St. Clare's Academy for Girls

***St. Clare's Academy for Girls*** is a American-Indonesian dramedy series created by GR8 Productions in partnership with Shondaland, CVD Productions, Calamity Jane Productions, Netflix, MGM Television and BRON Creative, based from Enid Blyton's *St. Clare's* novel series. The series follows the heroines Patricia "Pat" and Isabel O'Sullivan from their first year at St. Clare's Academy of Girls, a girls boarding school in Northumberland, England. The series ran for nine seasons, following the novel series written by Enid Blyton and Pamela Cox. The series aired on NBC in the United States and GR8TV in Indonesia on Saturdays, before it was uploaded on GR8Thru and Netflix two hours after airing.

## Season rundown

### Season 1

Season 1 focuses on Patricia "Pat" and Isabel O'Sullivan adjusting their lives as they just finished their junior year at Redroofs School, but instead of continuing their senior year to similarly elite school Ringmere Senior Academy, their parents instead transferred them to St. Clare's Academy for Girls as they are afraid the twins might become spoilt and snobbish. At St. Clare's, they met their new classmates such as Janet Robins, Hilary Wentworth, and Doris Edward, sports captain Belinda Towers, school's Head Girl Winifred James, as well as their homeroom teacher Miss Roberts and headmistress Miss Theobald, who pegged their behaviour down a notch and two.

The series also highlighted the students playing pranks that are directed to Miss Kennedy, their new history teacher, who is a very timid and insecure though highly qualified. One of the pranks for Miss Kennedy is discovered by Miss Roberts, and she punishes the whole form as a result. The class stops playing tricks on Miss Kennedy when the twins overheard her talking to a friend about giving up her job, despite needing the money to help her sick mother, because she cannot control the class.

### Season 2

Season 2 opens with the newly sensible Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan depart for their second term at St Clare's first form, with their cousin Alison joining them. Alison's character is airheaded and ditzy, but also a decent and kind-hearted person.

New characters Lucy Oriell and Margery Fenworthy were introduced. Lucy is the archetypal school story girl — bright, kind and popular — although she is portrayed well, without the one-dimensional flatness this type of character can often have. Her father is an acclaimed painter and Lucy herself is a talented artist. On the contrary, Margery is sulky, sullen, rude, antisocial and the other girls suspect she is older than them, nearer to sixteen years old.

Events include a midnight tea party for second former Tessie, which is discovered by Mamzelle through the machinations of another second former, Erica. Erica causes trouble for the first and second formers throughout the year, and is finally trapped in a fire which results in a thrilling rescue by Margery, who becomes a heroine. Lucy's father is involved in an accident rendering him unable to paint, and therefore unable to pay St Clare's school fees, but she is helped by the twins and her new friend, Margery.

Also, in this season, their French teacher Mamzelle become unbearable, to which Janet said, "Even Lucy Oriell, whose French is perfect beyond words, was rebuked by Mamzelle." After Janet's prank of puts beetles into Mamzelle's spectacle case and then the girls pretend they can't see them, it turned out that Mamzelle took care of her sick sibling on the holidays. But instead of resting, she works even harder, much to the students and faculty's dismay.

### Season 3

The twins Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan looking forward to enjoying their first summer term at St. Clare's, but they had to go to quarantine after found out that they meet a girl who has mumps when they go to play tennis with a friend.

When they arrive back the following week, they are heartily welcomed by their friends. Five new girls have joined their form. There is an American girl called Sadie, who is obviously quite rich and elegant. The twins discover that their cousin Alison has already made friends with her. There is a wild-looking girl called Carlotta, who is half Spanish. There is a naughty but very likeable girl Bobby (Roberta), who quickly becomes friends with Janet. There is another girl called Prudence, who is quite pretty but has no sense of humour. The last new girl is Pam, who is very hard working but also very shy.

The girls soon discover that Miss Roberts is on the warpath. Being the first form head, she is determined that her girls should do well and be promoted in next form. The twins also get to know the new girls. Prudence turns out to be nasty, spiteful, and dishonest. She takes a strong dislike to Carlotta, and discovers that Carlotta once belonged to a circus. She reveals Carlotta's secret to the other girls, hoping it will make them despise her, but it only serves to make Carlotta even more popular. Prudence also manipulates the shy Pam under the false disguise of a friendship. As a result, Pam is initially disliked by all of the girls except Carlotta and Isabel, who take pity on her when they realise that she is afraid to tackle Prudence as she does not want to be on her own. Encouraged by the two older girls, Pam eventually stands up to Prudence and ends their forced friendship, becoming friends with Carlotta instead. Bobby initially doesn't seem to care for anything or anyone until Miss Theobald tells her that she is cheating her parents badly. After learning this, Bobby starts working hard, too, though she occasionally plays tricks.

The American girl, Sadie, is like Alison, always caring about her looks. She also hates sports except swimming and other outdoor activities. However, she is good tempered and laughs at being teased. The girls soon find out that Sadie is an heiress. Sadie's father died and left a will giving away all his money to his sisters, but Sadie's mother won it back through lawsuits. During the term, while Prudence is spying on Carlotta, Sadie is kidnapped, and Carlotta - who finds her tied up, gagged and blindfolded in the back seat of a motor car - goes after her, and stages a fake road accident, during which she manages to rescue her with the help of her circus' friends. The term ends happily for most, with Prudence leaving because everyone hates her for her part in Sadie's kidnap (she could have alerted Sadie to the fact that she was in danger when she and Pam met a strange man lurking around the school entrance but was too busy trying to get Carlotta into trouble to realise this, and ignored Pam's warning to report the man to Miss Theobald), Sadie herself bouncing back strongly from her kidnapping ordeal and preparing to go back to America.

However, two days before the last day of school, a school staff found Prudence killed herself by slicing her wrist and hanging in the storage for being unable to bear with her consequences. She left a testament letter, admitting her faults but she cannot fight against herself, believing that death is the only way to stop herself. The headmistress dismissed the term early as a result.

### Season 4

The second form includes two girls who have been kept back from third form and two new girls. The two old girls are Elsie Fanshawe and Anna Johnson. Both are disliked as Elsie is spiteful and Anna is very lazy; however, both are made head of their form, replacing Hilary Wentworth who was head in first form. The second form mistress, Miss Jenks, has doubts about this as Elsie and Anna do not like each other very much, but agrees to let both of them try.

The two new girls are Gladys Hilman and Mirabel Unwin. Gladys Hilman is miserable because her mother is ill in hospital. Gladys Hilman rarely speaks or joins in and this is the reason Gladys Hilman nicknamed "The Misery Girl". It takes Mirabel Unwin to find out what is wrong with her. Mirabel is determined to make the worst of things and ruin class for everyone. She was sent away from home because of her behaviour towards her younger brother and sister. Mirabel's attitude leads her into trouble when Carlotta slaps her in public for ruining a play rehearsal, but Mirabel learns her lesson and forgives Carlotta. Later she admits to Isabel that she is ashamed of her behaviour and wants to be friends with the girls instead. When Elsie attempts to convince the form to perform a series of punishments against Mirabel in retaliation for her attitude in class, Isabel sticks up for her and manages to convince the class that Elsie is not acting in their interest but is just acting out of spite. As a result of this, Mirabel and Isabel become friends. Mirabel initially declares she wants to leave at half term, but ends up staying when Gladys convinced her to stay, Pat and Isabel stand up for her and the girls decide to give her a chance.

Although at first they do not get on well, an unlikely friendship later develops between Gladys and Mirabel, as they help each other cope with their first time in boarding school. Mirabel turns out to be a talented musician and Gladys a gifted actor, and the class manage to use these talents to ease the two girls into the way of things at the school.

The term passes by eventfully, and Anna becomes a surprisingly popular head girl, throwing aside her laziness. When Elsie is stripped of her position, Anna takes to her new position of sole head girl with a new-found enthusiasm and discovers she actually enjoys the sense of responsibility she feels at helping others and setting a good example. When Miss Theobald refuses to let Mirabel send a telegram home asking for her violin, mistakenly thinking that Mirabel has only stopped misbehaving because she has got tired of it, she confides in Anna, who goes to see the Headmistress and explains to her that Mirabel is in fact ashamed of herself and wants to do better. As a result of Anna's directness, Mirabel is allowed to send the telegram and Anna is admired and respected by all of the other girls for performing such a kindly act.

A concert given by the girls proves a huge success, but Elsie is forbidden to take part as a result of her behaviour towards Anna when the decision was made to strip Elsie of her position as joint head girl. Anna and Carlotta both offer Elsie an olive branch, but Elsie has still not learned her lesson after being left out and sets out to ruin a birthday party given by Carlotta as revenge. However Hilary discovers Elsie's plan, and instead of holding the party the evening of Carlotta's birthday as planned, the girls hold a midnight feast the night before instead. Elsie gets into trouble as a result when her plan to expose the private party backfires.

There is also a new drama mistress this year, Miss Quentin. Alison chooses to worship her (she always finds someone each year). However, at the end of the term, Alison is badly let down by Miss Quentin when she finds out that the mistress laughs at her behind her back and chose Gladys over her for the principal role in the play. She is then very cold to Miss Quentin and snubs her.

At term's end, Anna is told she can now go up to the Third Form, who have heard about her success as head girl and want her to return to their year. Elsie is also granted passage into the Third Form after she apologises to Anna and Carlotta for trying to ruin the birthday party, but is told that she is on her last chance and that she must drop her malicious and spiteful attitude if she wants to stay there, and that one mistake will see her expelled from the school. The season ends with Gladys hopping in the van with Mirabel's family, as she is allowed to stay with them, which enabled her to visit her mother in the hospital more often.

### Season 5

The fifth season saw the girls in the third form. It introduces day girls Libby Francis and her cousin Fern Francis as well as Rachel Denman, whose parents are famous actor and actress Robert and Helen Denman. Fern is the antagonist of the season.

Rachel previously attending The Winter Academy of Theatrics, but she withdraws from the school after the headmaster told her outright that she couldn't act, and telling her that girls should not direct, writing a script, or even producing, ripping Rachel's written script in the process. During her time in St. Clare's, with the help of Alison, Pat and Isabel, she relit her passion in directing, scriptwriting and producing.

At the end of the season, Libby was allowed to stay at the St. Clare's as a regular student instead of day girl, with Rachel also staying as well.

### Season 6

The sixth season saw the girls once again in the third form, but Pat unable to attend due to her left arm was broken during the holidays. Amanda Wilkes and Kitty Flaherty were introduced as the new girls for the third form.

Isabel and the girls at the train was tasked by Miss Adams to befriend Amanda.

This is Rachel Denman's final appearance in St. Clare's as the previous headmaster of The Winter Academy was eventually ousted for a favouritism scandal and a new course in directing and producing was established by the new headmistress of The Winter Academy, prompting her to return after the term ends. This is also Kitty Flaherty's only season in appearance.

### Season 7

When Pat and Isabel arrive at school at the start of their fourth term, they are surprised to meet a new matron and her daughter, Eileen. Then, French teacher Mam'zelle introduces Claudine, her niece, who will be joining them for this term. Alison meets and befriends Angela Favorleigh, who is rich, beautiful and well dressed. Soon, Alison is completely under the spoilt, snobbish Angela's spell. The new Matron's daughter Eileen is a reserved girl who is later identified as a sneak. Another new girl, Pauline, is soon discovered to be a snobbish and conceited girl who continuously brags about her family's 'wealth'.

During the inevitable midnight feast the girls find themselves in trouble when Matron is spitefully locked for hours in a broom cupboard by Claudine while they were having the feast. She is furious to find that she is released by her daughter, and thinks that she was with the other girls, while actually she was speaking with her brother Eddie, who lost his job but doesn't dare to tell his mother. Eileen is in trouble.

Pauline suffers a worse fate than Eileen when her mother visits unexpectedly and is happened upon by Alison and Angela, who mistake the poor, worn-out woman for one of the cooks. Pauline, like Eileen, is exposed as working class. Angela is scornful to discover that all Pauline's boasts of wealth are lies, and that she is ashamed of her lower-class background.

The more compassionate Alison, however, takes pity on Pauline's mother, and to her credit, stands up to Angela's snobbish and domineering attitude, vowing not to fall under her thrall in the future. Alison also makes this action because of the awful behaviour of Angela's mother at half-term. Even she felt that though beautiful, Angela's mother was horrible and Alison was also secretly pleased when the brave and mischievous Claudine fell into the water from a balcony so that Angela's mother gets wet, even though Claudine hates the water.

Near the end of the series, Matron reveals that someone is stealing food, money and even stamps from her. It is known that Eileen stole the things in order to feed Eddie and apply for a new job. When Eddie does get employed, Eileen and Eddie go to Miss Theobald to confess about the stealing, for they heard that Pauline had been accused of this even though she had been taking money from her mother's bank account (In a short section also Claudine is suspected for stealing, for she suddenly has a lot of money and buys expensive birthday presents, but it turns out that she sold her lovely cushion cover that Mam'zelle showed to everyone at half term to Alison's mother.) Miss Theobald sends Eileen and Eddie into her other room next door, and calls for Matron. She tells her that she knows who stole from her, and asks Matron whether the girl should be expelled or not, since it was Matron who had been stolen from. The unkind Matron insists that the girl should be expelled, and is then lead to Eileen and Eddie. Matron cannot believe her eyes, and then sees the trap she fell into. She leaves St. Clare's at the end of the year with her children, but Eileen sends a last letter to Alison thanking her for inviting her to eat together at half-term.

### Season 9

The new season saw Pat and Isabel as the new Head Girls of St. Clare's Academy for Girls. It turned out at the farewell party that not only Fizz is actually Lady Phyllis Bentley of Delchester, but also that Angela is engaged to Fizz's brother, with her father threatened to cancel the engagement if she didn't passed the fifth form exam and didn't commit to Fizz's secrecy. The series ends with Hilary looking back at the St. Clare's building in tears, Pat and Isabel as well as the rest of the sixth form students hugging her for comfort.