We have many younger students every year, and there are more and more of them. Why that is, I honestly do not know. Perhaps it is my strong desire to channel my maternal instinct. All younger students are remarkable, and on this page you will find stories about more than one such child, but today I want to tell you about Veronika.

Her grades are not just good – they are the very highest. I have never before received messages almost every day about points earned in different subjects for nearly any student. She is the best in her class in Mathematics, French, History and Science – genuinely the strongest. Her teachers give her additional work because the Year 7 programme in the UK is too easy for her, and Veronika completes everything instantly, while also being keen to help others.

It came as a real surprise to her parents that Veronika, who they thought should only be focused on studying, suddenly genuinely fell in love with football. She did not simply sign up – she is properly learning to play, and she gets a huge amount of enjoyment from it, and she is doing very well here too. On top of that, Veronika is very artistic, and we very much hope that next year she will be given the leading role in the school musical.

But one incident impressed me more than anything. This year she was travelling by taxi to her boarding school when the car got a flat tyre on the motorway. It was a winter evening and it was already dark. While they were waiting for help to arrive and change the wheel, Veronika was messaging me on WhatsApp and doing nothing but joking that she was not cold and not scared. Yes – she, a 12-year-old girl, was calming me down, as I was already ready to drop everything and go and rescue her.

Veronika amazes me not only with her academic results and how well-rounded she is, but also with her resilience and her sense of humour. I am genuinely happy to be her guardian, I am sure she has an incredible future ahead of her, and it is a real joy to be part of that journey.