The Happiest Days of Your Life

In September 1949, confusion reigns as St Swithin's Girls' School is billeted at Nutbourne College, a boys' school in Hampshire. The two heads—Wetherby Pond and Muriel Whitchurch—scramble to cope with the sudden crowding, trying to keep dormitories and facilities usable while preventing the girls from taking advantage of their new, cramped opportunities.

The Nutbourne College domestic staff depart in haste, and their replacements are hastily but incompetently drawn from St Swithin's Home Economics class. The churn adds to the chaos as kitchens, dorms, and routines break down under the strain of cross-school living. The situation foreshadows the broader theme of post-war disruption.

Parents from St Swithin's worry that their daughters will be exposed to boys, generating tension between Pond's staff and Whitchurch's social circle. Pond is offended by the notion that his boys are unsuitable company, but he needs her influence to secure a prestigious all-boys headship. The two heads thus negotiate to salvage his chances while managing the social fallout.

To evaluate the cross- school arrangement, two visits are arranged: a tour for the governors and a separate tour for the parents. The schedules are tightly choreographed to avoid contact, heightening the sense of a staged, fragile solution. The looming question is whether the facade can hold under scrutiny.

Frantic changes are made in classrooms and on the sports fields as staff swap posts, nets, and equipment for hockey, lacrosse, and rugby. The scramble aims to erase obvious signs that boys and girls are sharing facilities. The atmosphere is tense, busy, and comic in its over-organization.

Two parallel tours are arranged: one for the girls' parents and one for the governors. The plan is to keep them from meeting, preserving the illusion of separate schools under one roof. In practice, the diverging crowds stir confusion and the staff scramble to maintain appearances.

The facade collapses when parents demand a lacrosse match for the girls while a governor has been promised a rugby match elsewhere. The collision of schedules exposes the true nature of the arrangement. The school tries to handle the fallout without alerting everyone to the shared facility.

Weeks after the confusion began, a Ministry of Schools official arrives to declare the matter sorted out. The official bluntly reveals that Nutbourne is a co-educational school and, in effect, orders its replacement with another co-educational institution next week. The line highlights post-war bureaucracy with a comic sting.

Upon the bureaucratic verdict, several coachloads of children and staff appear noisily, reigniting chaos rather than delivering closure. Pond and Whitchurch are left to pick up the pieces, negotiating the future of their careers amid the fallout. The schools revert to a state of farce rather than resolution.

In the final moments, Pond and Whitchurch retreat to a quiet corner to consider their next moves. The film closes on a wry note about post-war careers and the absurdities of bureaucratic oversight. Whitchurch even jokes about a brother who grows groundnuts in Tanganyika as a reminder of far-flung possibilities.

The governors and school officials consider the implications of a co-educational arrangement for future reputations and admissions. Pond must demonstrate his leadership and diplomacy to secure his standing. The meeting underscores the uneasy compromise that has become the norm at the school.

Parents, staff, and students react with a mix of confusion and bemusement as the situation spirals toward an inevitable change. The shared space becomes a symbol of post-war adaptation and bureaucratic whim. The mood blends farce with a touch of anxiety about the future.