Peak Perspectives - 1st Edition

LE REGENT PEAK PERSPECTIVES

WHY PEAK PERSPECTIVES?

The magazine team’s first sessions were mainly taken up with brainstorming all the different features we wanted to include in order to interest, involve and engage our whole community. We also came up with lots of possible names. This one came out tops because:

1. We live amongst the most stunning mountain peaks (pointy summits).

2. Synonyms for “peak” are ideal, optimum…. Our school is the best!

3. “Peek” and “peak” are homophones. (To take a peek is to have a quick look at something - for example at the pages of a magazine.)

4. “Pique and “peak” are also homophones! (To pique someone’s interest is to arouse their curiosity.)

5. “Perspectives” suggests all the wonderfully diverse points of view we have as an international and open-minded community.

In other words, Peak Perspectives is a play on words, suggesting that the multitudinous views and voices of our vibrant school community in the mountains make us feel on top of the world.

So let your imagination be piqued and come and take a peek in Le Régent’s Peak Perspectives magazine!

From the First Edition magazine team: Katya, Romy, Barney and Mrs Shaw

Share your perspective with lucy.shaw@regentschool.ch or katyayani.datla@regentschool.ch or put it in our Peak Perspectives letter box!

EDITORIAL

Welcome to Peak Perspectives, Le Regent’s brand new magazine that provides a glimpse of life through the lens of Le Régent’s students in the Valais mountains.

In this issue, you will find students’ passions and creativity in the form of art, music, maths, humour, writing (in lots of languages and genres), puzzles, surveys and even competitions with prizes to be won!

Although we may print a very small number of “limited edition” paper copies of this magazine to raise money for charity, it is our intention to be primarily a digital magazine. Not only does this allow us to avoid wasting paper and move towards our goal of being a carbon neutral (or even carbon positive) school in the near future, but it also allows us to publish exciting multimedia content such as audio, videos and links.

We are constantly on the lookout for new material, so please do not hesitate to share your ideas, passions and creativity with us!

Grade 6- Op Art Math

Step inside the Grade 6 virtual Opl Art exhibition!

Op Art (short for optical art) is art that causes optical illusions. The graphic effects of lines and contrasting colours can be hypnotising - if you get the geometry right! This project illustrates perfectly the symbiotic relationship between mathematics, art and technology.

If you like what you saw in the Grade 6 exhibition, you should also check out Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely

Grade 6 Crea0ves

Dear Parents,

A warning to parents

I’d like to say thank you for reading this; but in reality, you should be thanking me!

I’m about to uncover the complete and utter pains of raising a teenager in today's modern age… blegh! First of all, if you hadn’t had enough of all that screaming and brattiness: get ready for a different type of pain, one that’ll include hormones, woof, I know. Second: these reckless brats will have absolutely no regard towards how you feel about their actions, they think they know everything when in reality, they’re complete idiots.

Now that we’ve dealt with the more broad scale of issues on teens: please, allow me to enlighten you on the more intricate and detailed issues most teenagers face. For starters, you’ll find them complaining about their mental health almost every conversation you have with them.

Second, their hormones are an absolute mess. These losers can laugh with their friends one minute, next, you hear them crying in the nearby Mcdonald's bathroom stall! You thought that was it? No. Give them too much freedom, you have successfully moulded a dropout by hand! Give them too little? You’ve carried a kid within your womb for 9 months just for them to hate you. Spectacular! It’s a lose-lose situation!

"How is my teen going to turn out?” you ask. Hah, get ready for this: either they turn out the academic type wearing glasses and having braces and buck teeth entertaining absolutely no social life as god forbid they ever not study for longer than 5 minutes or you’ll get a little delinquent, with little to no respect for you (or anyone for that matter), running around participating in teenage tomfoolery and next thing you know, you end up with a call from the local canton jail with your “know-it all” teen crying on the phone pleading for forgiveness!

Eh, it’s not always lose-lose. These outcomes aren’t inevitable. Teens tend to think their parents absolutely detest their teen children with every fibre in their being despite providing them with, oh you know, shelter, food, clothing, medical care, protection, yadda yadda yadda. So to fulfil these monsters’ requirements and needs, to just reach their very cusp of satisfaction: provide them with love, acceptance, and care. Give them boundaries (but don’t exceed sensible boundaries) to build trust and establishment between the two of you. Teach them lessons and advice that they can carry on their conscience for the rest of their lives. Help find them a passion, watch a movie with them! All these little things help raise an adult with nothing but love and desire for reimbursement towards you. Regardless, many teens grow up without any of that anyway and they turn out just fine. So what can we take away from this? Wear protection. Thank you for reading!

Assem Karameh

Raising a teenager is one of the most difficult challenges in life -

Fondue

What better way is there to celebrate a day of skiing with your friends in the mountains of Crans-Montana than gathering round a steaming caquelon of fondue?

Fondue Factfile

Fondue is the feminine passive past participle of the French verb “fondre” - 'to melt'.

Earliest known recipe: "Käss mit Wein zu kochen" - 'to cook cheese with wine' in 1699.

1981 fondue adverts invented the following catchphrases: "La fondue crée la bonne humeur" 'fondue creates a good mood' and "Fondue isch guet und git e gueti Luune" (Swiss German for 'fondue is good and creates a good mood' – abbreviated as "figugegl")

Although we now associate fondue with the mountains, when it was first invented the luxurious Gruyere cheese would have made it too expensive for most mountain villagers. Only the rich city-dwellers would have been able to afford it.

Thanks to intense promotion of fondue by the Schweizerische Käseunion during and following the second world war, fondue has become the symbol of swiss unity.

Almost every Swiss region has its own fondue. Valais is famous for tomato fondue, which reflects its close relationship with Italy.

Fondue has been modified to suit international tastes, e.g. with added curry powder in India and with tequila and corn in Mexico.

Even though wine is a liquid, the acid and ethanol in it actually decrease the fondue's viscosity (make it thicker).

Lemon juice is often added to prevent fondue from curdling (the protein separating from the fat and turning lumpy and wet, like cottage cheese).

The leftover layer of crispy cheese at the bottom of the caquelon (pot) is called “la religieuse” (the nun) and should be taken out and eaten like a cracker.

Convincing vegan fondue can be made using a range of tasty ingredients including cashew nuts, tahini, yeast flakes, miso and white beans. Google “vegan fondue recipe” to try one out!

Both wine and black tea are said to aid with the challenge of fondue digestion.

Many lactose-intolerant Swiss people carry pills for lactose intolerance in case of last minute invitations to eat fondue or raclette!

Dropping your bread in the pot is traditionally penalised with a funny forfeit such as telling a joke, singing a song, kissing the person on your left/right or running outside naked in the snow!

Link to a recipe for Valais Tomato Fondue

Link to a recipe for vegan fondue

MY INTERNET USE THE TRUTH

By Ruby Pulich, Grade 10

Although rarely, I believe some of my social media use has been beneficial when I mainstream the content I am consuming. In hindsight however, the negative clearly dominate this argument. Until this unit, I had never genuinely considered the consequences of my extensive screen time, despite the constant ‘nagging’ from my parents to engage in something productive.

The bulk of the following information is relevant to my habits between 2020 and mid 2021 (particularly the Covid-19 lockdown period).

Particularly, Tik Tok became almost a ‘cyber drug’, which I became addicted to and would consume my time and dictate my attention input in my daily tasks. If I enter the stream of watching videos, I will find myself saying, ‘watch one more video then I will go onto what I need to do’. 9 times out of 10, that particular video provided no benefi and every 15 second video I watched in the last 2 hours would be erased from my memory until got back onto the app to scroll some more.

Hours of Tik Tok use resulted in a habit of memorising and subconsciously scrolling through my home screen and into the app when I actually got on my phone to do something else. Even checking the time for example, the typically 2 second long task would lead to an hour on the app, subconsciously, my mind would crave for more content until I reopened the app.

A particularly relevant example of this compulsive action occurred this morning. My routine every Sunday morning includes going to a cafe and church with one of my close friends. Normally, I fully absorb myself in our conversations and the scenery, however, this weekend my friend was out for the weekend and I spent the morning by myself. Instead of appreciating the peace in my blissful surroundings, I emmassed an hour and a half of screen time and only got off my phone during the service and to order a coffee. Normally, out of courtesy for my friend, I remain off my phone, however, I am unable to hold myself accountable and chose addictive media over courtesy to myself. I assume that the infinite scroll and variable reward pattern of TikTok likely increase the addictive quality of the app.

Tik Tok consists of a recommendation section called the ‘For You’ page, which categorises videos based off of the content that you have previously liked, shared or commented on. I have always had a very specific page consisting of the same few topics over and over again.

After hours of consuming these topics, I began to sense they were consuming me.

These severe habits were directly proportional to the content on my For You Page, which gradually shifted to different material. Whether it was for the better or worse, my fitness efforts gradually slowed, along with the trends of my Tik Tok. Eventually, was consumed by these thoughts less and less as I viewed different topics. The latter ultimately changed my lifestyle and relaxed my strict exercise routine.

At times, social media seems like a paradise for introverts because we get the best of both worlds. We can raise our voices and be heard about causes we are passionate about; we can be alone and socialise at the same time. Throughout my life, I developed a strongly independent and relatively introverted personality. However, the more time spend living in another reality, these characteristics become more prevalent and are reflected in my mood. The fast-paced, brain cluttering posts of Tik-Tok and other social media sites can leave me drained as I am not energised from being within an overly stimulating environment. Earlier this year, Statista reported that as of 2018, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 136 minutes per day. Realistically speaking, is it any wonder that I find it draining?

From personal experience, I can assume the reason I experience the feeling of loneliness or anxiety is due to the extensive period of time I had spent on Tik Tok beforehand. Again, referring to this weekend, most of my friends were signed out, so, already there was little for me to do other than scroll through the curse we call Tik Tok and write this essay. However, contributing to the loneliness I felt were the hours I spent on the app, taxing me mentally. The only source that has made me aware of this drainage in my mood was the task of writing this essay. What most teenages turn to as a source of psychological comfort and familiarity actually destructively attacks its victims in many aspects of their life.

I strongly believe that Tik Tok has impacted my attention span as the app consists of millions of videos that only last a few seconds and contain completely different material from each other. Thus, resulting in difficulty concentrating on a particular topic for a longer period of time. However, this overload of useless information is somehow so effective at distracting, engaging, and entertaining me for hours on end. Furthermore, these hours spent living through a screen, have resulted in compulsive- like behaviours. For example, the developed dependence on the app requires me to constantly have videos playing in the background of any task I am performing. Ironically, the beginning of this paragraph was written with the app open next to my computer. This behaviour is most prevalent when I am alone and tend to remain off my phone when I am spending time with people. However, no matter what the activity, if I am alone, I am much less anxious if I am on a form of social media. On a walk- I’m scrolling through Tik Tok. At a cafe- checking instagram stories. Between gym sets- replying to snapchats.

One topic in particular was gym and fitness content. Between February and August of 2022, I became infatuated with exercise, my diet and the image I wanted to attain. Instead of gaining confidence from progress that I would make, I became over- aware of all aspects of myself and analysed them from a different perspective than ever before. Although, physically, I was at my most healthy state, mentally I was not. Furthermore, I was admired by my friends for my efforts and discipline, contributing to the pressure of maintaining this vigorous routine. Seeing the progress of masses of fitness influences online with different body types would frustrate me as a taller female athlete progresses much slower. It is not clear to me that over that six month period, I had developed an exercise addiction and an extreme attention to my body and diet. As a result of this, my academics and social life were not prioritised as my evenings consisted of a 2.5 hour gym session till 11pm on most nights of the week. I remember religiously counting macros and asking myself, ‘’Am maintaining a slight calorie surplus? Did I have enough protein today? Have I remembered to take my creatine and aminos?’’ If didn’t reach my particular goal for the day, the thought of consequences would keep me awake at night. A single day ‘wasted’ resulted in a week of overthinking and dissecting my practices.

Tik Tok is a repeat offender of wreaking havoc on my sleep schedule and has cost me hours and hours of rest in exchange for a hit of dopamine. Religiously watching Tik Toks in bed until my eyes began to close involuntarily had become ingrained in my nightly routine. Naturally, I would spend the next 6 hours with dreams that felt suspiciously influenced by the videos I just watched. After completing what is meant to be a wind-down routine, it’s a little freaky to hear the same song on loop through your dreams. It wasn’t until the first night that I spent watching Tik Toks past 2am that I began to have the first twinge of unease about my media obsession.

An extremely prominent benefit of boarding school is that the environment fosters face-to-face contact and academic rigour, reducing my screen time. never would have thought having this little free time would deliver such a significant advantage. Handing in my phone from 9:30pm till 7:30am allows me to cleanse from the blue light and toxic media I would normally be consuming throughout the night. The bonds I have developed between students of all ages reject the need for me to constantly occupy myself with my phone. am no longer sitting in my bed all weekend on social media, but growing and learning with like-minded people. After in-depth consideration of my sedentary screen time from a new aspect, I have developed an immense gratitude for the opportunity I have to remediate my habits and meet the people I now call my best friends.

Writing about my personal experiences in such depth allows me to view them from a third-person perspective and obtain an idea of how excessively the media I consumed was controlling my life. At the time, however, I was convinced that I was in complete control.

I was gravely mistaken.

How many items can you spot? There are at least 10, but you might have to think outside of the box;-)

Polyglot Puzzle #1 - Fallen Phrases

Win a 5 CHF cafe voucher!

Can you be the first person to complete the puzzle (ask your friends for help!), then tell Mrs Shaw this phrase in any language except a language used in the puzzle or English or French?!

This edition’s theme: From my (peak!) perspective

How does Le Régent… Crans-Montana...Valais… Switzerland look from your perspective?

Send in your best photo(s) of life at Le Régent and the incredible environment we are so lucky to inhabit! Add a short description of where you were, what you were doing or how you were feeling when you took it.

Submit your photos via this link:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ 1vJos47D_5QmH0DCvQGLCExgOoI3I6ViH?usp=sharing

Winners

Photo Competition

Comic Strip By: Barney Goodright

Music By Molly

Autobiographies: Grade 6

How well do you know our youngest students in Grade 6? Who would have thought they would already have such colourful tales to tell?

After reading “Boy” by Roald Dahl in English, they wrote their own autobiographies.

Can you guess which extract belongs to which student?

Student A

Growing up in India, my dad worked there and he was often at work from early in the morning to late at night. My mother was also very busy during the day. She went to the office and, when I was a baby, my sister was still a toddler. My parents had to find a nanny to take care of us. And I’m glad they did. Their names were Kantu and Mona. They soon became equivalent to our big sisters or even our two mothers. They were Indian and every single day, they would cook the most brilliant Indian food ever. They would feed us many spicy dishes and so my sister and I became very comfortable with spicy foods. Not only did they cook for us, but they played with us. They even dressed up in our little princess costumes or they would pretend to be our Prince Charming while we were pretending to play.

I looked in the mirror, lifted the scissors up to my head, took the largest chunk of hair I could gather into my hands, took the paper cutting scissors and sniped of A LOT of hair in just a couple of seconds. I was so satisfied by this, I kept on cutting. I was so swooped up in this void of snipping my hair that I hadn’t realised how much of my hair was in the sink. I was so happy to look at my hair in the mirror and see a change. It felt nice to have something different.

Student B

Mr. Corrigan was the coolest teacher ever, he was an amazing mathematician, tech god, 80‘s band influencer, rugby player, eco activist and straight up LEGEND. He was tough on you some times, but it was for a good reason. I thank him for all the support and the discipline. Some children in the younger years were terrified of him but once you got to about year 5, he really wasn‘t that bad . During all my time there he was sort of a good cop and bad cop . He never actually was one, but I always wondered if he had another secret life outside of school .

Mr Buckley AKA Mancunian Michael McIntyre. Also the guy who taught me the ways of rock and roll AKA the guy who gave me my first E guitar. He was amazing. He took us on a tour of Manchester, his home town, the coolest roller coaster park in the country and the world famous curry mile. Literally a mile long street of curry houses, shish kebabs and there were protests for civil rights in their homeland.

Student C

My grandpa used to be a football player for the best club in Poland. His position was a goalkeeper. He always used to tell me how he had a bad match one day and a good match the other. One day he got kicked in the nuts and one of his nuts had to get amputated. Then cause of that he got cancer, but now he’s doing fine. He sold a company for a lot of money. He has a huge grass field with 5 houses, 2 dogs, a game room and a boat and also a play room. We often visit him and every year I go to Norway with him and a couple of his friends. We all go there to fish. We always go to a small island where we have a house. The closest store and city or village is a whole other island. The only thing is that for a week we only eat seafood and pasta for lunch and dinner. The biggest fish I caught in Norway was 15kg and 120cm. It almost pulled the rod out of my hand once. Since my grandpa is older he uses an electric rod that can roll itself up without the person doing any effort.

Student D

I remember that I was very sick. I told my dad and he opened a cupboard with thousands of medicines that I hadn’t seen before. He found a traditional Chinese medicine. When I finished the medicine my dad would always give me crystal sugar because it was too bitter. When I finished the medicine my face turned straight green. It tasted like rotten eggs - it was disgusting, horrible, sickening. I will never drink that again.

When I was 7 or 6, back then, there were two mean girls. First one asked if she could look at my backpack because it was beautiful, then they decided to play piggy in the middle and they were just throwing it around. One looked like a Giant. She never sneezed, her nose was blocked and one time I remember she sneezed and it was right in front of me so then I had burgers all over myself. The other girl looked like a skinny pig. She was skinny as a page of a book. Her hair was like a rubbish bin. It was so messy that you can even find an apple core in it. She was not nice at all; she was like a wicked witch. She had a pointy nose just like a witch and their nicknames were the Patricia sisters: one was called Drizella Patricia and the other was called Anastasia Patricia. They were step sisters so they always fought like the stepsisters in Cinderella.

Student E

My grandpa, Nigel Antony Lyle grew up in a big house with his sister, brother and and his parents, Bob and Barbra. Bob was a doctor so on the first floor of ‘Tachely House’ there was the waiting room, always full of Beanos that my grandpa and his siblings would secretly read. He grew up loving mountains and so as soon as he was old enough, he would go on long trips to the alps. He loved hiking, climbing and walking up steep slopes.

Then after many years, when he was 19, he was climbing up a mountain with his friend when a rock fell. It knocked him over and squished his leg. That night a storm came in. His friend called for help but no one came. It was too steep for a helicopter to land and so word reached the town of Chamonix. It was said to be un-flyable. You needed someone brave, smart and a good pilot. And two people by the name of Romet and Mezureux, decided to fly the impossible. Three days went by with my Grandpa and his friend stuck on the ledge of a misty mountain. Then at dawn, when the air stood still, they saw the helicopter. It was too steep a face for the helicopter to come down so they tried something else. They swung the strop and grandpa attached it to himself and they hoisted him up. The first ever alpine helicopter winch rescue. They soared down in the helicopter and the rescue had been done, the undoable had been done. Some months later, his leg had been amputated and in its place was a plastic replica. Today he still swears he can wiggle his toes.

Reflections on International Women’s Day 2023

“8th March is a really important day in Bulgaria and we are celebrating it as a big day. I sent flowers today to my mom, grandma and great-grandma from here and I hope they like my surprise as much as I'm excited about them receiving the flowers. I think this day should be as important as national days in all of the countries.”

Maria Rogacheva, Grade 10

“In Mexico we celebrate women's day by mostly posting in our social media and then people go to the streets, vandalise buildings, train stations and go to protest to the government buildings or important Mexican places.

What I think we could also do to celebrate women's day would be, have a day off school so that people could go and protest or spend time with their moms.”

Jesse Parada, Grade 10

“This is a very important day in Mexico. There are very different ways of "celebrating" this day, but the thing in Mexico is that we don't really celebrate.

Most women, especially feminists, take advantage of this day to protest for women's rights for those who don't have a voice. (That's not the major topic but since a lot of women disappear each year, they "speak for the ones that don't have a voice") Other things that women do is something known as "disappearing for one day" to show the importance of women and the value they have. This is done by staying in your house, not going to school/work, going off of social media, etc. I sometimes don't go to school but if I do I wear something purple.

Maria Retana Harb, Grade 10

“Every March 8, in Mexico we remember the battle of women for equality, respect, constant fighting for our rights, and protests in honour of all of the dead women and girls that have only been killed because of their gender or been sexually abused. We do not celebrate, we keep fighting for the rights we deserve.”

Samantha Letjik Trejo, Grade 10

“We think that international women's day should be celebrated with these events :

- Pizza party !

- Dress up ( goofy outfits )

- Make decorations (e.g. have loads of “be happy” flags everywhere)

- presentation to explain about women's day

Thank you

From the whole grade 8 English class.”

Thoughts from Grade 10 in response to the article “Enough Is Enough: The Fight Against Everyday Sexism” by Laura Bates https:// www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/29/everyday-sexism-womenencounter-laura-bates

“Throughout most of history, women generally had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions. In the 20th century, however, women in most nations won the right to vote and increased their educational and job opportunities. Nowadays sexism hasn't changed drastically but for sure women are more respected and have more legal rights than before. Feminists these days are a lot more than before as well.”

Maria Rogacheva, Grade 10

“After reading the article, I felt like discovering a new perspective on sexism. I didn't realize that there is so much "daily sexism" going on around us. I realize that sexism nowadays could be something as simple as a few words, and it could really make the opposite gender feel offended.

I really like the idea of how the author started a website and a twitter account for people to post their "everyday sexism" stories, it is a good way since it is anonymous online and people can express themselves and their feelings and share them with each other.

In 2023, I think the situation has got worse than before as the growing popularity of social media, people began to share their photos and everyday life on the internet more than ever, and consequently, comments are becoming anonymous. This fact made people start pushing the limit of speech and the content of the speeches, and some of them could be really offensive and hurt others, and due to the pressure of the comments, a lot of social media influencers would eventually end up getting depression and might have actions of self-harm.

Overall I think this article has changed my perspective towards sexism, it made me really reflect that sometimes the things we say could eventually be sexist towards the opposite gender and can be harmful to people.”

Alex Ma, Grade 10

The author talks about undergoing objectification and being catcalled / harassed on the street. She complains that things like this have been so woven into her life that she has learned to not see it as a big thing, she views this as a regular thing in a ‘woman's life’; and it’s truly sad. The author complains that experiences like the ones mentioned in the article are too small to go to the police about, yet far too unacceptable for people to start letting go unnoticed. She describes catcalling as something that’s just tedious and persistent. She has learned to live with it. As a man, it disgusts me to hear of the statistics of rape and sexual harrassment. It’s not only that I myself am ashamed of my gender and the fear it may bring to certain women with past trauma, it’s being aware that a huge amount of men are like this. It just doesn’t make sense to me how men, brothers and sons can treat women in such a fashion.

Assem Karameh, Grade 10

Winter Term Reflections

Hazel Tseng:

The winter term in Switzerland is the time to ski. As the place I lived before (Taiwan) doesn’t snow, this is my first year of learning to ski. At the beginning of the lesson, I got really nervous because I’d only skied twice in my life before coming here, and it was so many years ago that I basically forgot everything. Skiing is a really challenging sport for me, as it requires energy, skills, and most importantly for me, not being afraid of falling. I’m a careful person because I want to avoid mistakes that might get myself into trouble when doing everything, so when it comes to skiing, most of the time I’m traumatized by almost everything: going a bit too fast, seeing a huge, deep slope, watching other people crashing into an icy surface and getting injured, and more.

Immersed (when skiing)

Glints (the snow)

Exasperated (with myself)

Seize (the pole)

Trudge (through the snow)

Cower (behind others)

Maria Retana Harb:

My winter term was very exciting! I had a lot of fun and I can't believe it is already over. I would like to talk to you about my Top 5 moments and then I'll do a small (but general) description about this term.

Top 5:

1. I used to have a skiing group that was VERY fun. There was a girl that used to fall at least 5 times each lesson. I enjoyed skiing behind her so much because I pretty much had a VIP ticket to her great skiing skills (and also because she needed a hand every time she fell).

P.S: We make jokes about this all the time and I do not intend any type of harm with this content. (She is aware I am writing this.)

2. Last weeks of skiing: I changed my skiing group to a higher one and I skied on so many new slopes, I also got to work on my skills and I really think I progressed a lot. Yesterday was a really good day since the snow is way better now.

3. Getting to meet new people: Last term I kept my "friend circle" very closed. This term I finally opened up and started talking to new people. I think that there is also a very big difference because I wasn't as new as I was in the first term (obviously) and since I'm not going to be here next year I started enjoying the little things and now I don't want the school year to be over. This also brings me to my 4th point...

4. The expedition: Mostly no one was excited about this, whereas I on the other was really excited. I had a lot of fun and we laughed A LOT. We played music while skiing, took a lot of pictures and did some fun exercises/games like skiing on one ski, doing "360" while skiing down the mountain, etc. (The food was not very good though.)

5. Snowboarding: I was so excited to try snowboarding. Some people make it look really easy but it took me a while to get the hang of it. I had a lot of fun during lessons but the best thing is that I also went snowboarding on the weekends (with lessons of course) and I got to meet new people thanks to that.

These 3 months have been some of the best months in my life. I've really enjoyed it and I realised that enjoying the little things can make a really big difference in your life. I've also learned to appreciate what you have and be thankful for everything (even the bad things).

Muñeca Quitapena - The Worry Dolls

A trouble shared is a trouble halved!

Muñeca quitapena - worry dolls

Post an anonymous letter about a worry you have in the Peak Perspectives letter box outside the cafeteria and the muñeca quitapena - worry dolls - will do their best to reply with helpful advice, especially for you.

Here is our first letter:

“Dear worry dolls,

I need your help. I have been having trouble with a friend of mine. We had a small argument because she wouldn't leave me alone and I needed my personal space. We didn't speak to each other for weeks and she kept ignoring me. One day out of the blue she started acting like nothing had happened. It confused me.

I was still mad at her actions from the previous weeks.

Every time I see her she comes running towards me and hugs me which makes me feel a bit uncomfortable as I feel that our relationship has become more and more distant. I have tried to slowly move away from her but it hasn't worked. I'm scared to confront her as I don't want to hurt her but if I don't tell her someday it will end up hurting me.

I'm not sure who I should talk to. I have tried to explain my problem to my best friend and she has been very helpful but there isn't much she can do. My mum is busy most of the time so I can't find the right moment to talk to her about my situation. This has been hard on me as I mostly keep it to myself.

I used to have a decent relationship with my friend but it has always been a bit rocky and something felt a bit off. We were never the best of friends but we got along as we had many friends in common. There was a point where we became great friends but that fell apart very quickly. Our friendship has never been stable as we have our differences.

I feel like she has affected my mood as she is always negative. It affects me everyday as when she is down she brings all the people around her down too. She also puts pressure on me which I don't feel is right but as I'm too scared to confront her I stay quiet. This has not been good for my mental health as it makes it worse. What do you believe I should do? I need your help.

Sincerely, Friendship Wreck”

Dear Friendship Wreck,

We understand your situation. Here are some questions, which might help you : if she was less needy, would you possibly want to be friends with her ? Do you think it could eventually be a good friendship if you’re honest with each other?

From the things we've heard from you, we think you should tell her gently again that you’re the kind of person who often needs a bit of personal space. Try to say it in a nice way and leave open the possibility that you could be friends again. Ask your other friends to be nice to her too.

Maybe she hasn’t made many friends at school yet? Maybe she feels alone, can see that you are a nice person and just really needs a friend? Of course, her actions are a bit awkward and annoying, but maybe she is acting desperate because she craves some friendship and attention. Hopefully, if you are kind (but maintain a little distance) and you encourage your other friends to be kind to her too, her confidence may grow and she may feel able to be more relaxed and authentic and less needy. She may even make other friends, which would be ideal for everyone.

Being at an international boarding school can be tough: being far from family and old friends; people coming and going all the time… but it can also help you get to know yourself, know your own limits and empathise with other people who are quite different from you.

We think you are very brave for sharing this problem with us and you sound like a really good person.

Good luck,

The Worry Dolls.

IB ART EXHIBITION

Student Charity

We have already raised over 6,000 CHF for charity through the resale of Le Regent pre-loved school uniforms! A huge thank you to all the parents, students and staff who got involved in this important project, which is part of the school's long-term aim to be more and more sustainable. We invited all the students who helped with the uniform resales and eco-club to propose charities. Now it's time for the whole student body to cast their final votes!

Please click on the link to select all the charities you would like the uniform resale funds to be donated to.

Interesting Fact: 3250 litres – How much water is needed to produce the cotton for just one t-shirt –that is around three years’ worth of drinking water for one person! (WWF).

https://forms.gle/eNgRbGxC74a7wZ9H7