This weeks wellbeing tutorial started us on the fourth pillar of Making Safe & Responsible Choices

This week we focused on the Introduction to the Pillar and Facts about Drugs

For this week we first explored what the fourth pillar would include. This is a vast topic which incorporates many aspects of life. We will be covering drugs, alcohol, vaping, student voice, sexual consent, time management and risk awareness. This is such an important topic for our students at this age. They are surrounded by many influences both online and in real life. There is much temptation and it’s important they develop their own strong healthy morals and ideals.

Drugs

This will be a two-part topic, with this first session being an overall introduction to gather initial thoughts and opinions as to what the student’s perception is towards drugs. We started by gaining the student’s knowledge of what they considered recreational drugs to be. We explored the names these drugs were known by and also the nicknames. We then divided the group into pairs and each pair took a drug to do some research on. They fed back to the group facts about the drugs to break any myths or preconceptions they may have had.

On Tuesday night, as usual, we had our celebration of international food. This weeks theme was British. This was of great interest to Mr Morgan and Mr Gordon to see what would be produced to celebrate their culture. There was no disappointment with a traditional Fish & Chips, along with Roast Beef and Baked Potatoes.

This week we had our monthly Boarding Assembly. A great opportunity for everyone to get together and share news from the month along with any announcements and any accomplishments.

This month was led by Mr Salva and we covered the topics of our News Reporter initiative and the Coronavirus, along with the sharing of good news and information.

We also had our very own Gabriel giving an impressive music performance which can be seen HERE.

Christine did a fantastic presentation on the Coronavirus which gave factual information and urged people to not stigmatise anyone else and remain level headed regarding this.

“This is time for science, not rumor,

this is time for solidarity, not stigma”

Mr Rob and Mr James presented the new initiative for the World Reporter. This will be a committee of students who have an interest in world news, current affairs or journalism. They will meet each month to decide which current topics are most relevant to our student population and then present these in our Boarding Assembly.

In our monthly Boarding Assembly, we had the privilege of Gabriel performing for us.

Gabriel has self-taught himself how to use a looping machine. With this device, Gabriel can create a sound with his voice, such as beatboxing, record it, and then have the machine play it over and over while he then records another sound or sings.

Everything you will hear in this video has been made by Gabriels voice recorded live on the evening.

On Tuesday we had our weekly international dinner evening. This time we got to enjoy the delights of Portugal. The best part of the evening, in my opinion, was the Pasteis Nata which are a delectable dessert. Thankfully we can also get these desserts at our local Epicerie Pont-Céard.

This weeks wellbeing tutorial was continuing on the third pillar of Building Positive Friendships

This week we focused on Role Models

For this week we first explored what our definition of a role model was. Although each of us has an understanding of what a role model is, the boys found it difficult to come up with a succinct description. It was easier to compile a list of words regarding what a role model should be. However, we landed to the simplicity of “someone you look up to”. This allowed us then to discuss that this could either be positive or negative and therefore concluding a role model must be a positive influence that we look up to.

We then shared a worksheet with the boys that asked a number of questions, here is a summary of some of the answers (repetitions have been omitted);

What are the characteristics of a good role model? 

honest, helpful, successful, humorous, wise, smart, respectful, loving, interesting, ambitious, achiever, caring, happy, kind, doesn’t do bad things, nice, friendly, social, a leader, strong, fair, hard-working, peaceful, open-minded, loyal, brave, never gives up, encouraging, calm, inspiring, genius, ambitious, talented, iron-willed, great, polite, likeable, thoughtful, rich, handsome, healthy, good appearance, power, cool, chilled, funny.

Who is a role model for you in your life?

Julias Caesar, My Dad, Bill Gates, My uncle, JoySad, Captain America, Henry, Parents, Lebron James, Warren Buffett, My grandfather- (the majority choose their parents)

Why are they a role model for you?

he is honest; they are successful; they have the qualities above; because he is rich and successful; I look up to his achievements; they reached everything they could wish for because they worked hard; because he has the spirit to win and works hard which encourages me; if you watch the Marvel movies you would know; because he is perfect; because he is the best support for everything and always helps people and never gives up; he gives me good advice and helps me in and out of school; he earned alot from using a clever mind; they worked hard; because I want to make him proud; he was the greatest ruler of all time; he is funny.

Who is your role model within your peer group/boarding community?

Adam; Minghe; Tom; Henry; House Parents; Mishaal; Zihao; Mr Usher and Salva

Do you think you are a good role model?

No – 3    Yes- 11    Not Sure – 12

What characteristics of a role model do you have?

I am smart; to be honest; everything; nice, good, respectful, wise; caring, loving, pure-hearted; im kind, helpful and people look up to me; Friendship, cleverness, strongness; success and I’m clever; nice, smart, helpful; friendly; funny; kind; handsome and helpful; smart; helpful, a good friend and brave; calm; intelligent, shrewd, talented, wise; chill;

This was a great exercise to do with the boys as it not only taught them; what a positive role model should be, it also got them to appreciate those that they do have in their life and to reflect on whether they were presenting themselves as a role model to others.

This weekend we had another full offering of activities for the boys to choose from. These included tennis, cooking, swimming, horse riding, boxing, karting, body shaping, yoga and of course our Ski Day in Villars

On Saturday the students had another opportunity to go skiing or snowboarding. This is in addition to our two mountain weekends. We had 4 people from Leman 1 choose to take advantage of this and they had great conditions for a good day on the piste. They went to a new location in Switzerland called Villars. We will offer another two ski days in March.