0 comment(s) so far. Please add yours!
How to Read “Inez of the Upper IV”
The story of Inez de Vries unfolds through a series of documents—some official, pulled from the prim and unforgiving files of Saint Clare’s School for Girls; others are more intimate, drawn from the journals, letters, and scribbled notes of the girls themselves. These pieces will be posted gradually, over the next two weeks, allowing the narrative to take shape not through a single telling, but through fragments. Some will appear typed and orderly; others will retain the texture of handwriting, rendered in a cursive-style font to honor the green-ink originals. Readers are invited to step into the role of archivist, assembling the story from these traces, and imagining the lives that fill the gaps between pages—the tensions, the alliances, the secrets too dangerous to write down. Not everything will be explained. But Inez is watching. And she remembers.
Use the comments to build the story together: ask questions, float theories, invent what’s missing. What do you. think lies between the lines? The archive is incomplete—but the story lives in the spaces between.
The True Motto of Saint Clare’s School:
What Every Girl Learns
Publicly, it is this:
Ad Astra — to the stars.
Embroidered in silver and gold upon the blazer’s crest, shining bright against the red.
Printed in gilt on the Speech Day programme.
Spoken with pride at the opening of each term.
It is what your father believes.
It is the promise tucked into your trunk beside the lavender sachets,
the phrase that makes your little sister sigh and your younger cousins lean in with envy.
It is the promise every girl carries onto her train from Paddington or Waverley.
all the way to the warm-yellow stone of the school walls—
soft from a distance, but cold and grey-veined when touched.
Beautiful, solid, and old.
But quietly—almost tenderly—another version is taught.
Not at once, and never aloud.
It is stitched inside the breast pocket of your blazer,
pale threads just over your heart.
Per Disciplinam et Lacrimas, Ad Astra.
Through discipline and tears, to the stars.
No one explains the words. Certainly not on your first day.
But in time, every girl understands.
It is not merely our school motto. It is our only map.
You are taught to kneel before you rise.
To listen and obey before you think to speak.
To serve—faithfully and quietly—before you lead.
And in the hush that follows judgment—
outside the head’s door,
beneath a prefect’s steady gaze—
you begin to glimpse the stars.
Some will wear the sash and badge with perfect grace.
Some will arrange flowers with quiet hands.
Some will write letters to send only to each other.
All will learn this:
The stars do not come after the tears.
They come through them.
And the mothers who once stood in these dormitories,
and the grandmothers who stood before them,
remember.
They know what it costs—
and why it is worth it.
— From the Unofficial Handbook for New Girls,
kept (and quietly annotated) by the Upper Sixth since 1904.
Your turn.
What do you see between the lines?
Use the comments to ask questions, imagine what’s missing, and connect the dots. Inez might be listening.
| Post Title | Date Posted |
| Teaser – “Inez of the Upper Fourth” – a Saint Clare Summer Saga | 21 July 2025 |
| Saint Clare School Justifications or A Few Explanations for the Inconsistencies That Are Absolutely Not My Fault) | 22 July 2025 |
| Waiting for Inez – It’s your own time you’re wasting… | 23 July 2025 |
| Start HERE: Inez’s Detention Essay | 24 July 2025 |
| Inez of the Upper IV – Cast of Characters | 25 July 2025 |
| The Real Motto of Saint Clare’s School for Girls | 27 July 2025 |
| The Staffroom Files Part 1: Inez of the Upper Fourth | 29 July 2025 |
| Notations from Matron’s Logbook: Inez of the Upper 4th | 30 July 2025 |
| Staff Meeting Transcript – Inez of the Upper IV | 2 August 2025 |
| Inez’s Diary, 19 June 1955 | 3 August 2025 |
| Clarissa’s Letters Home or The Jelly Baby Files | 11 August 2025 |
| The Elwood Files – Inez of the Upper IV | 17 August 2025 |
| The Lady and the Headmaster | 23 August 2025 |