The Worst Witch/Teacher Control

As mentioned on the previous page, if you should choose Teacher Control on the main menu, you'll be presented with a submenu featuring three more options (Instructions, Game Vocabulary, and Can't Do Frogs, the last one being a play the game's designer Marshal Anderson wrote for the class he was teaching at the time that the BBC Micro version was new); you must, again, use the up and down arrow keys (or Space) to select one, and press Enter to confirm your choice. If you choose Instructions, the top part of the following text will appear on the screen with the message "Use the arrow keys to scan the text, press ESCAPE at any time to return to the Menu." above it, and because it had been intended for use in British primary schools, it refers to the instruction manual as the "Teachers' Book", but its possibilities for further work away from the computer are not going to be described here:

INTRODUCTION "The Worst Witch" is an intriguing ''adventure for juniors. Based on Jill'' Murphy's very popular book it is designed to encourage thorough and careful reading for understanding and to provide the basis for a topic on Witches or Magic. Children have to read Jill Murphy's book very carefully if they want to rescue ''the school from the evil witches. Spells'' need to be made, ingredients collected, potions mixed, brooms mended and all sorts of other magical deeds need to be ''done! If the children need to read the'' book before they can continue, their "adventure" can be saved to be continued at another time. There are tremendous possibilities for work away from the computer and ideas are given in the Teachers' Book.

Important Notes: "The Worst Witch" is a disc driven adventure and THE DISC MUST BE LEFT IN THE DRIVE for the whole time that the program is running.

Playing the Adventure You can start the adventure, either from the beginning or from the position in a ''previously saved game. Full details of'' the adventure and suggestions for organisation with a class and follow up work away from the computer are given in the Teachers' Notes. IMPORTANT: THE POSITION OF THE SCREEN "SPLIT" BETWEEN WORDS AND PICTURES MAY ''NEED TO BE ADJUSTED. THIS IS SIMPLY DONE'' BY USING THE UP AND DOWN ARROW KEYS ''WHENEVER A "What Now?" PROMPT IS SHOWN.''

Can't do Frogs Included on the "Worst Witch" disc is a ''play called "Can't do Frogs". Option 3'' of the "Teacher Control Menu" will allow you print the script out (on a flippy disc you will have to turn the disc  over). See the Teachers' Notes for further details about the play and how to load it into word processors so that you can tailor it to your particular needs.

Once you've pushed Esc, the game will return to the Teacher Control menu; however, on an emulated BBC Micro, it will return to the virtual console's command prompt with the text "Syntax error. Bad program.", and you will have to reload the program into it by pressing Shift with either F12 (if you are using B-Em running in DOSBox) or Pause (if you are using !BeebIt running on RISC OS). On choosing Game Vocabulary, you will be presented with another submenu featuring two more options (Send to Screen and Send to printer) - and if you choose the first option the top part of the following text will appear on the screen with the message "To scan through these notes, use the up and down arrow keys. Press ESCAPE at any time to return to the Menu." above it (choosing the second option shall print it out instead, but it again cannot be done on an emulated BBC Micro or Acorn Archimedes):

Directions: AHEAD, FORWARDS BACK DOWN, LAND, D EAST, E ENTER LEFT NORTH, N OUT RIGHT SOUTH, S UP, CLIMB, U WEST, W

Specials: END, STOP, FINISH HELP, HINT INVENTORY PICTURES SAVE WORDS

Verbs DRINK, SWALLOW, EAT, TASTE DROP, LEAVE, DUMP FIX, MEND, REPAIR, JOIN, MAKE FLY GIVE, SHOW LISTEN, HEAR, VOICES LOOK, EXAMINE OPEN, SEARCH PUT READ TAKE, GET, CARRY, BRING, COLLECT - GATHER TAP TURN, MAGIC, SPELL USE, CAST, ADD, MIX, STIR, WITH

Spells NIGHTSHADE, ESCARGOT, DAISY

Nouns BAG, SATCHEL BEETROOT BOOK BROOM BUTTERCUP CAT, PUSS, TABBY, KITTEN CARDBOARD, BOX CHEST DESK DOOR, TRAP ETHEL FROG GATES GLUE, POT HALL HANDLE HEAD, BRUSH LACES PIG PLATFORM POND, WEED SNAIL TAPE, STICKY TIE TOADSTOOL WITCHES

Adjectives & Others BLUE HELLO RED SMALL, LITTLE

Once you have pushed Esc, the game shall return to the Game Vocabulary submenu, so you'll have to push it again to return to the Teacher Control one; the option of Can't Do Frogs is also not going to be covered here (so you will now have to press Esc for a third time to return to the main menu). Also, when you enter the spell NIGHTSHADE in the library to turn Ethel into a frog, it shall come out as LAMPSHADE, so she will turn into a pig instead.