Welcome Back! We are delighted to welcome all our students and families back to school for the new academic year. I hope you all enjoyed an excellent and restful summer, and that you are ready and eager to start the new academic year with enthusiasm.

A particular and warm welcome to all new students and families, who decided to join our school: we are very glad to welcome you all in our community and we look forward to knowing you all. We will do our best to involve you in the academic and extra-curricular activities of our school and create together the best opportunities for our students.

We have also welcomed all our new staff since the beginning of August, supporting them with an induction programme to help them become familiar with the academic and operational life of the school, and with life in Xi’an and China for those arriving from abroad. We invite you to meet any of us in school at your earliest convenience, to better know in person the school teaching and non-teaching staff.

Our fourth year starts. On Monday August 17^th our fourth year has started, after the excellent achievements of last academic year and we can confirm you that the school continues to grow and to increase its educational excellence. Let me then start the new school year with a series of excellent news for the new semester:

- Our school continues to grow, with more students applying and joining our programs and over 30 nationalities now represented on our campus. This is another reason why we have more teachers and teaching assistants.

- This year we are launching the IB Diploma Programme, a new challenging journey after receiving last year the authorisation as an IB World School for the Diploma Programme. Our current Year 12 students will be the fist cohort able to graduate during 2017: here too, we will all support them to ensure excellent results.

- We are also progressing rapidly towards authorisation for the MYP and PYP. In particular, we will strive to obtain the MYP authorization during this academic year and we will keep you informed of our achievements in due course.

- We have improved all the sports facilities, with significant work still underway, in order to expand the school sport and outdoor activities. We will then leverage this to establish more contacts with other schools and academies where possible, so as to provide our students with more opportunities to learn, compete and increase their skills.

- We have carried out an overall refresh of the whole school infrastructure, adding new classrooms and a new dining room, to better accommodate the increased number of students and the curriculum needs in PYP, MYP and DP. Special attention has been given also to modern languages, to continue develop the Mandarin programme across the school, while supporting the new courses of Korean and French added in MYP and DP.

For all the above news, I want then to acknowledge the work of all our academic, administrative and support teams, who have worked during the past months to prepare the school for the next challenging year in terms of academics, facilities and services.

Cambridge International Examinations. During summer, the school received the Authorisation to register as a Cambridge International School and approved to offer the Cambridge International Examinations, especially the IGCSEs, one of the most international education programmes. Hanova is then joining the prestigious network of Cambridge Schools around the world, one of the most international education programmes, as proof of the academic level that the school has reached. Our current Year 11 students will be the first cohort able to sit these exams during 2016 and we will all support them to ensure excellent results.

PYP Information Day. The PYP programme is being strengthened, with a strengthened and coordinated approach for Mathematics and English Literacy, also including e-learning support. These new aspects, and related requirements for students and parents, will be illustrated in depth during a PYP Parent Information Session that will take place in the Auditorium on Friday August 28^th, starting at 1:30pm. The goal will be to provide more information to Parents from the beginning of the year, explaining the plans for this year and changes – academic and logistic - compared to last school year.

Upcoming University visits. The MYP/DP new academic year has just started, but in parallel our University Counselor will soon inform you about several upcoming visits of foreign universities during September and October. These visits will be an opportunity for our MYP and DP students to further think and exchange about their academic and professional future.

Best wishes. I wish then you all an interesting, challenging and successful academic year for our new journey together during the next 11 months.

Yours,

Francesco Masetti-Placci