November 7th, 2018
A girl joins a new school and finds it an extreme learning experience
By Angela Fox
Prologue
It is funny how sometimes, in the early morning, you wake up remembering a very wonderful dream and wish it could go on. A dream so vivid and colourful that every detail is clear, though as you blink your eyes and become aware of your surroundings and come to understand that you have only been dreaming, those very details start to fade. And as it fades there is a tinge of sadness that the wonderful things you were experiencing are disappearing and you feel an emptiness in their passing.
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October 22nd, 2018
Two girls have to be punished, and a discussion ensues
By Jane Fairweather
Miss Stephens demurely poured out tea from her best china teapot for this interesting young man from Cambridge, who had come seeking information for his PhD about a former member of her staff in the days when she had been a headmistress and a person of importance.
Pete Williams picked up his cup of tea in its best china cup and said to Miss Stephens in her pleasant little flat in Torquay: “I think I told you in my letter that I want anything you can fill in about Alice Blakely, especially her time in the War. She was a teacher in your school wasn’t she?”
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September 18th, 2018
A girl has cause to look back at her schooldays
By Julie Baker
I was born in March 1956, in Northampton General Hospital. My parents named me Sarah and during my early years I developed into a very confident and sociable young girl. I was well aware that I was blessed with good looks which included long straw coloured hair, an attractive face and a long willowy body. My parents were both pharmacists and I was academically gifted with a slant towards the sciences.
I was happy at my day school in Northampton but when I was thirteen they decided to send me away to an all girls boarding school, St Joan’s, in Leicestershire. I was desperate to go as I loved most sports and saw this as an opportunity to make new friends. I was not disappointed. I loved my new school life and relished the feeling of independence that came from living away from home.
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September 2nd, 2018
Extenuating circumstances mean a special punishment.
By Jane Fairweather
“Oh, not again!” Miss Carson snapped. “Why does Clarice Edmonds need all these advanced music lessons? It is not as if there are that many job openings for female cellists in the year of our lord, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Five.”
“Headmistress,” Jo Bell replied. “It is obvious to me every time I hear her play that Clarice has very real talent, and her father seems very willing to put her through the Royal College of Music when we have finished with her here. I think we should be doing everything we can to support her.”
“On the contrary, it is a total waste of money!” Miss Carson snarled. “Clarice Edmonds is a pretty young flibbertigibbet, who will rapidly end up flat on her back with some penniless husband, producing rather too many babies. I have seen it all before. And is Thursday evening through to Sunday evening really necessary? It seems a very long time for a few music lessons. I thought these lamentable visits to her teacher usually went from Friday evening till Saturday evening and she stayed with her Aunt in town on Friday so as to be fresh for the lesson on Saturday.”
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August 28th, 2018
Witnessing the Head Girl’s Punishment provides the incentive for a life change
by Harry James
Jane Peters had been more or less obliged by the Headmistress to witness Head Girl Eleanor Moore’s severe six stroke caning. After all, the caning was the result of Eleanor having sworn at Miss Peters in a tutorial.
Jane had always been impressed by Eleanor Moore, a highly able and talented girl, whose abilities were almost certain to take her much further in life than Jane’s own modest achievements. In fact, Jane almost always admired the most able senior girls and wished that she herself could manage to be more like them in the way they seemed to take hold of life and extract the maximum from it. Jane’s own low profile and, very frankly, she admitted to herself, dull demeanour and approach to life compared very poorly to the characters of the energetic girls she taught.
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August 12th, 2018
The Head Girl’s second punishment
by Harry James
Head Girl Eleanor Moore was laying on her bed in her study; she was laying on her side and wearing only a T-shirt. It was just past 6:20pm on a Wednesday evening. Just over an hour ago Eleanor received 6 strokes of the senior cane from Headmistress, Dr Amberley, for gross rudeness to her English Mistress and Tutor, Jane Peters. The punishment had been on her bare bottom, which did not happen very often.
On Miss Amberley’s instructions, Eleanor visited the school nurse and was given arnica cream to put on her bottom. Eleanor had to be very, very gentle with herself to apply it to her sore and stinging behind.
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August 7th, 2018
A school secretary is caught out.
By Sally Cavendish
“Mrs Wilson? It’s Michele. I’m afraid…” The secretary made a theatrical croaking sound to emphasise the seriousness of her condition. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to come to work today. I seem to be coming down with something.”
“You poor thing.” The words sounded cold, robotic, even a touch sarcastic. If Mrs Wilson was feeling sorry for her bed-ridden secretary, she had an odd way of showing it.
“It could be the flu, or it might just be a bad cough. I’m seeing my GP this afternoon.”
“Quite so.”
“And I’ll bring in a sick note tomorrow, of course.”
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August 6th, 2018
The Head Girl’s temper tantrum means serious consequences
by Harry James
Eleanor Moore was standing shocked at her own outburst. Eleanor is just 18 years old; she is Head Girl at the prestigious Lady Anne Hart Academy for Young Ladies in deepest Wiltshire. She was appointed Head Girl when she joined the Upper 6th at the beginning of term in September.
The Head Girl appointment had been a bit of a risk for the Headmistress, Miss Winifred Amberley. Eleanor was the outstanding candidate. She had an impressive academic record at the school, she was Senior Hockey Captain, a fine long distance runner and a very accomplished pianist as well. Understandably, she was both liked and respected by the Upper and Lower schools and by the staff in general.
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July 31st, 2018
Not getting up in time causes a problem
By Jane Fairweather
“Violet, what are you doing? You’ve barely time to catch the bus, let alone have breakfast! Just take a piece of toast with you.”
“You should have got me up, Mother, and not waited for me to come down.”
Violet Evans did not like to admit she had in fact been finishing her essay on the Outbreak of the English Civil War for the formidable Miss Taylor and had only just achieved it.
“Really, Violet, you ought to be capable of getting yourself up now you are a Grammar School Sixth Former, and Upper Sixth at that. Now get off with you. Or you will be late and having to explain yourself to Miss Chapple! And if you get the cane for it you will be spanked; your father and I have always said that if you misbehave at school you will be punished at home for it.”
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July 31st, 2018
A normally well behaved girl finds herself in trouble
By Gillian Howard
I am Julie Small but, unlike my name, I am 5’8″ tall, slim, athletic build, black hair, green eyes and 32A size 8. My two best friends are both of similar build to me and they are Samantha Gill, blonde long hair with blue eyes, and Amanda Jones, auburn hair with brown eyes. We have been friends since we first started school and all passed our 11+ and go to the local mixed grammar school and are in the upper sixth. We are considered to be swots and goody goodies by our classmates as we are some of those that have never been in any kind of trouble at school, but some of that is because we have been very lucky at times. The most stupid rule we had was that we had to wear full uniform at all times, including our green berets, whenever we were outside of school.
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