Humorous and Moving Grand Finale to Jenny Colgan’s Boarding School Series

Studies at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan

Studies at the School by the Sea (Avon) written by Jenny Colgan was originally published in the United Kingdom as Studies. It is the fourth novel in a captivating series set in a Cornish boarding school. 

As befits a Scottish writer of cozy novels and romantic comedies, this best-selling and award-winning author, her husband and their three children reside in a real castle in Scotland somewhere North of Edinburgh. In 2013, she was honored with the Romantic Novel of the Year award for Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams and in 2018 received the award for Comedy Novel of the Year for The Summer Seaside Kitchen, both from the Romantic Novelist’s Association (RoNa). Lest one think she is known solely for what some dismissively refer to as “chick lit”, she also has written for television and has authored science fiction including several Doctor Who stories and a tie-in novel as well as children’s books. 

This laudable and prolific author has used the pseudonyms of J.T. Colgan and Jane Beaton. The latter name was used with two “Maggie, a Teacher in Turmoil” books that began the “School by the Sea” series.  Book 1 was originally called Class (2008) and Book 2 Rules (2010) which garnered low sales despite good reviews. Book 3 Lessons followed considerably later under her own name resulting in significantly improved sales and greater recognition.   Reprints followed for the American market and at long last, here in 2024, the fourth school novel is now available. 

Boarding Schools Serve as Inspiration

Jenny Colgan states in the introduction to each book that she was inspired by Enid Blyton’s six part Malory Towers series (1946-1951) about boarding school life as well as her St. Clare’s and Naughtiest Girl series. Writer Pamela Cox subsequently expanded the Malory Towers series in 2009 with six new novels.  

These boarding school-themed books were immensely popular throughout the United Kingdom, akin to the popularity of Nancy Drew in the USA. J.K. Rowling is widely credited with “the Hogwarts Effect”, a temporary renaissance in applications to these in-residence schools. It remains somewhat confusing to American readers that public schools in the United Kingdom are actually elite fee-charging private schools; prestigious educational institutions that provide a superior, classics-centric, tradition based secondary education that includes the study of ancient and modern languages.

The rich and powerful including royal families from England and around the world have traditionally sent their children to British public schools with institutions like Eton and Harrow topping the aspirational list. The schools are costly; inclusive fees are estimated at 50,000 pounds or more annually. Boarding schools are often located in grand manors on massive estates that resemble film or television sets for the Gilded Age.

 Despite the privileged upbringing of most enrollees, accommodations are typically shared, promoting camaraderie to enhance the ongoing training of students in essential social, diplomatic and networking skills. Meals are served in communal dining halls while physical fitness and team sports are encouraged along with a wide variety of extracurricular activities. 

Students wear uniforms to provide a sense of collegiate identity and also serve to equalize the appearance that would clearly otherwise distinguish wealthier youth from the limited number of scholarship students. State-funded schools available to all are called either grammar or comprehensive private schools providing tuition free educations. 

Lively, Endearing Ensemble Cast

At the fictional Downey House School, Jenny Colgan has assembled a lively, endearing ensemble of characters central to all four novels. The school buildings are impressive stone piles with large wooden doors, tall ceilings and unheated corridors. 

The main building looks like a castle with four majestic turrets rising above the roofline. Some of the girls imagine it resembles a prison to which they have been exiled. The names of the turrets: Plantagenet, Stuart, Tudor and York correspond with the residence towers to which girl is assigned when they arrive at age 13 or 14 for their first year of secondary schooling and no sorting hat is involved. 

The main student characters, Alice, Felicia (Fliss) and Simone are among the Plantagenet grouping. There are grand views out to sea beneath the rugged granite cliffside and expansive lawns and moors to hike. Cornwall, England is one of the largest as well as being the most remote county on the southwestern peninsula that juts into the Atlantic Ocean and is consequently subject to the force of the south-westerly winds. 

The county is bordered by the Celtic Sea to the north and the English Channel to the south. It’s sparsely populated with fewer than 600,000 residents. The two largest cities, Truro and Falmouth with populations under 25,000, are scarcely more than small towns to the majority urban-dwelling students.

Meet the Characters

Headteacher Veronica Deveral has been with Downey House for almost four decades. Slim, elegantly attired in classic cashmere and pearls, she is firm but approachable and fair-handed with teachers and students alike and impresses the parents favorably. 

Deputy Headteacher Miss June Starling is a strict traditionalist; judgmental with a constant expression of disapproval. She dislikes and mistrusts scholarship students and is unabashed in her distaste for the youthful new hire. Four years later, her opinion remains steadfastly unaltered.  

English teacher Margaret (Maggie) Adair hails from Glasgow, Scotland with a lingering Scottish burr some students mock and claim not to understand. Her previous teaching experience was at a rough-and-tumble inner city comprehensive school putting her at a disadvantage with posh Downey House. Her energy and stated belief that these disadvantaged children deserve a good education as much as those whose parents can amply pay swayed Miss Deveral, particularly when Maggie burst forth with, “school is the only order in their lives.”  

Her only boyfriend since age 17, her fiancé Stan, is an anti-intellectual who loves football, beer and Maggie in roughly that order and cannot understand why she would wish to teach over privileged children at a school 550+ miles away. It’s an opinion he shares with her equally outspoken family. Almost inevitably Maggie is drawn to David McDonald, the head of the English Department at the Downey Boys School over the hill. It’s a love triangle no one could have foreseen.

David McDonald deserves an A+ for his sterling British reserve, is given to quoting poetry, loves English literature, and is slender, handsome and encumbered by an on-again, off-again serious relationship with Miranda. She looks like a top model yet works in the competitive corporate London business world and is frustrated in her attempts to persuade David to give up teaching and pursue a career she considers acceptable, like a stockbroker.

Stephen Daedalus is David’s constant canine companion; a mongrel of indeterminate breed mixtures whose previously unknown tracking skills saved the life of a student. 

Additionally, there is a full complement of teachers and administrators who are given their due throughout the series. 

Meet the Starring Students

Simone Pribetich is central to the plots. By year 4, she is emerging from her chrysalis, displaying her tremendous sense of humor and intuitive ability as the goalie in field hockey in addition to her prodigious intellect. She is a scholarship student, a first-generation English girl who lives with her hard-working Armenian immigrant parents and annoying younger brother in a small urban flat. 

Her mother’s exuberance and huge quantities of food gifts as well as her parents’ outsized pride in her achievements have served as a constant embarrassment. Her studies and perfect grades are of primary importance yet she fears she will never measure up with her zaftig figure to her picture-perfect wealthy roommates whose grades matter less. 

Felicity “Fliss” Prosser is a blue-eyed blond elfin gamine. She resents that her tiny size makes her appear to be an elementary school student instead of a senior classman. Although her grades are acceptable she has created trouble for herself throughout her years at the school. Her older, heavier and jollier sister Harriet is a proctor who loves Downey House while Fliss can’t wait to escape. Her parents aren’t super rich but they do live on a large estate complete with a stable and their daughters are provided with limitless credit cards and the best of everything from clothing to technological gear.

Alice Trebizon-Wood is a dark-haired beauty with perfect hair, skin and figure and an upscale wardrobe. Her two older sisters had graduated from Downey House before she arrived and were already launched as successful debutantes. Alice’s father is an ultra-wealthy diplomat and her mother is still regarded as a great beauty. They are each thrice divorced and travel in different circles. 

The purpose of Alice’s expensive education is to prepare her for life as a socialite whose goal is to marry someone at least as wealthy as her father. She has traveled to every capital city, skied winters in Gstaad or St. Moritz and is sophisticated far beyond her young years. Secretly she wishes to have parents who truly care enough about her to be present in her life.

Explores Multiple Points of View

Studies at the School by the Sea is told from three points-of-view, the author’s, teacher Maggie and student Simone. It is heartfelt, at times poignant and often quite funny. Jenny Colgan does address issues that can universally affect teenage girls whether rich or poor including ambition, competition, stress about grades, friends, crushes, and worrying about whether they fit in or matter. 

This boarding school series has tackled more serious problems including bullying, theft, anorexia, self-esteem issues, and attempted suicide. The books are highly entertaining and insightful but should not be considered escapist fluff. They are suitable for young adult readers as well as adults and are highly recommended.