Thanks for all your kind comments, it is now the first day of the Spring Term . . .
Prayers on the first day of term were as usual held in two parts; the Catholics had gone to the gym, taken today by Mlle Lachenais as Miss Wilson was in America, and the Protestants had been led by Miss Annersley as normal in the Hall. The Parable of the Talents, a traditional part of both services, to remind all pupils that they should do their best with the gifts God had given them, had been read, and hymns and prayers according to each religious tradition were complete, and when the Catholics had filed into the Hall Miss Annersley came forward again to address the whole school.
“Welcome back girls,” she began. “This is the last time I shall be able to say that at the beginning of term —” and she paused with a smile at the stunned silence that this statement had produced.
Then a small voice piped up, “Are you going away and leaving?”
Manfully, the staff managed to contain their amusement at this remark until Miss Annersley’s own musical laugh allowed them, and the rest of the girls, to laugh as well. Then her face grew more serious, as the faces of her small questioner and her coterie seemed on the verge of tears, though whether of dismay at the thought of her leaving, distress at being laughed at, or upset that their — to them — serious question had provoked such a response, even Miss Annersley herself was unable to discern.
“No, Vi, I’m not leaving,” she responded quietly, “but this is the last term that I, or anyone, will be able to address the whole school as ‘girls’. The Chalet School has, until now, been a girls’ school, although, as you all know, we have taken some boys into the kindergarten. From next term, some of the boys who would under the old system have been leaving because they would be too old for the kindergarten, will be staying on into the Lower Second, and we hope more will join them. I have written to your parents about this already. From next September the Chalet School will accept boys and girls into Forms II and below, and will eventually, as these boys work up the school, become fully co-educational.”
She paused again and looked out at the sea of faces. It was apparent that some parents had already told their daughters the news, but that many had not, including, from the puzzled looks she could see, most of the lower school, who would at first be the ones most closely affected. Suppressing her inner exasperation at parents who did not share such important information with their children, she began to speak again.
“This will be an exciting time for the school. We shall have new teachers, including men — to be company for Mr Denny and Herr Laubach! — and some new subjects, and you — all of you! — will be in at the beginning of it all. This term we will be making some preliminary changes — that means,” she looked down at the blank stares of the juniors “— that we shall start making some changes this term to be ready for the boys when they come next September at the beginning of the new school year.
“There will be special tasks for all of you, that we would like you to start thinking about and practising during this term, so you all know what you will be doing next. We need to welcome all our new pupils properly, whether they are boys or girls. As you know, we have had an informal system, which has served us well until now, of what you girls call ‘sheepdogging’. This has been done on rather an ad hoc basis —” again she looked down at the smaller ones who were trying not to look too puzzled “— that is, we have done it as and when it has been needed, and usually chosen the ‘sheepdog’ because that was the first girl from the new girl’s form whom we saw when introducing them to their form-mates. Now we want to formalise that, to have several of you, from every form, ready to be a ‘sheepdog’ or ‘buddy’ to a new person who has come into their form, and tell them all they need to know from their places in the school. But we also want some senior pupils, who will not have so many new pupils in their forms, and who at the moment will not have boys joining them, to be ‘mentors’ or ‘shepherds’ — people that the new person or the 'sheepdog' can go to if there is something they don’t themselves know or understand. We will have special training sessions for ‘sheepdogs’ and ‘shepherds’, separately and together, during this term, so that you all know what will be expected of you, and after half-term, anyone who feels that they are particularly suited — or indeed, particularly unsuited — to these roles, I want you to come and talk to me or Mlle Lachenais about it.”
There was a stir of excitement. The girls were too well-trained to talk during assembly, but it was obvious that they were all anxious to discuss this with their friends. Miss Annersley was well aware of this, however, as her next statement proved.
“Now, I know you will all wish to talk this over, so I have arranged that you will all go back to your form-rooms until supper, which will be in just under an hour’s time at Seventeen-Thirty. This will give you about three-quarters of an hour for discussion. After supper, each form may send a representative to me — I shall be in my study until Twenty hours — if they have any further ideas to contribute. Your form-mistresses will arrange that with you. Dismiss,” and she turned to Miss Cochrane, who struck up a brisk march so that, form by form, the girls all returned to their respective classrooms.
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, the summer term of preparations for change, which will lead to 'A New Era at the Chalet School' (my title for Part 2 of Jo's Boys, which will begin with the autumn term of Three Go)
ve the description of the dragonfly - I get them occasionally here.
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[tho I know that's an easy slip if you've just read out 'Peter Coke']
Thought that was an update!
)
- lovely letter though.
