It is all the fault of a tree. A rather magnificent tree, but a tree which the Hertfordshire planning officers said could not be felled. It rises majestically from the clutter of huts and garages which deface the area between College Road and the kitchens, and it prevented the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) block being built there. Even a design which would have curved round the tree was rejected as the footings would have disturbed its roots.This living but stationary obstacle has thus required of the smallest members of the Haileybury community that they learn to scuttle about as quickly as the squirrels who leap about in the branches. If the time-table with imperious command requires them to zoom from Lower School to French or Spanish, the regulation five minutes between lessons seems hardly enough.
Last week the new Head of Lower School spent a morning shadowing a class, being a pupil for a day. My Lower School spy was ecstatic. "She believes us - it isn't long enough! We will get seven minutes between lessons." We shall see. If they do, it is the fault of a tree.
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