School of whales

As a detective tasked with deciphering the crossword clue ‘School of whales’, my thought process initially led me down the route of investigating species of whales that may gather in groups or schools. However, my experience with crosswords and linguistic intuition reminded me that often clues are not as straightforward as they appear, and can require lateral thinking to produce the most accurate answer.

Upon reexamining the clue, I honed in on the word ‘school’, which can also refer to an institution of learning. Taking this into consideration, I explored other definitions of ‘school’, leading me to the insight that the word can refer to a group of people pursuing a common activity – not just humans but also animals.

With this breakthrough in mind, I recalled that the word ‘gam’ refers to a school of whales, particularly those of the sperm whale species. This could be derived from the fact that a group of these whales were historically referred to as a “gam of wales” by whalers. This discovery validated my initial suspicion that a simple and straightforward deduction would not suffice in solving this puzzle – and that skilful deduction combining knowledge of language and cultural references would ultimately lead me to the right answer.