History Literature / ChaletSchool

* GenderBlenderName: Jack (Lambert), Dickie (Christy, short for Delicia), Ted (Grantley, short for Theodora), Phil (Craven, short for Phyllida), Len (Maynard, short for Helena), Tom (Gay, though it's [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname not short for Thomasina]]). All of them are, unsurprisingly, tomboys, except Len and Phil. Miss Wilson's nickname is 'Bill', though her first name is actually Helena.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters - Over the years, there are many characters added to the alumni, including the children of the main characters in the first books.
* LockedIntoStrangeness - happens to Miss Wilson in ''The Chalet School in Exile'' after she and a group of girls are forced to flee for their lives from the Nazis, via a secret passageway in a church. Her hair was chestnut originally, but by the time she gets out of the passageway, she's a WhiteHairedPrettyGirl.
* LongRunners - Sixty books over forty-odd years.
* MamaBear - While escaping the Nazis through Innsbruck, the teachers defend their students admirably.

* MeaningfulName - Frieda Mensch (later von Ahlen)'s first name means 'peace'. As EBD points out, it's an appropriate name for her as she tends to be the peacemaker of the Quartette.
* MeaningfulRename - two examples stand out in the series, courtesy of Joey. Firstly, Eustacia Benson becomes known as 'Stacie' in ''Eustacia'' after [[BreakTheHaughty getting injured on a mountain]] and subsequently [[TookALevelInKindness taking a level in kindness]]. Secondly, in ''Theodora'', Jo gives troubled teen Theodora Grantley the nickname of 'Ted' to represent her wiping the slate clean by starting a new life at the Chalet School and putting her DarkAndTroubledPast behind her.

* NunsNRosaries - several prominent characters, such as the Maynards (after Joey converts in order to marry Jack), Frieda, Marie and Miss Wilson, are Catholics, and Luigia di Ferrara, the Robin and [[spoiler: Margot]] all become nuns. [[spoiler:Jack's rosary is what enables Fiona to discover that he is alive in ''Highland Twins''.]] TruthInTelevision as the Tyrol was a very Catholic area at the time of writing. See RealLifeWritesThePlot too.

* PluckyGirl - again, there are loads of them, Joey being a notable example.

* DarkerAndEdgier - the WorldWarII stories are darker in tone than the other books, the most notable example being ''The Chalet School In Exile''. [[spoiler: Starts off with the school being forced to leave the Tirol due to the Anschluss, and losing German and Austrian pupils, who are recalled to their own countries. Joey, Robin, Cornelia, Miss Wilson and a load of others wind up having to escape from the Nazis after Joey gets into an argument with some men who are attacking an old Jewish man, during which Miss Wilson's hair turns white. Mlle Lepattre, one of the original heads of the school and Cornelia's guardian, dies after a long illness, while Maria Marani's father is killed in a concentration camp, and Frieda's husband has a narrow escape from one. A Nazi spy infiltrates the school, although luckily, she has a HeelFaceTurn. Finally, Maria and Cornelia are seriously injured after trying to save a man from being burned to death.]]

* DeadGuyJunior - many, many times. Joey's daughter Margot, for example, was named after her brother-in-law's dead sister.
* DeadpanSnarker - Miss Wilson has a reputation for being very snarky and sarcastic, and students are careful not to anger her as a result.
* DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery - looking at ''you'', Naomi Elton.
* DisappearedDad - [[MadScientist Ruey Richardson's father]] is a literal example, having gone on a pre-Neil Armstrong mission into space and never come back.
* DisproportionateRetribution - OK, so Betty Wynne-Davies had a bit of a grudge against Robin, Daisy and the [=McDonald=] twins, but was [[spoiler: potentially selling the isle of Erisay out to the Nazis]] really necessary?

* DumbBlonde - the Ozanne twins and Yseult Pertwee definitely qualify. Played with with Marie von Eschenau - she's the least academic of the Quartette and is more known for her looks than her academics, but she certainly isn't thick. And Daisy Venables, Stacie Benson and Frieda Mensch are all ''major'' aversions.

* InelegantBlubbering - played for laughs with Margaret Twiss, in ''A Leader in the Chalet School'':

* LethalChef - played for laughs in some of the cookery classes. In ''The Chalet School and the Lintons'', for instance, Cornelia Flower uses ''garlic'' cloves as flavouring for apple pies rather than normal cloves, and in ''Carola Storms the Chalet School'', Carola Johnston's class fry their jam doughnuts in cod liver oil.

* FunetikAksent - Flora, Fiona and Shiena all speak in one in ''Highland Twins'', to emphasise their FunnyForeigner status. This was edited out of the paperback version. Working-class characters with strong accents also tend to speak this way.
* GadgeteerGenius - Jack Lambert, who loves cars and wants to be an engineer / mechanic, a ''very'' unusual career for a woman at that time.
* HeelFaceTurn - [[spoiler: [[TheMole Gertrude Beck]], aka Gertrud Becker.]] Most characters who start off 'bad' will also go through one - see TookALevelInKindness below.

* HotBlooded - although a good few of the girls qualify - see ClingyJealousGirl and DisproportionateRetribution for Simone Lecoutier and Betty Wynne-Davies - Joey is the most prominent example and can be pretty temperamental, though she (for the most part) calms down as she gets older. Her daughter Margot also has some anger management issues - she refers to her temper as 'my demon', and it gets her into major trouble in ''Theodora at the Chalet School'', culminating in Len slapping her and her dad ''refusing to speak to her for two weeks''. After that, she learns her lesson and tries her damnedest to control it, although she has a major relapse in ''The Triplets of the Chalet School'' and nearly brains Betty Landon with a bookend.
* IllGirl - Joey Bettany, often. The Robin is one - EBD likes to describe her as 'delicate' - and Stacie Benson becomes one after a nasty accident on an excursion, although she gets better.

* {{Jerkass}} - even in the Chalet School, there are bullies, the worst being [[UpperClassTwit Thekla von Stift]], [[KickTheDog Betty Wynne-Davies]] and [[GadgeteerGenius Jack Lambert]]. The first two are the only girls to be expelled, although Jack does get better later on in the series.
* KickTheDog - Don't ''ever'' be mean to the Robin. [[spoiler: A sign that Betty Wynne-Davies was probably one of the nastiest characters in the Chalet School series is the fact that she was prepared to hurt the twins to get at Robin and Daisy.]]
* KilledOffForReal - [[spoiler:Mademoiselle Lepattre]] and [[spoiler:Herr Laubach]] both die after a long period of illness, while [[spoiler:Luigia di Ferrara]] and [[spoiler:Florian Marani, Maria and Gisela's dad,]] both die in concentration camps, and according to WordOfGod, [[spoiler:Thekla von Stift]] 'vanished' during the war. It's also implied in one of the Swiss books that [[spoiler:Miss Bubb]] is terminally ill.

* BunnyEarsLawyer - Mr Denny. He speaks in YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, has long hair and eccentric dress sense and waxes lyrical about Greek myth (hence his nickname of 'Plato'), but he's a fantastic teacher and a talented musician who clearly loves his subject and is popular among the students.
* ClingyJealousGirl - Simone Lecoutier starts off as one, even going so far as to cut her plaits off to get Joey's attention, and getting visibly upset whenever Joey makes friends with other people. Fortunately for Joey, Simone does grow out of it.

* CloudCuckooLander - Con Maynard. She has a tendency to daydream and let her imagination run wild, and Miss Annersley calls her on this in ''Two Sams at the Chalet School'' when Con's lack of supervision results in Samantha van der Byl injuring herself on an unauthorised ski run. Verity-Ann Carey becomes one in the later books.
* CoolBigSis - Dickie Christy is a literal example, helping raise her younger sister Cherry and becoming a well-liked figure during her time at the Chalet School. Likewise, there's Len Maynard, who acts as the leader of the other Maynard kids, being the most responsible triplet. And Joey acts as one to the Robin, who in turn becomes a CoolBigSis to Daisy Venables during the Armishire era. Bear in mind, this being the Chalet School, none of these girls are particularly jaded or cynical.
* CoolOldLady - Matron, more commonly known as 'Matey' (generally held to be Matron Lloyd), one of the longest-serving members of staff, and Rebecca Learoyd, the grandmother who Jacynth and Gay encounter in ''Gay from China at the Chalet School''.
* CoolTeacher - Kathie Ferrars, Biddy O'Ryan, and several others. As an aside, one notable aspect of the series is that mistresses are more humanised than in other girls' school fiction - they're more rounded and often very human characters with back stories, lives and screentime away from the pupils, rather than being mere wallpaper.

* MoralityPet - the Robin acts as one to Joey. Sometimes, Joey will sic her on 'difficult' girls such as Gwensi Howell (''The Chalet School at War'') or Zephyr Burthill (''Jo To The Rescue'').
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone - several times. For example, Deira in ''Head Girl'' chucks a stone at Grizel's head (mostly accidentally - mostly) and suffers violent remorse.
* TheNicknamer - Joey has a habit of bestowing nicknames on new girls, though sometimes there's a reason for it. See MeaningfulRename above.
* NouveauRiche - Joan Baker in ''Problem'', whose family are able to afford to send her to the school after her father wins the pools, and Diana Skelton in ''Bride Leads''. Both are seen as vulgar and classless by the other girls, though Joan does get better eventually.

** NunTooHoly - [[spoiler: Margot]] in ''The Chalet Girls Grow Up'', to the point where the order basically kick her out because her outspokenness and political activism make her a risk.
* {{Oireland}} - Irish characters tend to speak in a very stereotypical way, using phrases like 'tis yourself, acushla!' and 'to be sure'. Biddy O'Ryan is particularly bad for this - barely a mention of her goes by without EBD bringing up how Irish she is, and she speaks in a 'thick Kerry brogue' that's nigh-on incomprehensible at times. And yes, she is GenreSavvy about fairy tales and gets punished by Miss Wilson after she tells a story about a banshee that gives another girl nightmares.
* OneSteveLimit - averted. There are ten billion Margarets (with varying nicknames) floating round, not to mention three different Mateys (not including other matrons who don't last very long).
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname - the Robin's real name is Cecilia Marya Humphries, but she's generally referred to by her childhood nickname. There's also Polly Heriot (real name Hildegard), Jack Lambert (real name Jacynth) and Tom Gay (real name Lucinda Muriel, and given that Tom is a huge tomboy, it's unsurprising she hates her name).
* PapaWolf - do ''not'' harm any of Jem Russell's kids. As the Mystic M found out the hard way in ''The New Chalet School'', he ''will'' come after you and beat the shit out of you, even if you're a kid.
* ThePatriarch - Jack and Jem. Particularly Jem and his insistence on training the kids to instant obedience.
* ThePollyanna - Joey and Robin. Despite the countless horrible things that happen to them - war, being forced to flee from Nazis, illness, parental death - they both manage to remain cheerful and optimistic throughout.

* PromotionToParent - several examples, most notably Madge and her twin brother Dick, who are responsible for Joey after their parents die, and Gillian Linton, who takes care of her BrattyHalfPint sister Joyce while their mother is ill.
* PutOnABus - with so many characters, it's bound to happen. Some characters are prominent for a couple of books and then disappear. One of the more notable examples is the Robin, who is a major character in the Tirol / Armishire eras, but is almost never heard from after becoming a nun and moving to Canada. Madge and Jem's role in the series is also greatly reduced once they stay in England while the School moves to Switzerland, despite Madge being the founder of the School - probably because EBD could not see any more use for them once Jack became head of the Swiss Sanatorium and he and Joey effectively filled Madge and Jem's original role.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech - non-villainous example. Miss Annersley gives a lot of these to misbehaving or careless students, often resulting in them feeling mentally reduced to fragments.

* RichBitch - two particular examples spring to mind:

* RousingSpeech - Emmie Linders gives a particularly memorable one in ''Highland Twins'', after she and her family escape from the Nazis. Miss Annersley also gives a few over the course of the war books, reminding the girls to be brave.
* {{Ruritania}} - Belsornia, Princess Elisaveta's homeland.
* SadistTeacher - woe betide any pupil who gets on the wrong side of Miss Cochrane or Herr Laubach, the temperamental art master (who's surprisingly popular, despite having made several pupils cry and having thrown art things at Joey after she was messing around in one of his classes). Miss Cochrane does have reasons for being difficult, though - see BrokenBird above.
* SamaritanSyndrome - Joey and Mary Lou Trelawney have a mild case of it in the Swiss books, with their insistence on 'butting in' whenever a new girl has problems. Justified to an extent as characters such as Phoebe Wychcote genuinely need and appreciate their help.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight - a major part of Joey's character in the early books. She's more than happy to break rules in order to save people (or dogs, in ''Jo of the Chalet School'').
* SheIsAllGrownUp - the series follows the lives of LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters as they go through the school, some of them returning as teachers, and we get to see them maturing into adults. Some of whom become noticeably attractive.
* ShipperOnDeck - Joey and her friends act as this towards [[spoiler: Phoebe and Dr Peters]] in ''Jo to the Rescue'', when [[spoiler: the former is in hospital and the latter is treating her, and they both clearly like each other but aren't sure whether to say anything. They end up married.]]
* ShoutOut - Joey bears more than a few similarities to Jo March of LittleWomen fame, what with the dark hair, being a bit tomboyish and a wannabe writer, and not wanting to grow up. She even quotes Jo at one point. There's also a Margaret (Bettany, and several other characters), an Amy (Stevens) who starts off as a blonde-haired BrattyHalfPint, and later a Beth (Chester).
* SpoiledSweet - while Joey does have a tendency to baby the Robin even when she's older and less delicate, it doesn't have a bad effect on the Robin's personality at all - in fact, she grows into a kind, sensitive teenager with a strong sense of right and wrong, who acts as a CoolBigSis to Daisy Venables. Princess Elisaveta is another example; she might be a princess, but she's not stuck up at all and makes plenty of friends.
* SternTeacher - Madge tries to be this, and later teachers do well, especially Miss Wilson, Miss Annersley and most of the male teachers.

* BreakTheHaughty - the plot of ''Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School''. Eustacia / Stacie Benson starts off as an InsufferableGenius who alienates herself from the other girls pretty quickly with her arrogance and tale-bearing. Then she throws a hissy fit and runs away, has a nasty accident in the mountains, resulting in her being bedridden for a very long time, and becomes noticably nicer as a result.

* BrokenBird - Grizel Cochrane is a rare example in this series, particularly in the later books. Growing up with a repressive stepmother and father leaves her bitter and unhappy, causing trouble as a pupil - for instance, when she runs away after pranking the teachers, and nearly dies on a dangerous mountain - and often taking her anger out on her pupils when she becomes a teacher (she wants to teach PE, but her father insists on her training as a music teacher instead). She does find happiness eventually, after setting up a shop in New Zealand and meeting her future husband on a cruise, but it takes a long time.

* StiffUpperLip - Could almost be a trope codifier.
* SupremeChef - Anna, the Maynard family maid, and Karen, the school cook (who also has ChefOfIron tendencies). The school go nuts in ''A Feud in the Chalet School'' for Anna's greengage jam (but she's not giving the recipe to anyone), and the narrative waxes lyrical about Karen's 'heavenly' bread twists and cakes.
* TookALevelInBadass - Joey in her rescue of Princess Elisaveta in ''A Princess at the Chalet School'', as if her previous attempt to save Grizel from being stuck on the Tiernjoch in ''Jo of the Chalet School'' wasn't already a sign that she's pretty damn tough. And Miss Wilson, Joey (again), Robin, Cornelia Flower, Violet Allison and Maria Marani all take several levels in ''The Chalet School in Exile''. Miss Wilson leads a group of girls to safety through a hidden passageway (see BadassTeacher above) after Joey and Cornelia put them all at risk by yelling at a bunch of Nazis who are terrorising an old Jewish man, while Robin rushes to help him. Later on, Cornelia, Violet and Maria rescue a pilot from a burning plane, with Cornelia's eyesight being severely damaged and all three of them ending up in hospital.

* TookALevelInJerkass - Margot Maynard around the time of ''Theodora and the Chalet School''. She goes from temperamental and merely mischievous to blackmailing Ted, throwing a bookend at another girl's head and knocking her out, and bullying her charges. Presumably this is to make her eventual vocation as a nun even more dramatic.
* TookALevelInKindness - girls who start off as bitchy, sulky or standoffish will often come to learn the error of their ways and become nicer people after being introduced to the ways of the Chalet School, or getting a good ticking-off from one of the mistresses. And if that doesn't work, there's always a handy accident (see BreakTheHaughty above for what happens to Eustacia Benson).
* TotallyRadical - or whatever the '20s version is. If you are an American Chalet Girl, especially if your name is Cornelia Flower or Evvy Lannis, you will use ridiculous amounts of slang.

* TyrantTakesTheHelm - the plot of ''Gay from China at the Chalet School'' revolves around this trope. When Miss Bubb, the tyrant in question, takes over as temporary headmistress after Miss Wilson, Miss Annersley and others are injured in a car crash, her fixation on exam results and crackdowns on the girls' free time and privileges makes her very unpopular, to the point where Joey writes a letter begging Miss Wilson to come back. Things comes to a head when she forbids Gay Lambert - who has broken rules on more than one occasion - to see her older brother before he is stationed in Asia, which leads to Gay running away and culminates in Miss Bubb having to resign, to everyone's relief.
* WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons - Averted by Rosamund Lilley, a girl from a working-class background who wins a scholarship to the Chalet School. She's academic, but is looked down on by some of the other pupils because of her background.

* WorldWarII - Interrupts the girls' schooling when [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]] start sweeping across Europe. Also a major plot point in ''The Chalet School in Exile'', ''The Chalet School Goes to It'' (aka ''The Chalet School at War'') and ''The Highland Twins at the Chalet School''.

* AerithAndBob - on the one hand, there are girls with pretty conventional names, such as Gillian Culver, Beth Chester, Margaret Twiss, Mary Woodley and Amy Stevens. On the other, there's the likes of Verity-Ann Carey, Yseult Pertwee, Loveday Perowne, Viola Lucy, Josette Russell, Zephyr Burthill, Evadne Lannis, and many other girls with equally weird names.
* AlphaBitch - Betty Wynne-Davies becomes one by the time of ''Highland Twins at the Chalet School'', due to breaking away from former best friend Elizabeth Arnett and [[TookALevelInJerkass taking a level in bitchiness]] as a result.

** LovableAlphaBitch - one interpretation of Mary-Lou Trelawney. While she isn't a bully like Jack or Betty, she and her Gang do dominate their form, and being allowed in is considered an honour.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory - in ''The Chalet School in Exile'', one of the wartime books, the school relocates to Guernsey. As [[http://lampandbook.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/chalet-school-in-exile-2.html this article]] points out, the school would have been ''utterly screwed'' if it had relocated there, as it was occupied by the Nazis at the time.
* AttentionWhore - Joey in the later books, especially where babies are concerned. She seems to treat having babies as some kind of competition.
* BadassTeacher - Miss Wilson definitely counts as this in ''The Chalet School In Exile'' when she leads a group of girls to safety through a secret passageway, on the run from a group of Nazis.
* BewareTheNiceOnes- Frieda Mensch may look like a fairytale princess, and she may be gentle and quiet, but it's not a good idea to make her angry. The younger kids are in awe of her because she's reputed to have a very sharp tongue.
* BigFriendlyDog - Rufus, Joey's Saint Bernard, who she adopts as a puppy. The Maynard family get another one, Bruno, much later on after Rufus dies.

* TookALevelInBadass - Joey in her rescue of Princess Elisaveta in ''A Princess at the Chalet School'', as if her previous attempt to save Grizel from being stuck on the Tiernjoch in ''Jo of the Chalet School'' wasn't already a sign that she's pretty damn tough. And Miss Wilson, Joey (again), Robin, Cornelia Flower, Violet Allison and Maria Marani all take several levels in ''The Chalet School in Exile''. Miss Wilson leads a group of girls to safety through a hidden passageway (see BadassTeacher above) after Joey and Cornelia put them all at risk by yelling at a bunch of Nazis who are terrorising an old Jewish man, while Robin rushes to help him. Later on, Cornelia and Maria rescue a pilot from a burning plane, with Cornelia's eyesight being severely damaged and all three of them ending up in hospital.

* WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons - heavily averted by Rosamund Lilley, a girl from a working-class background who wins a scholarship to the Chalet School. She's academic, but is looked down on by some of the other pupils because of her background.

** LovableAlphaBitch - one interpretation of Mary-Lou Trelawney. She and the Gang pretty much dominate their form, and being allowed into the Gang is an honour (as Jo Scott finds out in ''A Chalet Girl from Kenya''), but she's a friendly {{Pollyanna}} as opposed to a bully like Betty or Jack.