton Besley's failure to fit in; Kathy Ferrars' lack of maturity in years and in experience. The reasons they join the staff are all different and possibly relevant to a discussion of their experiences as New Staff - think of Mr. Denny joining because it would be a distraction to his sickness, or Frau Mieders joining because of her tragic home life, Kathy's ambition or Herr Laubach's need to support an invalid wife.

What do you think of the way New Staff are introduced to the Chalet School, and to the enviroment that they will be living and working in? Do they all love the set-up immediately, or are there problems, and if so, whose fault is it that there are problems? Would the prospect of joining a team like that at the Chalet School unnerve you? Is there a particularly good time to join the Staff during the series - or a particularly bad time? Was there an official or unofficial system in place to amalgamate and welcome New Staff? If so, what was it, and was it any good?

And any thought you have on New Teaching Staff at all, please do post about it and join in the discussion below Very Happy

#2: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:55 am
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I think normally a great deal of care went into appointing staff, so problems were rare. In the few instances where things did go wrong - Matrons Webb and Besley, Miss Bubb - there were speical circumstances - the need to appoint someone in a hurry, and in Miss Bubb's case, the War.

In Matron Besley's case perhaps more guidance could have been given to her, but I think Matron Webb's and Miss Bubb's methods were just incompatible with the CS ethos and in both cases Madge had no option but to dismiss them. In normal circumstances neither of them would have been appointed in the first place.

I think it would have been quite nerve racking for a very young mistress to join the CS staff when so many of the mistresses had known each other for so long and had jokes and stories one couldn't understand. However, I think that, as with the girls, there was an unwritten rule that new mistresses should be made to feel welcome, and I think everyone did their best to make Kathie feel at home.

I think the Swiss years would have been the best time for a young mistress to join the staff. There was a bigger staff, so more choice of friends. The school worked towards public exams, and a large proportion of girls were going on to university or some other form of training, so one had a way of measuring one's success in teaching against outside standards.

#3: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:53 pm
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When I first read the books as a primary school age child I wasn't very interested in the staff, but now I really wish we heard more about them - some of them are there for so long and seem to have interesting backgrounds and yet we never find out that much about their lives.

It must've been really scary for new teaching staff! Starting a new job is nerve-racking enough when you know you can go home at the end of the day: starting a live-in job, especially when you're in a foreign country where you don't know anyone, must be terrifying. Although living with and working with the same people's a great way to make friends if you settle in well, it must've been very hard for those who didn't, especially in the Swiss years where there didn't really seem to be anywhere nearby to go that wasn't connected with the School or the San.

OK, people who were nervous of new places or very keen on their privacy wouldn't've applied to somewhere like that, but even so it must've been hard, especially when the School had so many "little ways" which were unique to it. And having all those Old Girls as colleagues in the later years, and all the constant Staff Room talk about the Maynards and the Russells and various other people, could easily've made new staff members feel like outsiders. There's a discussion at some point, in relation to Miss Bubb, in which various people talk about "our unique traditions" or words to that effect, and that attitude could've been very hard on new people. OK, if you join a new workplace you have to fit in with its way of doing things, and also accept that everyone else will already know each other, but I think at the CS it could've got a bit much.

Having said which, they do seem to try hard to make people - we only really see that side of things in New Mistress, but presumably it was the same for everyone - feel welcome. I think she could've been given more guidance though: she seems to spend her first day asking the girls about procedures and books and so on!

I think there'd've been big variations in their experiences of life there, as indeed there are with people in any workplace. Kathie Ferrars obviously enjoys seeing new places, and makes some close friends. People like Frau Mieders and maybe even Nell Wilson seem to see the place as a substitute family. Miss Bubb and Matron Besly, and arguably Pam Slater too, whatever their personal faults, are made to feel like outsiders because they don't fit in with the school's ways - I do feel sorry for Miss Bubb when Jack Maynard tells her to let Gay sit outside, which was so none of his business! And then there are people like Joan Bertram who never really seem very close to anyone.

I think that the Swiss years would've been the best time to join in that there were more people around then and academic standards were probably higher - but, on the other hand, by then the School had become very set in its ways which could've been quite intimidating/frustrating.

I really would love to see some drabbles about people like Mlle de Lachennais and Frau Mieders, and maybe "lesser" characters like Miss Derwent or Miss Moore, if anyone's got time to write them!

Er, that was a very long waffle because I am trying to stay awake till the washing machine's finished, so I can hang stuff up to dry overnight Embarassed

#4: Author: Elle, Location: Peterborough

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:03 am
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JayB wrote:

In Matron Besley's case perhaps more guidance could have been given to her,

But when Matro Besley is given advise she ignores it - I can't quote as I am currently in a D and T cover so don't have the books to hand - but IIRC doesn't Matey tell her to leave Jo and the prefects alone, but Matron Besley promptly challenges them at the next oportunity - when they are off to see the Tzigane (sp?)?

#5: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:20 pm
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I think the treatment of the staff is one of the major strengths of the series. It's so obvious that EBD was a teacher and knew exactly what went on and, although we might long for more detail as adults, she gives a much, much greater insight into the staff (and, indeed, into education) than anyone else does. Who is it (don't get old, your brain turn to mush) who has to crawl around the rest of the staff getting them to rewrite their comments because she's messed up her own on some reports! This won't resonate at all with younger teachers, but, oh, it did with me!

As a child, I loved Bill, she was such fun, but I didn't much mind about the rest. As I grew older I was seduced by Hilda's quieter charms, and they still people far more of my thoughts than is normal or healthy! Very Happy

One thing which frustrates me is the way EBD fairly randomly drops staff who have been strong characters - Miss Maynard, for example, and Con Stewart ... even Nell herself, in some ways. Several disappear to marry, of course, but it's rarely prepared for much. I can understand it in the early books, when she can have had no idea that the series would be so long-running (I suspect she'd have hung on to Madge for much longer if she had), but it's fairly characteristic. Slightly weird.

#6: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:04 am
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Tara wrote:

Isn't that actually quite realistic for the times she was writing about, when women would have had to leave the profession on marriage? And as their romances must (until the closer relationship with the San and those doctors develops) take place off stage, in the holidays, it doesn't surprise me particularly that we don't hear much about whats going on until it happens.

EBD's staff seem to fall into two clear catgories - the career teachers (Bill, Hilda, Jeanne, etc.) and the others (Maynie, Biddy, Mary Burnett, Gill Linton - hmm, funny how many of these are old girls - maybe EBD thought we woudn't be interested in the romances of teachers unless we had previously known them as girls....).

Tara wrote:

I think the treatment of the staff is one of the major strengths of the series. It's so obvious that EBD was a teacher and knew exactly what went on and, although we might long for more detail as adults, she gives a much, much greater insight into the staff (and, indeed, into education) than anyone else does.

This is so true. It's one of the things that makes EBD so unqiue, IMO, and it really gives the school a three dimensional feel - something missing in the school stories of other authors, where the staff either hardly ever appear or are complete cyphers.

#7: Author: Mel, Location: UP NORTH

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:49 am
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I agree that she does far more with staff than any other writer. Also, she does not waver from the adult or teacher viewpoint (I think). We are always reminded for instance, that the girls are 'breaking all manner of rules' or that someone is speaking 'with scant regard for grammar' which I sometimes find annoying. One other thing is that the girls never seem to get away with wrong-doing, except for some of the tricks on the matrons e.g. snails and Epsom salts - I can't think of any crime that goes unpunished. There are three 'nasty' members of staff who are sacked but never reformed - too old and set in their ways possibly and of course a bad influence on the pupils.

#8: Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!!

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:47 pm
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Tara wrote:

Who is it (don't get old, your brain turn to mush) who has to crawl around the rest of the staff getting them to rewrite their comments because she's messed up her own on some reports! This won't resonate at all with younger teachers, but, oh, it did with me!
.

I have a feeling it was Pam Slater, in one of the war books. But I'm not 100% sure of it.

#9: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:55 pm
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Laughing

One teacher of ours used to base her comments on end of year reports entirely on exam marks - I don't think she took much notice of us in lessons - and one year she managed to add up my exam mark wrongly and did me out of 15% - rather a lot really! I spotted it and pointed it out to her when we got the papers back, so she had to redo my report and get all the other teachers to rewrite their comments too.

I think it was Pam Slater who got her report comments wrong, but I can't remember when.

#10: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:12 pm
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It's Pam Slater in Lavender - p.274 in my edition!

#11: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:21 am
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I like the way EBD handles the staff in the books, and I think it's one of the strengths of the series when rereading it as an adult. We see them as people, not just as background figures for the girls' activities, and we see parts of their personalities and hobbies and life when not teaching. The staff also makes an effort to be welcoming to new members.

I do think it would be intimidating to join the school as a non Chalet alumni, partially because of the school's foreign location and international nature - 'conversational German' is a lot different than teaching math in a foreign language. It's also quite isolated physically, particularly in Switzerland, and has a lot of old girls and very long term staff, and it's own 'special little ways'.

I think it would be hardest for an experienced teacher with no Chalet connections to join the school. Kathie Ferrars is a new teacher, so she can be raised up as a proper Chalet Girl. An experienced teacher would have their own way of doing things and might find it harder to adapt to the CS ways.

The environment is quite closed, with only the San and the school for socialising - no shopping trips into town, no cafes and coffee shops (or pubs Shocked

), no movie theatres, and a social life where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. An experienced teacher might not understand or appreciate getting professional advice from the lady next door to the school who writes children's books and might not like being treated familiarly by a senior and told "Oh, that's just Mary-Lou." Other problems could be things like cancelling classes to go on walks because the weather is good (particularly in exam term), or having to teach exam material to someone who doesn't understand the language you are instructing in, or having your discipline over ruled by the Sanatorium doctors.

I think the best time to join would be during a major school move, when it would be easier to find your own niche without feeling out of place - when the school moved to England or Guernsey or Switzerland, or just after adding juniors to the Swiss branch.

#12: Author: Rob, Location: Currently in a rainstorm

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 11:34 pm
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I like the way she handles the staff in the books, but agree with what others have said that it would be quite hard for an experienced mistress to join a school which had so many traditions and unwritten rules, especially in the later English/Welsh and Swiss books.

I therefore think that the best time to join the school would have been during those first few years in the Tyrol (although that might have made it professionally harder due to the wider range of ages and abilities in the classes) as then you could have been involved in creating the traditions, rather than having to just adhere to them.

I think that the atmosphere is different in the earlier books too - the school had a much more of a 'family' feeling between the mistresses and girls, especially in the holidays, which I think must have been nice for people who were a long way away from their families in a foreign country.

#13: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:03 pm
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jennifer wrote:

I think it would be hardest for an experienced teacher with no Chalet connections to join the school. Kathie Ferrars is a new teacher, so she can be raised up as a proper Chalet Girl. An experienced teacher would have their own way of doing things and might find it harder to adapt to the CS ways.

I wonder if that was part of Pam Slater's problem. I never get the impression she was new to teaching when she joined the CS, which suggests she had taught somewhere else first. Maybe at a day school, maybe somewhere without the social / caring / family / pastoral ethos of the CS.

Maybe that's why she never managed to fit in.

#14: Author: Loryat,

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:27 pm
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Miss Slater is young though - she's only in her twenties when the bus accident happens, which is why she can't 'take over' the school.

Actually I get the impression that she did fit in, and then when EBD decided one of the staff wasn't going to fit in she suddenly starts implying that Slater doesn't really conform etc. But if you look at the earlier books there's no evidence of it, IMO. (Unless it was cut).

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