AIBU To Think That The Chalet School Matron Would Be In Prison Nowadays

[TheShellBeach]

..........................for giving unprescribed sedatives to the girls so frequently.

(lighthearted) (in case a million people tell me that IABU)

The Chalet School Matron was forever doling out sedatives to the girls, without even asking Jack Maynard to prescribe them first.
Shocking stuff. Nowadays, she would be jailed and struck off the NMC Register.

AIBU that for the duration of the invasion of Ukraine I’ve been constantly reminded of the unbearable Len at paper games saying ‘goodness, Con, did you forget the Dneiper starts with a D?’.

It's easy to join and also to write your own fanfic.

I am a member although I never read anything which the members have written.

I'm loving this thread! I remember picking up a few Chalet School books at a school fair when I was about 12 and reading them with a certain amount of bafflement! I distinctly recall feeling very depressed at the clear moral universe in which the posh, frail, thin and beautiful girls were the best and the 'big', stout, sturdy WC girls (like yours truly) were clearly not quite up to scratch!

There's one book I distinctly remember, hoping more knowledgeable fans here can help me with it. There was a walk-on character, she'd been in a fire which had left her limbs 'twisted' (not really specified) so that she had to walk with sticks. And the narrative was clear that her mind was also 'twisted' (again, not specified) and this also made her a morally bad and bitter person (lovely ableism there).

Anyway, I can't remember what happens exactly except that she had an accident because she went out in the snow using the wrong sticks. And Mary-Lou saved her from eternal bitterness and helped her to become a better person.

Can anyone help me with the character name and book name please?

Well, I knew about the Dropbox. I did not know about the Sally Denny Library. I may have to join. (And I was going to be so productive while doing night feeds this time round). Still, at least my child isn't teething at 8 weeks like a small Maynard.

@potniatheron the character’s name is Naomi. I forget the surname. I think she appears in Trials for the Chalet School.

Mind you, she's also not borne off by devoted servants every five minutes so I can go and annoy a load of six formers either.

This thread is a thing of absolute joy 😂

Naomi Elton, and she's the one who ends up in a car crash after one of the interminable school plays (Puss in Boots)

Luckily, Joey and Jack are in the car behind hers, and give her immediate first aid.
Joey (of course) stays by her bedside for days because Naomi has no near relatives. Joey always seems to sit by girls' bedsides while they're dangerously ill.

It's a wonder she ever gets any of her books written.

“Unbearable Len” 😁 she certainly was! Bossy goody two shoes!

EBD was also always describing incidents where girls spilled large quantities of ink - on themselves, on the floor, on the walls, on their desks.............
They they always had to go to Matron to get a clean dress, and were told off roundly for spilling the ink in the first place.

You wouldn't think that so much ink could be spilled by so many girls in so many books.

Didn't Cornelia Flower blow up the Chemistry lab once?

And I want to know why there was never a plane crash in any of the books.
Bearing in mind the undeniable fact that every other form of transport crashes when either Joey or some of the mistresses of girls travels, it seem odd that there are no plane crashes.

May that's because EBD knew that most plane crashes were fatal.
Mind you, so were a lot of train crashes - and there are still quite a lot of them.

You wouldn't think that so much ink could be spilled by so many girls in so many books
I teach in a secondary school. It's entirely plausible. Not a day goes by without someone's pen "exploding"

I'd forgotten about Corney Flower!

There’s a plane crash in Exile.

A German plane crashes on the beach, and Cornelia and Maria Mariani heroically rescue the German pilots.

That’s a beach in Guernsey BTW.

OMG I'd completely forgotten about that. You're right.

Wasn't it claimed by the girls themselves that it was a good job they'd been Guides, or something like that?

This was liquid ink, for fountain pens. They were always spilling it, especially out of gallon tins of the stuff.

I use fountain pens. I often look like Lady Macbeth on days when I've refilled.

I always think it's odd that people who have sprained ankles are kept in bed for a fortnight.
Also, anyone who breaks a leg takes a whole term off.
Nobody seems to be able to get about on crutches after an injury.
Quite often they spend months in hospital.

Apart from poor Bill, who is badly hurt in an actual serious accident and gets recalled by Joey despite still being pretty unwell because for some reason the CS hired Evil Miss Bubb Who Takes Exam Results More Seriously Than Milk and Fresh Air and didn’t appear to have told her what being a temporary school head normally involves (ie, not trying to reinvent it).

I actually have considerable sympathy for Miss Bubb despite her ‘metallic’ voice (always in the CS a real sign of a wrong’un, where good heads have cello-like tones and eyes that have never yet needed glasses). She probably blotted her copybook with Matey by suggesting that hauling girls out of maths lessons to retidy their knicker drawer wasn’t the best use of anyones time.

Ah yes.
Bill is hurt in a bad accident which keeps her in hospital for quite a while, but because Joey can't cope with Miss Bubb, Bill has to come back to the CS and take over the reins.
I also felt a lot of sympathy with Miss Bubb. I would have cancelled Guides, too.

Didn't Miss Bubb try to cancel all the school matches and sport, too?

I've just read that part from 'Gay' where Joey is shouting at Bill in a letter to get out of her bed and come back to save them from The Evil Bubb. She's very rude, telling her she should be over the shock by now.

'Aren't you on your feet again? Jem says you ought to be. The old idea of keeping people lying down till the break was completely mended is quite exploded now'.

Why the hell did they not just make an existing staff member head? There must have been one that could manage pro tem who ‘understood the school’. Then they could have just found a teacher rather trying to get a Head at short notice.

I think so. Actually, I loathe any type of sport other than going running by myself, so I kind of love Miss Bubb (who gets horribly punished by later plots for daring to suggest the CS might want to focus on academic work the odd time.).

Mind you, I also always have a sneaking sympathy with whichever Bad Matron from the Tiernsee days (Matron Besley?) locked Robin in a room somewhere, I forget why. Probably for singing ‘The Red Sarafan’ all the time or being an Engelkind. Personally I’d probably have smothered her with my matron ‘angels’ wings’ cap.

And I much prefer Kathy Ferrars before she drank the Kool Aid, when she’s new enough to find Mary-Lou’s chumminess rude.😀