Even when it's warm or hot in summer, I don't think we ever hear of the CS girls sleeping outside at night! As opposed to lessons/resting outside during the day, which Miss Bubb hates. But, especially in Austria/Switzerland where summers probably tend to be more reliably warm than in Britain, could you imagine them doing it at night? In at least two of the three books I've got about the history of a specific girls' boarding school, it is mentioned that they once used to do just that in hot summers (in southern England), before security was such a big concern. On the roof of a boarding house, or the grass. The girls would beg to do it. In one of the books, I also read about something called "long rest" outdoors in the day (on Sundays I think), seems rather CS-like. Quite often when reading these books, I nod and think something explains whatever thing in the CS puzzled me.
We certainly did not sleep outside at boarding school, in Scotland summer nights would probably often have been too cold anyway. I believe all or nearly all schools are nowadays closely monitored by CCTV throughout, have several other security measures. Think my primary school (in suburban London) has an intercom at the gate, sure it didn't when I was there. Being so remote at boarding school, there was generally little need for any security at all.
Not sure the front door of the main building was even locked at night, think most boys' boarding house doors including mine, were left open. Quite possibly the girls were locked in, but they could probably easily have got out of a downstairs window, and unauthorised night wandering was pretty common for girls and boys IIRC. The staff maybe often tolerated it within reason. After I left, they apparently tightened up a lot. Even on their very last night, the upper sixth were kept firmly indoors, unlike with my year. Back in the 80s, we once drove up to my mothers' old boarding school, which is near a city in northern England, in the holidays, parked, walked around, and took a photo or two. Not sure you could do that now without being stopped.
If the CS had survived to the present day, it would (sadly) presumably have become far more security-conscious, both in Switzerland and/or Wales. I'm sure someone wrote a drabble once that mentioned the Swiss school regrettably being far less open than it used to be. As for them sleeping outside at night, I don't know. Would Matey have allowed it? She doesn't generally seem like the type to give in to begging at all. This is stuffing too much into one thread really, but presumably their summer bedding was a lot thinner than in winter. And by the way (unrelated), isn't there something about girls not being supposed to read in bed whilst lying sideways? What on earth was the issue with that?
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