Another mystery is how the students are selected and paired. Part of that process is a selection committee, whose membership includes the headmaster and the support staff. This Interlude doesn't address the entire mystery, but it does show some of the inner workings of the committee.

As seen in A New Style of Education (in July of 2005) Rachel Ruiz is the Head of the Support Staff, and the previous year (as seen in Hidden Gifts), Kate Mayhew was head. What happened? Another staff change occurred at the same time. Dr. Sue only recently became the primary internist for the school. What happened to cause this change? Did something happen last year to cause this staff change? Was the change voluntary? I wrote this interlude to rationalize, in my mind, why some people in important positions might leave without jeopardizing the school – And, in the case of Rachel, lay the groundwork (in my mind) for why they recruited a new Head, rather than promoted from within.

Since first reading the stories about Hayfield Hall, questions have been there about where the staff came from, how they are selected, and other similar points. One example is Dr. Rachel Ruiz. We know she was NOT staff at the school in 2004 and that Kate Mayhew held her position, but by the beginning of A New Style of Education, Dr. Ruiz was established. This interlude doesn't describe how that came to pass, but it does address some of the questions, at least in part. Originally written half in jest, this interlude is included for those readers that may have also had some of these questions.

Some students seem to build friendships irrespective of age, or year. David/Jayne and Dan/Sophia are two that have done this more than once in the stories. How did these two meet for the first time?

More goes on in and around Hayfield Hall than is possible to cover in A New Style of Education (NE) or A New Style of Education: Hidden Gifts (HG). This page starts a series of independent story segments of various lengths that expand upon what is contained in the main story lines.

Plagiarism and Copyright

As an author, one thing I would hate, and so would probably everyone else who writes on here, is someone copying your work. Indeed, I remember before there was a discussion regarding this June 2008.

However, one thing that I've noticed recently is that some people don't seem to think this applies to images. Some people have been good and if they use something under "fair use" they do then acknowledge the copyright owner. Heck, I am aware of one author who went as far as licencing the images they used.

Some people though don't appear to even be abiding by the "fair use" rule, and using complete pictures from other people's websites. Like people on this site spend a lot of time writing stories, some people have spent a lot of time creating images. I personally feel it is double standards to get upset if someone copies somebody elses writing, but then copy other person's imagery work. And to top it all off, even if they thought it was covered under "fair use", there is no acknowledgement of the image owner.

I just joined as a user so please forgive me if I'm going about this in an inappropriate manner.

Certain countries set aside phone numbers for fictional use.

For the UK, OFCOM (UK regulator) have information here. See http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/num_drama

Only 555-0100 to 555-0199 are now reserved, though other 555 numbers are used in some films and tv shows. Reference: section 4.6 of http://www.atis.org/inc/docs/finaldocs/555-NXX-Assignment-Gu...

Australia has a series of set numbers reserved: http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_2330