When the students have free time in the school, they like to be kept busy. We embrace technology at the school and even though we use computers in class and sometimes out of the classroom, the students prefer to spend time with their friends, playing in the boarding house. This was a picture taken yesterday, of one of the students who won the wooden tower building competition. Lots of fun for him whilst using his building skills and creativity.

Part of education, quite a large part actually, is learning from our mistakes, something which follows us throughout our lives. This week one of the younger students had to write a letter to his houseparent, to apologise for his behaviour. It was extremely well written and I think the flowers helped! It is important to allow students to make mistakes in order to learn from them as well, all part of growing up.

With the end of the week soon upon us and the mid-term break to look forward to, the students will be packing soon for the holidays. It seems quite an easy task to undertake and yet some of the students believe that just throwing a few things into their suitcases is enough. We will help them to make sure they are organised and they also have a poster in their house to show them what a suitcase that is packed correctly, should look like.

The students have had a very busy week and this Thursday they are working in their clubs, trying to get things finished before the mid-term break or completing projects, not to mention the cooking club who get to eat their work! Good fun for all concerned.

During their time at La Garenne, the students study in class and learn a variety of skills they will use in their future years as well as in their day to day lives. When out of the classroom, the learning experience continues. At the weekend, one of the students was working on a design project but only had the 'tools at hand' so to speak. No mathematical equipment, just string, wood, pencils etc. He had to design his project and measure everything only using his intuition and common sense. We have to remember that in life we are not just being taught but also learning, something which we need to do by ourselves sometimes.