The Small Sixth Form

by Evelyn Smith

All her life Robin had wanted to be in the Sixth Form at Rothmere, but ... "Must Father be transferred this year? Won't they keep him on till next? Think of being a new girl in the Sixth!" After an eventful journey to their new home, Robin joins the Sixth at St. Quentin's. With too many girls and not enough desks in the regular form room, Robin and six other girls are exiled to the division room, and before long tensions between the Small Sixth and the Big Sixth escalate to outright war. Isobel, Magda, G.G. and Todger, along with painting and decorating, disappearing birds' eggs, a museum and a pet show, all play a part in helping Robin adjust to her new life in the Small Sixth Form.

201 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Born in Leamington Spa, in 1885, British children's author Constance Evelyn Smith was the daughter of Henry Bartlett Smith, high bailiff of Warwickshire County Court, and his wife, Eleanor Langford. She was educated at Leamington High School (now known as the Kingsley School), and at Royal Holloway College, where she graduated with first class honors in English, in 1907. She taught at Glasgow High School from 1909-1923, until ill health forced her into an early retirement. She turned to writing at this period, and edited plays and collections of poetry, in addition to publishing her girls' school stories. She died of pneumonia in 1928.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot that's charming about this 1920s school story: the crisp amused prose (and yes I do mean amused and not amusing, although it's often that as well), the interesting literary references these erudite 6th Formers make (including a reference to a book I love, Edmund Gosse's Father and Son), the rivalry between two factions of the sixth that has these almost grown-up girls brawling in a way that's reminiscent of St. Trinian's. There's more, but I had to end the sentence somewhere. There are some things that are less pleasing, which my friend Abigail pointed out in her excellent review. The tendency of Gertrude, the brawny games captain, to exclaim, "white man!" affectionately as she pounds the back of the unfortunate object of her approval too heartily was meant to be over-the-top, but it's mightily disconcerting to 21st century readers. As is the pen-wiper in the form of what might have been called a golliwog at the time the book was written, which one of the teachers coos at in baby talk. Smith meant that scene to be appalling, and the passage of time has certainly helped her along with that. With those caveats in mind, this is still a book that has much to reward adult readers of school stories, either those who read with an eye to the cultural history, or those who simply appreciate good story telling and amusing prose.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having looked forward to being in the Sixth Form all her life, Robin Sinclair was dismayed to learn that her family would be moving, and that she would not be spending her final school-years at good old Rothmere. As if being the new girl at St. Quentin's weren't bad enough, Robin soon finds herself part of the "Small Sixth" - a group of girls assigned to an inferior room, because the regular Sixth Form room was too crowded. But matters weren't altogether bleak: the S.S. (Small Sixth) soon formed their own little society, and the competition between themselves and the "downstairs" Sixth, provided many opportunities to make friends (and enemies).

An engaging, well-written story, The Small Sixth Form reads quickly, and has an appealing cast of characters, from the elegant Isobel Wingfield, to the sporty Gertrude "G.G." Glossop. The rivalry between the two sixth forms makes for entertaining reading, as does the growing friendship between Robin and Magda Morrison, a girl whose leadership potential is at first obscured by her shabby appearance. Rather atypically, the head-girl is not an object of adoration here, as it quickly becomes clear that Magda is the better girl.

I enjoyed this school-story from Evelyn Smith, although the references to the "S.S." were rather off-putting (this was published in the 1920s, long before the advent of WWII), as were the numerous times that G.G. compliments someone by telling them they are a "white man." Also unfortunate is the discussion between Robin and Miss Jobberns, in which reference is made to a wooly-haired "n*gger's" head. Of course, such outdated social content isn't unheard of in a book of this period, but they did seem to crop up fairly often in The Small Sixth Form, which would otherwise have been an unalloyed pleasure to read.