It's that time of year when students eagerly check their emails to find out which university has responded to their applications, hoping for positive news. At La Garenne, the offers are flooding in from top universities in the UK and further afield.

So far our hard-working students have bagged offers from Bayes Business School, Durham, Kings and many more. Clearly this is just the start of the journey to higher education and our students know that getting their heads down and studying hard will see these offers turn into concrete places.

Our prefects and a group of students came back to school a couple of days early this term in order to welcome new students. We know how challenging starting in a new environment can be, so we all worked hard to make the transition as smooth as possible. We organised a scavenger hunt and we showed off our beautiful surroundings, our facilities, our students’ favourite restaurants and key places in Villars. We congratulate all our new students for settling in so well.

We would like to congratulate all our students who have just received their certificates for completing their Personal Projects.

In the final year of the Middle Years Programme, students had to explore an area of personal interest over an extended period. The idea is to give them the opportunity to consolidate their learning and develop important skills they will need in both further education and life beyond the classroom. It also helps them develop confidence to become principled, lifelong learners.

La Garenne sudents needed to complete three elements to be awarded their final achievement grades:

• Product or outcome: evidence of tangible or intangible results: what the student was aiming to achieve or create;
• Process journal: ideas, criteria, developments, challenges, plans, research, possible solutions and progress reports;
• Report: an account of the project and its impact, to a structure that follows the assessment criteria. The report includes a bibliography and evidence from the process journal that documents students’ development and achievements.

The projects were assessed by La Garenne's supervisors and externally moderated by the International Baccalaureate organisation to ensure they met globally consistent standards of excellence. Well done and continue this hard work now you are in DP1 and studying for your Diplomas!

While our students are making the most of their last days of freedom, all of La Garenne's staff are back in school getting ready for the BIG arrivals weekend.

Today we have been learning about how teenagers' brains work, and why they (sometimes) behave like they do. We have also been looking at the importance of keeping students sociable, rested, stimulated and energised through outdoor learning, sport, reading and sleep. We talked about why it's good to talk, and what makes for meaningful conversations. And finally, we discussed how to keep our beautiful campus clean and tidy, without wasting precious energy and water.

These are the key themes which the Senior Leadership Team will be monitoring over the coming year. As director Grégory Méan said, we all have a part to play: the boarding and admin staff, our wonderful housekeepers and maintenance teams, the executives, our teachers and support staff, and last but not least, our students.

It promises to be an exciting year and we are all raring to go.

We are barely 10 days away from the school being filled with bustle, laughter and noise as our students return for the start of the new school year. While they've been away, we have been busy sprucing up the campus and getting everything ready for our biggest cohort of students ever.

This is a big year for La Garenne, as we will see our first International Baccalaureate graduates take their leave of us after completing their final exams. It's also the year when we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of La Garenne.

It's barely imaginable that not long after the war, La Garenne opened its doors to young children who had been sent here by their families to experience the clean, fresh air of the Alps. Now, we are home to 150 full-time students aged from just 5 all the way up to young adults aged 18.

Keep an eye out for news of our celebrations throughout the coming school year!