3rd Ghost Hunter Academy, placed as part of the Chichester Integrated Special Education Institute

"Dum Spiro, Spero"

Introduction

This is the North American Secret Academy dedicated to the training of Ghost Hunters. It was the third such facility to be founded, only decades after the two European branches as the organization expanded and gained support through the last years of the 18th century. Each Academy has its own informal motto. That of Chichester is simply adopted from the Special Education Institute as a whole: "Dum Spiro, Spero", or 'while I breathe, I hope'.

Background and Location

The main grounds of the Chichester Integrated Special Education Institute consists of very large, grassy semi-open campus, with blocky, dark red brick Victorian-era buildings alongside quiet, low slung white modern structures. Paved paths, half-roofed and edged with shrubs and bushes or colonnaded by trees meander between the buildings. The grounds are edged by preserved parkland as well as a river to the east, and surrounded by suburbs to the north and west. It is at the southeast edge of Chichester, a fairly small, picturesque former cotton mill town, with several additional facilities in the town's commercial district, most within easy cycling distance. Officially, it integrates the Chichester Charitable Endowment School (which incorporates grade- and high-schools), Chichester Teachers' College, Fawnebrook Day Nursery and the Chichester University of Science and Technology. Students at the primary and secondary level either board for the term, or are brought in on a day or half-board basis by several electric bus services from dormitories sited elsewhere and nearby towns. The student body is largely a mix of gifted students from disadvantaged families supported by a full or partial endowment system, local children who meet the entrance criteria, and the children of rich families who can afford the boarding fees themselves. Unofficially, of course, it also integrates the 3rd Ghost Hunter Academy, which thanks to the camouflage of its position is currently the world's largest education and training facility of it's kind.

The Charitable Endowment School was first created abutting the cotton mill on the outskirts of town in the 19th century by a philanthropic entrepreneur, in order both to improve the character and prospects of his workers and, more practically, train engineers and machinists to help improve his factories. Unknown to most who knew him as a stout and hardheaded man, he was also highly psychosensitive and deeply concerned with the study of the spirit plane. Since then the company he founded has transformed considerably, based largely in the field of structural engineering and manufacturing equipment, but is still the partial sponsor of the school and employs many graduates from the University. Most of the buildings of the mill itself have been converted into parts of the campus, mostly the large library and the teachers' college. A few have been left to degenerate into interesting-looking ruins that are formally forbidden to students, and so are naturally investigated by them as much as possible. Several friendly 'defiant' or 'lingering' ghosts and unagressive, noticeable spirit entities exist around the campus to help identify students who enter the school with potential spirit awareness but don't hail from a family with a history of psychosensitivity.

Training

At the secondary level the Chichester campus is largely dedicated to training Ghost Hunters, so those with other aptitudes usually transfer to more specialized facilities, for example those with more extensive Secret Libraries, although thanks to the proximity of the University's material science facilities some spirit-smith trainees choose to stay on.

Naturally, all the Chichester instructors at one stage or another have been active ghost hunters. Before they became instructors, they were expected to spend at least a year studying at the teachers' college on campus. This both helps them in their job and gives them a good cover, as newly trained teachers often start their careers teaching in one of the adjoined facilities.