Every year as it gets closer to Christmas, each class at Half Hitch school decorates their classrooms as well and as imaginatively as they can - with as little help from their teachers as possible. Then, the whole school is allowed to walk into all the classrooms and see what each of them looks like.
The idea is that each class shows off what they’ve been learning that year. So if a Year 6 class had been learning about bright colorful chemicals, maybe their decorations would be a big science experiment. Or if a Year 4 class has been learning about forests, maybe their decorations would be big snowy trees?
Well, Kaolin and her best friend Olive were in Mrs Kipper’s class in Year One. And this year, they’d been doing lots of art, and lots of cutting things out and making models and even, one week, making a model of a volcano surrounded by dinosaurs out of clay - but this made Kaolin concerned. How were they going to do better than Year 6, who had probably planned a huge fireball made of their clever science stuff, or even built some sort of Christmas robot that spun around and sung carols.
“It’s not a competition, Kaolin,” laughed her brother Kit that evening as they ate dinner with Mummy and Daddy. “It’s just a way of showing off what you’ve learned and making your classroom look like Christmas. Don’t worry so much about it.”
“That’s alright for you to say, Kit,” said Kaolin, “You’re in Year 4. What have you got planned? A big Go-Kart track that races ‘round the classroom and gives everyone a present probably?”
Kit and Kaolin’s mummy and and daddy looked at each other. Kaolin could get quite competitive.
The next day, Kaolin spoke to Olive at morning break. “But I think it’s important that our class is the best,” she said. She knew Olive would understand - because they were both proud of their classroom. “I agree,” said Mateo, who had been standing nearby and was also in Mrs Kipper’s class. “But all we’ve really done so far,” continued Mateo, “is cut out loads of loops of paper to make paper chains, and stick pieces of wood into a clay pole to make a tree.”
“I know!” nodded Kaolin enthusiastically, and she and Olive moved over to join Mateo in a secret conversation. “That’s what I’m worried about. If Year Six come down and look at that, they’ll think Year One are silly and we’re NOT.”
Listening to their conversation from the other side of the playground, with ears far more powerful than a human’s, was Harriet the school Labrador. Harriet was like a member of staff, and helped the teachers, and could go to sleep in any classroom she wanted, but had taken to spending most of her time in Mrs Kipper’s class. Everyone in the class was sure it was because that was Harriet’s favourite class, and maybe it was.
Well that lunchtime, as everyone in every class stood up from from their tables and chairs and prepared to go off to have something to eat in the dining room, Harriet nuzzled Kaolin’s ankles and then walked towards the door. Mateo knew what she meant because Harriet had done this to him before. “She wants us to follow her,” he said.
Kaolin, Olive and Mateo followed Harriet along the corridor away from the dining room, down a flight of stairs (which in Half Hitch meant you were going up a floor because that’s just how the stairs worked) and then along another corridor, then down another flight of stairs and then down a small and twisty flight of stairs until they were in the highest part of the school roof. Mateo had been here before with Harriet. “It’s old Mr Harrydog’s office,” he said.
They collected the key from under the mat and unlocked the door. Inside, the office was small and cosy, but very dusty and only really contained a desk, and a chair, and a fireplace and lots and lots of old bookshelves and filing cabinets. Harriet padded over to one of the rustiest looking filing cabinets and stood on her hind legs, pawing at the second drawer up.
The three friends opened it. Inside was just a pile of papers. But lifting them out, as Harriet wagged her tail very fast which meant that they must be getting close, they saw an old box, about the size of a shoebox but black and made of metal. They took it out carefully and saw that on the top was written “Miss Elphinstone’s Christmas Decorations.”
Miss Elphinstone was the third ever head teacher of Half Hitch, many hundreds of years ago.
They laid the box on the floor and opened it. Inside, were about ten different sized baubles to hang on a Christmas tree. But they weren’t very colorful. In fact, they were mostly brown and very dark green. They were even a bit… dull.
“Oh well,” said Kaolin, closing the box and picking it up. “At least they’re better than nothing. Thanks Harriet.”
The next day, everyone walked around the whole school inspecting the different classrooms. Year 6 HAD done a science experiment. Sparklers across the whole ceiling produced a constant rain of glowing lights that looked like snow and disappeared when they touched the ground and stopped to form a path wherever you chose to walk - so it would always be snowing all around you, but not in the direction you were headed. It was magic.
And Year 4 had not only created a forest, they’d used their computers to create holograms of a snowy forest that seemed to never end. And you stood on a special platform in the centre of the classroom and could run as fast as you liked through the trees and not only did you never reach the walls of the room, the forest kept rushing past you as you discovered clearings, and an icy river and even Santa’s workshop. It was amazing.
But then, in Mrs Kipper’s class, and Mr Bloom’s Year One class next door, there was just paper chains, and some Christmas drawings on the wall, and a Christmas tree made of sticks with Miss Elphinstone’s boring old decorations on it. All the pupils from all the other years and classes looked in, nodded politely, but then just moved on.
“Our was rubbish,” said Kaolin to Kit that night at dinner. “You had a hologram forest, what did we have? Some drawings!”
“I liked your tree,” said Kit, helpfully.
But that night, as Kaolin, Olive and Mateo were fast asleep, in the dark of Mrs Kipper’s classroom, something strange began to happen. Miss Elphinstone’s decorations on the Christmas Tree began to glow very brightly, and then sparkles and beams of light began to shoot out from them and cover the walls with glorious colours. Then, the strange light seemed to burst right through the walls of the classroom and bend and wiggle down each and every corridor.
The next morning as Kaolin and Olive (who always met outside one of their houses and walked to school together) arrived at Half Hitch, they noticed a large crowd outside the gates. As they got closer and pushed their way through, they saw that the whole playground had been turned into an ice rink, complete with big speakers playing Christmas music, and everyone was taking it in turns to skate around. What was all this?
Then, they entered the school building and found the corridors were not only covered in snow, but it was still snowing, with special sledges that you had to climb on or push depending on whether you wanted to go upstairs or downstairs. And when they got to their classroom, they saw a crowd outside of that, too. It had been transformed into a grotto, with a lovely open fire, and lots of food on all the tables which you could just help yourself to, and - wait, really? - Mrs Perrinpeas the headmistress sat in a big chair dressed as Santa Claus laughing happily and giving out presents.
Then, there was a bright tunnel through one of the walls into Mr Bloom’s classroom - a tunnel that looked as if it was made from the sparks from a thousand fireworks - and when you ran through it - as Kaolin and Olive now did - you saw that the room was five times the size it normally was, with a huge hill of snow at one end that all the older pupils were tobogganing down.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of the school bell ringing high on the roof and they dashed out, down the corridor, and into the icy playground. The skaters on the new ice rink had stopped too - and as Kaolin and Olive found Mateo (who was just as confused and amazed as they were) - they looked up towards the roof of the school as fireworks began exploding off of it.
And as they watched, they saw that the fireworks were beginning to spell out huge, red and white words in the dark of the morning sky.
“Merry… Christ…mas… Everyone,” read Mateo as the missiles and rockets exploded overhead. But there were more letters forming… “From…everyone …in Year One.”
The whole school, as well as all the teachers and grown ups who had gathered at the gates, burst into applause. All the Year 6s were applauding. All the Year 4s were applauding. And Kaolin, Olive and Mateo were applauding harder and faster than anyone. Their year had done it!
And with the whoops and cheers all around her, Kaolin looked to the side of the playground where Harriet the Labrador sat looking at her, wagging her tail.
“Thank you, Harriet,” said Kaolin. “And thank you, Miss Elphinstone, for your extraordinary decorations.”
