Waiting For You!

@thatboardingvibeWaiting for your return ##welcomeback ##comebacksoon ##safetravels ##timeforschool ##thatboardingvibe ##cdl ##happiness ##lovelife ##versoix ##emptyschool♬ Aesthetic – Xilo

On Friday 4th it was 4 months since the explosion which devastated the lives of so many people in Lebanon. As we have a Lebanon community within boarding we wanted to show our respect and remembrance of this occasion. The students from Lebanon created the ‘Light for Hope’ event which was then embraced by the boarding community on Friday evening.

As part of Pillar 2- Respecting Diversity and Protecting against Bullying the students again undertook individual and community project.

For Leman’s community project we wanted to demonstrate the diversity but also similarities among us.

We are reaching the end of Pillar 2- Respecting Diversity and Protecting Against Bullying. 

Part of our program for this Pillar included a presentation by Ms Jody on Non-Violent Communication. This is about being conscious of how our language and communication can influence other people. It helps us think more empathetically about others and thus improves our relationships.

When we become conscious of how our communication skills impact others, we can see this from both the negative and positive. We can see how the words we use can either be for good or bad. If we can train ourselves to take accountability for or own actions and communication then we can avoid conflicts and help to inspire others.

This weekend seen us compete in another House Competition. This is a great way for us to show our House Spirit and what we can accomplish as a team. Iman took the lead this year is baking our entry. He did an amazing job and we hope our cake does well.

We hope you enjoy a bite,

Of our winter snowy delight.

This past week we celebrated ‘Spirit’ from our school motto and each section of the school did a project to demonstrate their Community Spirit. Within the Boarding Community we aligned this with our Wellbeing Pillar 2- Promoting Diversity and Protecting Against Bullying. We believe we have a strong bond as a Boarding Community and that together with the diversity among us we bridge cultures to come together and show our community spirit. To demonstrate this we created a video.

This weekend we again had a multitude of different activities available to the Boarders. This included tennis, horse riding, badminton, table tennis, zumba, photography, boot camp, biking, woodcraft, yoga and fashion club.

While the student’s opportunity to go off-campus is limited we, therefore, promote and encourage them to get as active as they can on campus. Staying fit and healthy is important for our wellbeing as we continue to act on the lessons from the Wellbeing Pillar 1

As we continue to think about our healthy diet, let us share with you our food options for Sunday Brunch.

This is always something to look forward to and a meal that is enjoyed by all. There is a huge variety to satisfy all.

As part of our House Competitions which aim at building House and Community Spirit we had our traditional pumpkin carving competition. The boys did excellent with their creation (with ALOT of help from Mr George), but we are proud to say that we came 1st!

How does it work?

Many people are familiar with the STEM acronym (Science Technology Engineering and Maths), but fewer are familiar of the more recent STEAM acronym which also includes the Arts. With the addition of Art, typical STEM projects can be made fun and more engaging to all students while encouraging imagination and creativity which before was typically limited.

This Halloween presented the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how art plays such a fundamental role in STEAM by creating a spooky Arduino pumpkin project. Arduino is a highly versatile and open source mechatronics platform that many schools with STEAM being a fundamental part of their curriculum have adopted. It was used in this pumpkin project to control the ghostly sequence of opening and closing of the jaw and activation of the lantern and eye lights in response to inputs from the ultrasonic distance sensor installed in the nose of the pumpkin.

This Thursday we will be hosting a Movie Night for the students. Our first movie night will be The Social Dilemma.

‘Set in the dark underbelly of Silicon Valley, The Social Dilemma fuses investigative documentary with enlightening narrative drama. Expert testimony from tech whistle-blowers exposes our disturbing predicament: the services Big Tech provides-search engines, networks, instant information, etc.-are merely the candy that lures us to bite. Once we’re hooked and coming back for more, the real commodity they sell is their prowess to influence and manipulate us’ (IMDB.com)

We had another fun-filled weekend of activities on offer. This weekend included Tennis, Crossfit, Horseriding, Hip-Hop, Volleyball, Climbing, Biking, Golf and a day trip to Montreux.

The Leman boys represented well again.

We launched our Community project two weeks ago and the boys have been working incredibly hard to do their extra steps! As a reminder, we committed to walking an additional 1,000,000 steps over and above what we normally do in the day. This works out to be an additional 16km each, that we all have to walk.

This is part of us all trying to improve our exercise and recognising the benefits of doing so. It also highlights to the boys that walking 16km is the equivalent to burning 500 – 700 calories. And there are 500 calories are in a Big Mac which equals a lot of walking just to burn that off.

In addition, we promoted our community links by fundraising for ESCA to raise money for their Cancer Support initiatives in Geneva. You can help us support this great charity and give the students an extra purpose to do their steps.

As part of our Wellbeing Programme, we are covering the topics of Sleep, Nutrition, Exercise and Emotional Wellbeing. Our aim is to cover these topics within the House in our weekly meetings. However, for Emotional Regulation we had Jody our Boarding Counsellor lead us in a Workshop. This helped us to reflect on stress points and triggers in our lives and to identify what kind of response we have to this.

We are very pleased to share with you the Leman community project of the first Wellbeing Pillar.

The first Wellbeing Pillar of the year is Healthy Body and Healthy minds. As part of this, the students must do an individual project and also a community one.

We have committed as a House to walking an extra 1,000,000 steps. This works out at an additional 16km each. These steps must be over and above the student’s normal daily steps.

We have also added an external community element to this by linking with a local Cancer Charity ESCA who did a similar event in which they challenged supporters to walk 55,000,000 steps the equivalent to going around the world. If you would like to donate please visit our Page on their site

This Sunday we had our annual Sports Day. This is part of our House Competition activities. We were paired against the Olympus Boarding House who put in a sterling effort. We were competing in basketball, badminton, soccer and tug of war. Unfortunately, our boys only came to victory in the Tug of War.

This Saturday morning we made good use of the lake. We are privileged that the lake is only a short walk from the school and that we can avail of the many water-based activities on offer. This weekend we had the water Donut and kayaking available. The students also enjoy walking down there over the weekend to just enjoy the beauty of the beach or paddle their toes in the water.

Tennis continues to prove to be one of our most popular Weekend Activities. Tennis Coach Martin always has full courts for each of his Saturday morning sessions. The activity is open to all abilities with Martin coaching those in need and pairing up those who want a good game against each other. The Leman boys represent well on the tennis court each weekend.

You will have heard us talking a lot about R.I.S.E and our students learning to embody the values of it. Here is a lovely video to discuss our thoughts on this.

This week we had a wonderful offering from Hawaii. It was a very refreshing Hawaiian Salad with choice of meat or fish to accompany. This is traditionally called a Poke Bowl and it really awakens the taste buds with a range of different flavours.

Don’t forget you can follow the meals offered in the Boarding Dining Hall with our Dining at CDL Blog

On Sunday we invited all the new students on a tour of Geneva. This allowed them to get to know the different areas of Geneva for when they have the freedom to explore the city with their friends in the coming weeks. They saw all the main highlights and tourist attractions. They left the school and walked into the local town of Versoix where they boarded the boat to Geneva. Unfortunately, the weather was not accommodating but it didn’t stop the students from getting to know each other and Geneva better.

On Saturday Karim took part in the photography activity. His inspiration was littering and upon finding a plastic carton used it in various scenarios to see which would look best. As part of our Community Service we often do Litter picking. We can therefore use Karim’s photos to show some of the effects of littering.

What a fast first week we had. We had our new students arriving on Sunday and by Tuesday night had the majority of our returning students. School started on Wednesday, followed by our Welcome Assembly, Welcome Dinner and House Meeting.

It was great to see the returning students coming back to their second home after soo many months away. The boys were happy to meet with their friends and reclaim their rooms.

It was also great to see the older students welcoming and helping the younger students to the House. We have a number who moved up to the Senior house as they enter Grade 9.

We also have 3 new students who join us for the first time and now become part of our Leman family and CDL community.

We have now reached the end of the school year. While it has been an unexpected start to 2020, I think we have a lot to celebrate and be proud of from when we came together in August 2019.

The school year started strong with the boys bonding well and us seeing a great comradery form. It was great to see returning students help to guide and assist new students and for older students to help out the younger grades. The inaugural Mountain Weekend which we had at the beginning of the year allowed the students to bond over activities and get to know each other. This then allowed us to put forward strong results in the House Competitions in which we held 1st place.

The beginning of the school year seen us enjoy our activities program after school but also at the weekends. This also included our weekend trips and events. We also started our Wellbeing Programme in which we tried to educate our students on being responsible world citizens and also put focus on looking after themselves.

When COVID-19 disrupted our school year this demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of the school and the students. We engaged in a new way of learning and interacting with each other which will only make us stronger.

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

This week we focused on Responsibilities

We discussed with the students that each of us have different responsibilities within our roles here at school. From the teachers, to management, to House Parents, to the students. We focused on what they believed where their responsibilities as students in CDL. We did a brainstorming session on the board to view their thoughts. These included; studying, being good, no fighting or bullying, being nice to everyone, respecting teachers, working hard in class, making parents proud, signing out, using study hall well, having fun, meeting new people and many many more.

We then tried to group these together to find the main themes. These were narrowed down to; Doing well academically, Respecting the rules and having Healthy relationships.

We then focused on Doing Well Academically and looked at an online test hosted by EducationPlanner.org. The test was only 20 questions but helped the students identify what kind of learning style they had. The students found this test quite accurate. However, most importantly the test also provided helpful hints and tips for the students based specifically on their learning style. Such as Tactile Learners, having something to fidget with in class. Visual learners, making sure they use a highlighter on their notes etc.

It was then proposed to the students, that this is an example of their responsibility. Aimed with advice and knowledge on how to improve, would they then take on the responsibility to apply it.

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.