Lawrie and Nicola's schooling before Kingscote

[smellingbottle.livejournal.com]

I was just reading the beginning of Falconer's Lure where Nicola, hearing about Patrick's reasons for not being at prep school, thinks about how she and Lawrie had been at day-school up until they went to Kingscote, a year earlier. How has anyone imagined this - Hamsptead, something like AF's own school?

Also, what would L and N have been like at this earlier school? They seem so utterly new to school matters, rivalries, work, games and relationships outside the family when they get to Kingscote. Are we to imagine them having very much regarded day school (or anywhere not Kingscote, where the rest of the family is doing so terribly well) as second best, and therefore not worth bothering much about? Or were they simply so frequently ill that they were never at school for more than five minutes consecutively? I have to say I've always had some difficulty swallowing the Delicate Twins thing, as they always seem to robustly well, especially Nicola...