Fifth Formers at St. Clare's

"Fifth formers at St. Clare's" is the sixth novel of the St. Clare's series written by Enid Blyton.

Plot summary

Miss Cornwallis is mistress of the fifth form. Hilary Wentworth is a calm and dignified head-girl. Being in the fifth form means quite a lot of changes - for example, the girls have got studies of their own now, instead of common rooms and dormitories, the first- and second-formers have got to work for them.

Two girls use their new power badly - Angela Favorleigh takes advantage of her prettiness and charm and turns the younger girls into willing slaves and so does Mirabel, who is games captain. Some room is made for the second-form - Antoinette, Claudine's little sister, has come to St. Clare's, too, and she proves to be as irrepressable as Claudine.

There are three new girls in the fifth form and all of them are unpopular - Anne-Marie, who fancies herself a poet, Felicity Ray, a musical genius, and Alma, a fat girl who suffers from what nowadays would be called an eating disorder. Felicity's parents are very ambitious and, in spite of Miss Theobald's warnings, push their daughter too hard - she is to take a very difficult musical exam and works herself too hard. She starts sleepwalking and the end of the doctor tells Miss Theobald that the girl is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Alison worships a new teacher, Miss Willcox - and once more, she has to realize that the mistress is not as wonderful as she believed. Miss Willcox dislikes Anne-Marie and tells her that she cannot write poetry. Anne-Marie wats to take revenge and traps Miss Willcox - she copies a poem written by Matthew Arnold and when Miss Willcox makes fun of her and the poem, Anne-Marie tells the mistress who wrote the poem.

Pat and Isabel are minor characters in this book, but at the end they are made head-girls because Hilary will leave St. Clare's and go to India to live with her parents.