The chalet school and ofsted?

[thebody]

Aibu to wonder what Ofsted would have made of the Chalet school.? Any fellow chaletians around?

Yeah, finally able to see this thread (MN playing up for me last night)
Am now frantically emailing everyone with e-copies. Never met anyone else in RL who read these, apart from (now I know) SDG

we were planning an interrailing round europe holiday for this summer, and DH couldn't work out why DD2 and I were more interested in the Austrian/Swiss sections than any others . Annoyingly it's had to be put off till next summer, so I'll have to amuse myself with re-reading it all from the beginning instead.

Only people I know in RL who read CS are me, DD1 and DD2. DD3 is 11 and thinks they're boring . She obviously has too many of DHs genes

I've sorted my books now and ordered the 2 new GGBP that I didn't have. Have 2 doubles that need to make it to eBay at some point.

Loving this thread!
I was a school story fan as a child but favourites were definitely CS. I still hunt in charity shops for copies but rarely come across any these days.

I read them all as a teenager and I still have the whole set. Might be one reason I had so many children (and why I got rather good at German and French).

Is there some reason why the link in discussions of the day leads to a biscuit rather than this thread? A plot by St Scholastika's maybe?

Just joining in to say that I loved the Chalet School and even, at the age of about 8, believed in God for about a month because in one book Joey prays to him to save someone (the Robin, perhaps?) and since I'd read a later book and knew whoever it was doesn't die, I was convinced of God's existence.

I have an old copy of Jo to the Rescue, with Jo in a green silky dressing gown throwing a frying pan full of bacon and eggs at an evil burglar come to steal Pheobe's cello (or 'cello as EBD would write it). She looks beautiful in a 1940's book cover way, and her two earphones of plaits are magnificent...

I was annoyed that the oh so fragile Robin never kicked the bucket despite all her near misses. Am I alone in suspecting a group case of Munchausen by Proxy going on and the Robin was in fact as hearty as an Alpine cow?

Jo to the Rescue is I think the one where Jo starts to get really, really annoying! It's also the introduction of mardy groomer Reg, who at that point is 13 to the triplets' 3...

I just don't understand why on earth I'd never heard of Chalet School before I joined Mn. I read avidly as a child, have all the Mallory Towers books still, but CS for some reason completely passed me by.

Weird. I'm desperate for a read.

squoosh in The Chalet School in Exile Robin seems pretty tough - and then a few years later she suddenly becomes super-fragile again as an adult and gets her to a nunnery. Do you think EBD just couldn't think of an adult character for her?

Maybe the Robin thought is better to flee to a nunnery than be pumped senseless by Dr Jack as was Joey's fate, that poor woman's womb was never empty.

Wasn't Joey fragile in the start too? Dr Jack had a type the Robin vould see that!

RalphGnu I'm amazed too that the Chalet School books bypassed you, especially as you loved school stories, she wrote about 50 of them. Our school library was full of them and my Dad used to root them out in secondhand book shops for me too.

I dreamt about wearing that (frankly vile sounding) orange uniform and stuffing myself with Kaffee und Kuchen.

No! It was brown with an orange tie!

How could I forget??

THe GGBP books often include essays by people even more obsessed than you lot and there was one that pointed out that a girl as sickly as Robin was supposed to be would almost certainly have died during the flight from Austria (in 'Exile'). But I think it's worth remembering that EBD, like most people of her era, was fairly medically ignorant. Some of the depictions of recovering from accidents are frankly bizarre - in a coma for five days and the first thing you do on waking is puke your ring up? You'd have no stomach contents...

After they went the Oberland the brown and flame actually got left behind and they went for Gentian blue with touches of crimson and silver I seem to recall

Joey's terribly insensitive about the obvious difficulties Simone and Andre have conceiving. Lots of 'at LAST Simone is catching up etc etc'.

SGB - I think the fact that TB was cured is referred to in a few of the books - lots of talk of pioneering treatment and illusions to moving in to treatment for 'growths' ie cancer. Rest assured Sir Jem and Jack's gravy train will roll on

The war stuff was supposed to be fairly accurate though wasn't it

I loved the Chalet School series - but I don't understand how a zombie thread ended up inn the talk round up....

"Maybe the Robin thought is better to flee to a nunnery than be pumped senseless by Dr Jack as was Joey's fate, that poor woman's womb was never empty."

oh dear god I nearly died laughing... :)

And at least Dr. Jack was a decent, burglar scaring kind of a guy...

unlike sulky Reg Entwhistle who Len had the misfortune to marry whilst barely out of uniform....

so glad that fellow Chaletian addicts are out there. I feel it is finally ok to Come Out :)

OK here goes (it has been a while). Purists will note that I have mixed my frameworks.
Standards of attainment at the Chalet School are sound overall with some strengths and many weaknesses. Provision for the the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages and Religious Education are outstanding. Pupils make inadequate progress in mathematics and science owing to unsatisfactory teaching. Teaching is good overall, but some teachers lack sufficient subject knowledge and systems for the assessment and monitoring of pupil progress are inadequate.
Provision for spiritual development is outstanding and the opportunities for developing awe and wonder are excellent overall, although insufficient care was taken to ensure pupils' safety and wellbeing on a recent visit to Oberammergau.
The leadership and management of the school are good with many strengths and some weaknesses. Senior staff know their pupils well, but the lack of consistent systems in the management of the school is inadequate.
Inspectors were impressed by many aspects of the school and will return to the Bernese Oberland as soon as possible to monitor progress.

Len was going to finish at uni before becoming Mrs Entwhistle

I did like that nice Dr Couvoiser though. He had something about him

Excellent Emily

Any views on the persistent employment of non-qualified teachers to teach subjects they were 'quite good at' whilst at the school themselves.....?

Coded in "lack sufficient subject knowledge".
BTW when Joey left Guernsey she was so upset she had to "cast" her babies. Have never seen this as a synonym for weaning before or since.

Zephyr. Who the fuck names their child Zephyr?

It's Zephyr Burthill who tries to have the chello pinched.

And poisons Rusus, the bitch.

But Joey lays out the burglars with a frying pan of bacon. She was very strong, for a girl...