A Problem for the Chalet School
Key Facts (Possible Spoilers) :
School Facts:
Miss Annersley and Miss Wilson are joint headmistresses:
Miss Annersley at the main school
Miss Wilson at St Mildred's, the finishing branch.
The School is at the Gornetz Platz, Switzerland, with an 'English' branch at Carnbach in South Wales.
Series Characters Whereabouts:
Jo Maynard is living next door to the school at Freudesheim
Betsy Lucy is head girl of the Chalet School
Mary-Lou Trelawney is in Upper V
Len Maynard is in Upper IV A
Con Maynard is in Upper IV A
Margot Maynard is in Upper IV B
Emerence Hope is in Upper IV A
Biddy O'Ryan is the school's history mistress
Joan turns up after her father has a win at the "pools" and threatens to tell everyone that Rosamund's family is working class if she doesn't get her an invitation to Freudesheim. Fortunately, Jo Maynard steps in and makes Rosamund understand that no one at the school would look down on her because of her family.
Joan has difficulty fitting in to the Chalet School because she has, as Mary-Lou puts it, "cheap ideas". She creates trouble during classes and is rude to both the prefects and teachers. It comes to a head when she is caught swearing at another girl and Mary-Lou worries about what would happen if the younger girls start imitating her.
Mary-Lou goes to Jack Maynard for help and he persuades her to take Joan under her wing to teach her about the Chalet School's way of thinking.
Joan is invited to Mary-Lou's home for the half term weekend while Rosamund goes on an expedition to Basle. But Joan runs away and is seen by Rosamund who had miss sightseeing due to toothache. With her is a prefect, Hilary Wilson, and between them they convince Joan to stay with them. Back at the school Joan confesses everything to Miss Annersley and promises better behaviour.
The second half of the term is better for her but it is not until the end that she confesses to Mary-Lou and Katherine Gordon that she deliberately eavesdropped on their conversation discussing her, which caused her to run away.
Other news:
Simone de Bersac has a second son and the school has an extra day at half term in his honour.
A very old girl, Maria Marani, goes to Joey as a mother's help and also teaches junior language at the school.
News comes that Gisela (the school's first head girl) and Gottfried Mensch are planning on moving up to the Gornetz Platz and that Gottfried is to join the San.
contributed by Joyce Wong, Hong Kong __ working from a paperback edition