Message from the Head of School - September 2021

Dear Champiteans,

Welcome back to your school.

We welcome over 750 students to our campuses in Pully and Nyon at the start of the school year. The boarding school is flourishing with more than 70 boarders from all over the world, including countries that continue to keep their schools closed after 18 months due to the pandemic.

I decided to close our two classes at EPFL because the administrative complexity was becoming out of proportion with the management of only two classes. But we continue our links with the science outreach department at EPFL.

The hierarchical multilingualism that has made our school so successful is being further strengthened: our junior students will now have 30% English each week. At a time when purely English-speaking schools are considering launching bilingual programs, we are 15 years ahead of the game: the Collège launched bilingualism as early as 2006.

In Nyon, we are opening a 7^th grade, and will open an 8^th grade in September 2022, in order to offer the entire primary curriculum. As in Pully, the pupils benefit from the so-called open-air school approach, which multiplies the opportunities to learn outdoors. Experienced teachers tell me that they observe an acceleration of learning and a deeper fixation of concepts in the memory of children in a natural environment.

Our 2021 cohort of senior students have done very well in their exams: 100% pass rate, 83% with honors in the French Baccalaureate, and an average IB score of 33.6 points, which is a good score for an inclusive school. One third of our baccalaureate graduates go to Anglo-Saxon universities: the school encourages their international ambitions and expatriation, when the means exist. Six talented students receive scholarships.

As for my colleagues, we emphasize their continuous training, collaboration and our performance evaluation system. Every year, one of our teachers is admitted to the Master in International Education program at King's College. Everything we do is aimed at the academic success and personal development of the children.

Thank you for your trust.

Long live Champittet!