My name is Georgina Piper, but I prefer “Georgie”, which is much friendlier. I am a junior, and I have come to Oaks and Pines after finishing my exam year at a girls’ school in Oxfordshire. My father is a bookseller, and sells rare books for huge amounts of money. My mother is an actuary, which sounds deadly boring but is very important and she gets paid a lot. Even so, I don’t think my parents would have been able to send me to O&P but for an inheritance they received unexpectedly from an unmarried uncle. They want to improve me (they say) with good social company and the best teachers and are going to spend a lot of money on me. Fortunately I got good results from my most of my exams (apart from chemistry).

I am much closer to my mother than to my father. She had me when she was quite young, so she is nearer my age than parents usually are. People sometimes say we are more like sisters than mother and daughter. But she doesn’t take any nonsense from me.

I have an older brother called Mark, who is into classical music and wants to be a professional musician (mainly piano, which he plays in chamber groups). His love of music is rubbing off on me. He is very supportive of me and defends me against my parents when I am in trouble. I am very fond of him and will miss him when I am away (but I hope he will come and visit me).

I loved it in Oxford and was sorry to leave, but my parents are superkeen for me to go to a boarding school abroad. O&P fits the bill because it is in a beautiful place and I love big cities like Geneva. My parents are not particularly strict and I have only been physically punished a few times in my life, usually for being cheeky or rude, once for pinching sweets, but not for bad school reports or anything like that. But the punishments were so feebly administered I sometimes had to pretend they hurt. I have to admit though that serious corporal punishment scares me and the cane terrifies me.

My last school report said “always sociable and cheerful, even if at times too talkative” and “enjoys fun a bit too much” (which made my parents laugh). I love having fun and sometimes this means being naughty.

I guess I would call myself sporty. I have enjoyed hockey but found it a bit too rough and I have taken up football as goalie in a local girls’ team. I love athletics too and have won some prizes in middle distance. My main school subjects have been about language (and languages), and I hope I will be able to improve my French at the school.

I like writing too. I have written a few short stories for the school magazine but I don’t seem to get very far in competitions. I started writing a diary when I was twelve and I will try to keep it up. I love board games and am learning chess. I also do a lot of cookery, which I think I am good at.