Abstract
This article examines whether Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s Chalet School books—a series of girls’ school stories spanning the late 1920s to the early 1970s—can be regarded as historical sources for the study of physical education and dance in girls’ boarding schools during this period. An overview of her experience as teacher and headmistress, an examination of the training and role of PE teachers during this time, and observations on the role other staff played in games coaching and dance teaching confirms that this children’s literature is an accurate representation. The incorporation of contemporary details in her writing, through referencing current events for example, strengthens the case for acknowledging this. However it is concluded that the source becomes less accurate in the latter half of the series when Brent-Dyer lost contact with the education world and with young people.
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Notes
Originally the Chalet School stories were published in hardback by W & R Chambers Ltd. (Edinburgh) and numbered 58 in total. When the books were published in paperback by Armada/Collins some of the books were split in two (and thus re-numbered and re-titled) making a total of 62. Some of these editions were abridged or otherwise edited. In addition, some of the short stories from The Chalet Book for Girls, The Second Chalet Book for Girls and The Third Chalet Book for Girls were reprinted by Armada/Collins as complete books or as additions at the end of other Chalet books.
McClelland’s biography is the only substantial work on Brent-Dyer.
The Chalet School novels have remained popular long after the demise of the author, with dedicated Chalet School clubs and web-sites (see www.chaletschool.org.uk; www.newchaletschool.co.uk), a brisk trade in first editions of the novels and various authors writing additional stories in the style of Brent-Dyer: e.g. Caroline German’s Juliet of the Chalet School (2006) or Helen Barber’s The Chalet School and Robin (2003)—see Girls Gone By Publishers, www.ggbp.co.uk.
At first, given the smallness of the Chalet School, not all these subjects can be taught—but as the number of pupils increases so do the number of staff and the range of subjects available. From the outset all Chalet girls are timetabled sewing classes and are expected to complete their own mending. Later, cookery is also added to the curriculum, with Brent-Dyer often stressing the importance of such subjects in preparation for running a home.
See www.cadbury.co.uk for a full history of the Bournville Factory.
The inclusion of “location sports” such as skating, skiing and sledging when the school is based in Alpine areas, and boating and other water activities when the school is based close to water in Wales and in the Oberland, is another aspect which makes the Chalet School unique in the school story genre.
For example in the final Chalet book (Prefects of the Chalet School 1970/1994) the performance at “The Sale,” with its theme of the seasons, features the crowning of the May Queen and includes a team of sword dancers, several Morris teams and Maypole dancers drawn from the whole school.
Other mention of ballet is mostly confined to Felicity Maynard and her friend Lucy, and how “they are both going in for ballet dancing” (Brent-Dyer, 1963/1994, p. 43). Where they were taught or by whom remains a mystery. There is no mention of a dance studio at the school, although at the end of the series it is stated that ballet can be taken as “an extra” and charged for accordingly (Brent-Dyer, 1970/1994, p. 53).
As was normal at the time, and as Brent-Dyer herself had done, other staff of the Chalet School contribute to games coaching – as distinct from teaching (Campbell, 1929, p. 71) – Miss Dene, the School secretary, coaches hockey while later Miss Ferrars (geography and junior maths) contributes to coaching cricket and tennis.
By 1960 it was possible to study PE as a main subject at a general training college (two years only), or to study for three years at a PE “wing” college (attached to one of the general women’s colleges) where it was possible to study a second subject with PE, or else for three years at the specialist PE colleges (Fletcher, 1984).
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Clare Lidbury is Head of the Dance Department at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. Her research focuses on European Modern Dance, particularly the work and legacy of Kurt Jooss, Sigurd Leeder and Jane Winearls, and their collective debt to the work of Rudolf Laban. Her interest in Labanotation, as a tool for the preservation and reconstruction of dance works, has led to her assisting in the preservation process of the Kurt Jooss repertoire through work with dance companies in the USA and Europe. She edits the magazine Movement, Dance and Drama for The Laban Guild.
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Lidbury, C. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s Chalet School Series: Literature as an Historical Source. Child Lit Educ 44, 345–358 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-013-9199-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-013-9199-2