This school is, as Headmaster Florian told him, a very different kind of school. As Braithwaite walks through the hallways, he is nearly knocked over by several students running out of a classroom. He knocks and enters to see what is happening, only to find forty students unattended. By their dress and demeanor, they seem to be well aware of their maturing bodies. Everything is “a bit soiled and untidy, as if too little attention were paid to washing either themselves or their flashy finery.”
When Braithwaite enters, he is accosted by students wondering if he is the replacement for their teacher, Mr. Hackman, or “Old Hack.” Hack left the room and went to the staff room, telling his students to send someone for him when they were ready to behave, and they wonder if Braithwaite has come to take his place. As they surround him, he tells them he will check on Mr. Hackman. This is not what he imagined when he thought of his first teaching job. There are no neat rows of desks filled with students eager to learn.
Braithwaite leaves the class room and goes to the staff room. On the way, he meets the student who nearly knocked him over coming out of the room. A rather untidy man greets Braithwaite and immediately makes a joke about his color. Braithwaite introduces himself and says he is from the Divisional Office; he is told that Hackman was here but left shortly after arriving and is probably registering his complaints with the Divisional Officer. Mrs. Grace Dale-Evans enters and begins cleaning up the staff lounge. She asks Braithwaite if this is his first teaching job and if he has been in the military; he tells her he was in the Royal Air Force. She invites him to eat lunch at the school, and he accepts.
The staffroom is full of miscellany and is almost as dingy as the outside surroundings. As he walks out of the building and into the courtyard, he sees litter everywhere and finds the place as depressing as a prison