I'm not an expert on Enid Blyton, but I've a feeling she wouldn't have been too likely to use a word like "trepidation".

Jill Murphy, an excellent way with words. I've often wondered if JK Rowling actually took the idea of a school for Witches from her Worst Witch books. (Or from Ursula LeGuin's Wizard of Earthsea, for that matter.)