The Chalet School And Barbara
Synopsis:
Barbara Chester, younger sister of Nancy and Beth, has been so frail all her life that only now at 14 years of age is she deemed strong enough to go to school. As big sister Beth will be working for the Maynards as governess and mother's help, it has been decided that Barbara can start at the Chalet School as a day girl from the Maynard's home.
The Chalet School has moved again, this time to the Gornetz Platz in the Swiss Oberland, leaving a small branch on the Welsh mainand. The School will be able to re-establish its traditional links with the Sanatorium, which has reopened three miles further along the Platz, with Jack Maynard as its head. So the girls are delighted to hear that Joey Maynard is already established at the Platz in her new home Freudesheim, just a stone's throw away from the school itself.
Not that they see much of her when term begins. As Barbara and Beth discover when they arrive at the Gornetz Platz, three of the Maynard children have gone down with German measles, and Barbara must begin at the School as a boarder straightaway. Her cousin Vi Lucy has promised to look after her and Barbara soon finds herself part of Mary-Lou and Vi's gang - which leads to jealousy among some of the lesser lights of Upper IV.
The term is mainly spent with mistresses and girls getting to know their new surroundings: there are trips to Interlaken, to Unterhofen and to Berne, and when the first snows of winter come, the girls try out skiing for the first time. Lady Russell writes a charming Christmas play, Strangers At The Inn, which is performed at the end of term.
contributed by Christina Erskine, England __ working from a paperback edition
As the link suggests, it gives more of the story - without, of course, giving everything away!