I agree - squashing Val is definitely a factor, if not the clincher.
I had wondered how common it was to exclude non-CofE's from school plays etc in that era (were there any Catholics at Kingscote?) - when I was at junior school the tone was always you attend our school, you join in, and the only allowance is not telling you off if you don't eat pork/beef for religious reasons. I recall huge confusion once when we had to write our versions of the Christmas story and the teacher made special efforts to tell two girls it didn't matter if they didn't know much about it, just do their best - we assumed it was because one was very dim and were all offended on the other's behalf. I was in my 20s when it dawned on me they were both Jewish (one had the surname Levy, as in Peggy of Vb). So felt a bit aggrieved on Miranda's behalf.
no subject
I had wondered how common it was to exclude non-CofE's from school plays etc in that era (were there any Catholics at Kingscote?) - when I was at junior school the tone was always you attend our school, you join in, and the only allowance is not telling you off if you don't eat pork/beef for religious reasons. I recall huge confusion once when we had to write our versions of the Christmas story and the teacher made special efforts to tell two girls it didn't matter if they didn't know much about it, just do their best - we assumed it was because one was very dim and were all offended on the other's behalf. I was in my 20s when it dawned on me they were both Jewish (one had the surname Levy, as in Peggy of Vb). So felt a bit aggrieved on Miranda's behalf.