A Chalet Girl From Kenya
Key Facts (Possible Spoilers) :
Miss Annersley is headmistress at the Chalet School in Switzerland
The School is at the Gornetz Platz, Switzerland, with an 'English' branch at Carnbach, South Wales and a finishing branch at Welsen, a few miles down the valley from the Gornetz Platz.
Series Characters Whereabouts:
Peggy Bettany - will be leaving Welsen after this term to go home to help her mother, who is expecting another baby
Bride Bettany - is at Welsen, the finishing branch
Biddy O'Ryan - is history mistress at the Chalet School in Switzerland
Primula Venables - is at Welsen, the finishing branch
Jo Maynard - is living next door to the School at Freudesheim
Len Maynard - is in Lower IV A
Con Maynard - is in Lower IV A
Margot Maynard - is in Lower IV A
Julie Lucy - is head girl of the Chalet School in Switzerland
Mary-Lou Trelawney - is in Upper IV A and Head of the Middle School
Emerence Hope - is in Lower IV A
Leila Elstob is dangerously ill for some days after her operation. Eventually she rouses enough to ask that Con Maynard be allowed to visit her and Con's quiet chatter about the doll's houses that the Triplets and Leila share contribute greatly to Leila's recovery. When she is at last allowed to go home, the girls all send her get-well cards and notes, but the doctors privately believe Leila is unlikely to be able to walk again.
Jo Scott takes the news of her parents' disappearance very hard and Joey keeps her at Freudesheim until further news comes through. She enlists Jem Russell's help, since Jem has contacts in that part of the world and soon they hear that Maisie Scott has been badly wounded but is alive, while Jo's father Paul managed to escape with less serious injuries.
By the end of term, everyone's mind is on the floral display show and gymkhana. In order to keep the flowers in the tableaux fresh for the whole day, the girls decide to set them in moss and go on a moss-gathering expedition along the valley. Emerence Hope lunges for a piece of fat moss growing by the edge of the cliff, misses her footing and all but goes over the edge. Jo Scott grabs hold of Emerence's ankle just as she pitches over and it is only her quick action that breaks her fall. Jo is left hanging on like grim death until the mistresses come to her aid and Mary-Lou produces an extra-long Guide cord, with which Nancy Wilmot successfully lassoes poor Emerence and hauls her up again.
Jo has badly wrenched her muscles and is distraught at missing out on the fun of the gymkhana and the rest of the show, but gets her reward when Lady Russell announces to the whole school that her heroism has earned her the Margot Venables Prize. This award was founded by Joey Maynard in honour of Daisy and Primula's mother and is only given out when a girl is truly considered to have merited it.
News of Other Old Girls
Gipsy Carson (old girl of St Scholastika's) bumps into Maisie Scott one day and is able to tell her that the Chalet School has relocated to Switzerland, while Beth Chester is with the Maynards at Freudesheim as mother's help and nursery governess.
contributed by Christina Erskine, England __ working from a paperback edition