Happy birthday Kylie

We hope you had an amazing day, we loved the cake 🙂

Most of our girls chose tennis this morning 😁 they had a great time!

Today, as part of our wellbeing program, we explored healthy and toxic relationships and what to do if we find ourselves in one. The girls did a Kahoot and chose their group projects for our new Wellbeing Pillar. Some will be working on videos, posters and impactful images that reflect on friendship and how to build healthy relationships.

Manu helped this afternoon Maryan to get to know the last bits of our community. Thank you very much Manu! What a great House Captain!

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Maral made some nice crêpes today, we are so lucky!!!

The Boarding House is officially open and we cannot wait to have our girls back for a new semester full of challenges, adventures and lots of great memories. We hope everyone enjoyed a great start to the new year and some holiday cheer in family.

Wishing you a well deserved Break!

As every other Thursday the girls palyed a match against Champs De Bois. The final score was 6-6.

Tonight the youngest of the house Alana and the oldest of the house Luciana have to break the marmite of chocolate as a tradition of Geneva.

Last night in Collège du Léman we had our anual Winter Dinner. Nice food, fancy clothes, magical lightning and the best company made it a night not to forget. It was the perfect way to remind everyone how close they are from the holidays and this magical time of year, as well as a great opportunity to spend some time all together and dress up.

Our girls looked absolutely stunning!

Today Sally was busy in Old Portena! She made us some lovely sugar cookies and apple pie!

This afternoon we took advantage of the strong snow storm we had this week and went a bit higher up the mountain. The views were absolutely stunning and our girls enjoyed some great time in the snow and a hot chocolate 😁

We are so proud of them 😍

Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Falalalala 😁 Today we had our Secret Santa gift exchange and we were really impressed about how much thought our girls put into their gifts. It was one of those nights in which everyone shares moments of joy and laughter, we sang, we clapped, we ate some of Maria’s homemade snacks…! Merry Christmas Old Portena!

Merry Christmas ☺️

We could not be prouder of our girls. Tonight we celebrated our boarders in our Award Night, in which we recognised some of our most outstanding students in academics, boarding and activities. Specisl congratulations to Alana, Chisa, Ella, Manuela, Luciana and Anastacia.

Miss Maral made us the best crêpes ever. Thank you very much they were delicious!

Today we spent time learning who to skate, and also practicing a lot. Together we helped each others to keep going.

This weekend competition was GINGERBREAD HOUSES. We tried our best with the ingredients they provided to us, we also created some new additions.

It was really good fun to work all together with Christmas songs playing on the background.

We hope we win this one!!!!

Today we played a bit of everything during our activities morning

Today Chihana played with her US Terre Sainte FF15 team from Mies in Lausanne Nord Academy. They not only won the first place, but Chihana also got rewarded as the BEST PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT.

We are extremely proud of her, WELL DONE!

Ho, Ho, Ho…

…and the second of December was for Rin!

We are reaching the end of our Pillar 2: Fighting Against bullying and promoting diversity.

Last night during the House Assembly we had the chance to talk about bullying. Ella and Alana did their presentation and showed the girls some videos of how to stop it if you see something could be going on.
“Don’t do to others something you wouldn’t like to be done to you” Alana.

Alana got the chance to open our first door of the House Advent Calendar

What a perfect snowy day. Today we visited one of the most traditionally Swiss villages, the epicenter of cheese,     chocolate and meringue: Gruyere! We enjoyed some snow fights and snowman building with some amazing views and a bit of shopping. After, we left for the Cailler chocolate factory and learned more about the history of the exclusive Swiss brand. Pictures to follow 🙂

It’s early in the season, but we already had our first day of snow!! The girls couldn’t believe it, everyone was so excited that we just had to go and play outside! And of course, after we made some delicious hot chocolate with cookies.

Today we celebrated Annie’s birthday at an authentic Chinese restaurant in Geneva. We are so thankful to her family for organising this beautiful afternoon for our girls 🥰 To many more celebrations, Annie!

Rin, Chihana, Paria, Darina, Alana and Chisa participates in this charity. They had an amazing feeling after all and wants to do it again! 👏🏻

Normally we have pancakes for our Sunday brunch, but it is never a bad time for some fluffly pancakes! Ask our grade 6 girls 🙂

As part of their individual projects for this Pillar, some of our girls prepared some posters about bullying and how to prevent it. We are very proud of our girls who dedicated some time to this topic.

Our football stair played a championshop yesterday in her team with High School girls getting the Third Position, only loosing in the semifinal.

The cold did not stop them to get to give the best of themselves, great job girls.

We are incredibly proud of this super star!

WELL DONE CHIHANA

No word can explain, just the looks of happiness and the smell of vanilla in the house.

Alana joined the boxing activity last Sunday, she used it to get some stress out before the busy week ahead.

Be careful if you see her on guard, she is ready!

Learning and laughing before bedtime 😊

Today was the day… after weeks of training and playing, Old Portena obtained the victory for the house against Champ des Bois! It was an exciting match full of emotion. Thanks to our girls for not giving up 🙂

For our school, one of the main values is RESPECT, therefore we created a House Box full of Respectful values followed by our community.

We RESPECT and VALUE:

Ourselves and our families

Other cultures and religions

The environment

The property of others

All members of our community

The laws and traditions of the societies in which we live and work

Tuesday’s mean basketball! Tonight we had a surprise in the field and we played our monthly basketball match against Concha! And what a match! This time it was super close and the girls were more motivated than ever to take the lead. We also had some special guests from New Portena, who supported the girls in the field and joined the fun. Thanks to everyone for this evening 🙂

Winter days are approaching, but that only means it is the perfect opportunity to enjoy some warm water fun! Today some of our girls went to France to enjoy this amazing water-park with warm swimming pools and slides. It seemed like they had a great time!

A big part of our philosophy is showing the importance of giving back to the community. As part of the gift box action, some of our girls made some generous contributions and helped prepare and wrap up the boxes for them to be delivered. Good job Old Portena!

Rin,Paria ,Sabina and Mnauela did cooking  in Old Portena. They made Cookies and Pancakes.

Today is Luciana’s birthday and her brother bought her a cake to celebrate her 14th birthday.

We hope you had an amazing day.

Wishing you all the best!

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Thanks to Ms. Rym, yesterday some of our girls enjoyed a Sound of the Soul workshop, in which they could feel the sounds and vibrations  of the instruments and achieve a state of relaxation. Please see some of the pictures from this beautiful moments.

After a cozy morning indoors, we took a bus and explored the beautiful city of Nyon. Shopping, castles and walking around the Old Town were the order of the day. We love showing our girls some new spots in Switzerland!

Today we had our Parent Teacher meetings, so that means no school for our boarders! Some of our girls decided to play some games this morning 😁

Last Wednesday we used the meeting to call our friend Sabina, luckily she came back home very soon.

We missed you so much, welcome back!!!

Thank you very much for this tasty cake, what a baker 🙂

Thank you Mrs. Bea for coming with us for this amazing walk and for showing us your lovely house. We can not wait to go back again!!!

On Wednesday we enjoyed the sunny sky and went to the forest to take some amazing nature pictures

Tonight our girls from grade 6 played basketball against Champ des Bois and other grade 6 students from Concha. It was a very tight match and they had a lot of fun!!

On today’s menu we had Miss Maria’s banana bread 😍 It was so good!

As our Halloween outing we took our students to Chaplin’s World this weekend. We learned a bit more about the life of the actor and enjoyes his movie studio. See some of our nicest memories below.

Spooky and delicious!

It’s a rainy day today in Versoix, so for some of our girls it was more appealing to stay in after their activities and stock up at the local supermarket. Afternoon plans include movies, Just Dance and a bit of room tidying up!

What a better way to begin a Saturday than with an early tennis session!

Miss Maria made us not one, but two cakes for today’s “quatre heures” 😉 Our girls loved them!

… with the sound of music 🎶

Yesterday the Photography students did a very special workshop in which they captured a lot of beauty. We want to share these moments with you 🙂

Yesterday we had a welcome meeting where we got back together after a week apart. We called Sabina as we miss her so much.

Basketball is about team work, strategy and fun. Our girls challenged Villa du Lac once again and demonstrated an amazing skillset and willingless to play as a team. We are very proud of our girls for playing tonight and even more for playing with a smile. Next time we will go for the win 😉

Today most of our girls are coming back and we can not wait to see them after their breaks.

Today is the start of the October break! Our girls are real travelers, and while many of them are returning to their home countries, others have decided to explore new places like Paris, Lisbon or even Switzerland. It has been a great start to the school year and we hope everyone comes back with lots of energy and new stories to tell.

On behalf of the Old Portena team, we wish everyone a great holiday and see you very soon!

The girls wanted to go to the Lake and enjoy the last hours in Geneva and the nice weather.

When you love something, inspiration comes with it.

Healthy eating is one of our main points of focus for this year, but eating healthy doesn’t mean not enjoying what we eat. Today Miss Cristina made us a delicious apple cake with cinnamon and dates. Dates are an amazing natural sweetener, full of nutrients and good energy 🙂 The girls definitely approved!

Social Time in the House!

This weekend we had an amazing experience in DisneyLand Paris. Our girls could enjoy the time with their friends and get to know some other Boarding students from different Houses.

What a magic place to spend a sunny weekend!

Wednesdays mean assembly, and today we were able to see some beautiful perfomances and learn about the importance of manners and nurturing healthy minds and bodies.

Finally all our girls arrived! Yesterday night Sally joined Old Portena. We hope she will feel at home in no time and start to make some memories 🙂

Thank you Aida for coming every week to teach our little ones something really interesting. We are getting there!

Today the girls made a Macaroni Monster  cake. Well done!!!

L

We don’t need to do great things in order to improve our wellbeing, sometimes the simple things like a walk or making healthier snack choices can have a big impact! Some of our girls stayed closer to school and tried this at the local supermarket. They were all encouraged to make at least one healthy choice in their weekly shopping and these are some of the results.

As every Saturday, our girls today enjoyed a shopping afternoon in Geneva, the perfect way to relax and disconnect after a long week in school 😁 Today they took advantage to enjoy the delights of French and Japanese cuisine, and even did some shopping to cook at home!

For our wellbeing session of today we proposed a drawing meditation to our girls. First, they closed their eyes and tried to be aware of their bodies and emotions. After, they drew freely with their eyes still closed listening to the meditation guide. Finally, they started filling their drawings with the shapes that expressed best their present state. We love the results 🙂

Miss Maria made some snacks for the girls. They are so happy went they came back to the house and see that delicious snacks.

Old Portena and Villa du Lac played the first match of the tournament season this evening. Our girls played really well and fought for the win, but this time the advantage was for Villa du Lac! In a few weeks we have the second match, we will be ready 😎

Today everyone dressed nice and we took our House picture all together. We can’t wait to see the results 🙂

Elsa, Ella and Alana took some bikes and enjoyed our great football pitch surroundings.

Chihana and Rin played volleyball

Look at these cooks:

… and models …

Thank you very much Maral for this amazing steak.

“It was delicious!” – Chihana

Rin’s face looking at the amazing steak!!!!

Anything better than a movie and some snacks for a rainy day?

What do you eat for brunch? Salty?, Sweet? or BOTH?

Sharing is caring!

Chihana met her sister who is studying in Collège Alpin Beau Soleil

We went for a nice walk by the lake, we better enjoy the last bits of the summer before the Autumn weather arrives.

Thank you very much Elsa for this amazing treat!

Alana, Chisa and Elsa enjoyed the quiet in the House to have an afternoon movie party with yummy Chinese food.

They also had a lovely walk to the local shop.

Dari is nearly a professional chef.

Today Chihana, Sabina, Manu and Berru had fun in the Volleyball Club.

Wellbeing is a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health factors. Wellbeing is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction.

Today we put all of this in our plates and had an amazing time at home.

Today Anna Mariya came home and we spent the evening showing her around campus

Elsa got a new bike!!!

We also participated in the September Fitness Challenge – How long can you hop on one leg for?

Chisa holded it for nearly 1:3o – WELL DONE!

Our Well-being is one of the most important part for us. We are all starting to miss home a lot, therefore we want this to be our new home. We are trying to give ideas to make Old Portena cosier.

When you feel home and comfortable all your habits change. In this Pillar we are working on Sleep and how to get more sleep and of the best quality and feeling at home is key.

These are the pastries to celebrate the mid autumn festival in China.
The moon’s roundness symbolises harmony and prosperity, and the festival celebrated the harvest, often bringing together family members from near and far.

Today’s snack was homemade non-sugar pancake

Rin and Chihana decided to sign up for chess this afternoon with our own chess master, Mr. Gordon. Maybe they will beat him soon with a little bit of training 😊

Sundays are usually trip days for our girls. Today grade 6 had a visit to the Botanical Gardens of Geneva and the rest of our girls enjoyed a variety of sports on campus.

During our Geneva trip, we cama across a Street Food Festival! There were so many options it was hard to choose just one! Our girls were finally tempted by the fish and chips, but we could also enjoy some fries, Mexican tacos, Argentinian empanadas and Venezuelan arepas, yum!

Today Mrs. Aida came during social time to continue the Crochet Club because the girls can’t wait to Tuesday to continue.

Weekends are always packed with activities! Today some of our girls decided to take a horse riding lesson in our local school in Versoix. They are both advanced, so we are sure that very soon we will see them jumping high 😉

Today  during the Wellbeing Session of selfcare. So the girls made some face masks with oat, yogurt and honey.

Today we start the Crochet Club. Ella, Amy and Elsa love that!! Next time we will start with the headband.

Old Portena loves sports! Today’s fitness challenge was “How many basketballs can you score in one minute?”. Alana and Chihana gave it a go and did pretty well!

Today the girls learn how to selfcare of themselves as a part of the wellbeing Pilar 1. They made face masks with oats, yogurt and honey.

• Last night we celebrated not one, but two birthdays in the boarding house! Paria and Maria, our boarding assistant, enjoyed two delicious chocolate cakes and everyone’s birthday wishes. To another wonderful year 🙂

We had a lot of fun in Leysin, we enjoyed the amazing weather and landscape with our friends.

What an experience!

Chisa and Chihana took the most challenging experience, they decided to join the group for an overnight stay, up the mountains at 3000 metres.

So proud of you girls!

Some of us could learn some orienteering skills and took the time to get to know Leysin forest.

After our first day in Leyin we got ready for several activities:

AIGLE CASTLE

Annie and Amy had the best time visiting this part of the country. Such a lovely castle!

The girls from Old Portena went today to visit Lausanne and the Olympic Museum. Perfect combo, Museum and shopping for a day without school.

Yesterday in the House Meeting we organized the Mountain Weekend to come, some news and we watched a video about body image. Here some quotes from our girls:

“Societies beauty standards are generalized. We should all love each other for who we are, non of us were born the same and we will never be the same”

“Don’t judge by looking. Inside of the body is more important than looking”

“Everyone should be confident in their own body. Everyone is different”

It was great to celebrate Rin’s birthday today. We are so lucky to live in an international community, we were able to sing for her in English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Ukrainian!

This month we are dedicated to wellness. As we know, taking care of our body is a great part of our wellbeing, so our girls are taking part in the Fitness Challenge organised by Mr. Rob 🙂 Today the challenge was to hit a football as many times as possible. Of course, the winner was Chihana, with a record of 3 minutes 14 seconds, and she could have kept going!

In our boarding houses, we have a House rep and House Captain to support their fellow students and give them a voice if they feel they have something they want to share. Two of our students came upfront and volunteered to take on these roles. Both of them will be a role-model to our community and we feel they are capable of this and more 🙂 Allow us to introduce them to you…

HOUSE REP

Paria Jowkar

Paria was house captain last year. As an experienced and returning student, she will lead by example and give voice to our girls in front of the whole community. She presented her candidature in the form of a poem which warmed our spirits and demonstrated her amazing use of words. We knew right away she would be perfect for this role!

HOUSE CAPTAIN

Manuela Kapose

Manuela is a new student at school, but since the first day her warm and caring personality has brought her many friends and made her a support for those around her. We believe she will be a great leader for our girls.

What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Today, Annie, Amy and Berru decided to spend their time baking some sweet treats. Cupcakes, apple crumble, peach cobbler… Old Portena smells like cinnamon!

What a fun way to spend a Sunday!! We had so much fun at the Aquapark this weekend. Pirate ships, slides, swimming pools… The perfect balance between fun and relaxation 🙂

This afternoon we enjoyed our usual afternoon in Geneva. It’s a great opportunity to relax, do some shopping, enjoy the city atmosphere and enjoy some of our favorite snacks! Today was specially busy, as we needed to get the last bits and pieces for our upcoming Mountain Weekend 🙂 after our long day, we are getting ready for a Disney movie night!

STEAM stands for Science Technology Engineering Art and Maths. For the first session of this year, our students participated in the Egg Drop challenge! Helium balloons, recycled materials, PET bottles, parachutes… and of course a little bit of art to give life to our eggs. Chisa did an amazing job and both of her eggs survived!

Today Mrs. Jody visit us to meet the girls and do some mediation. After the mediation the girls make some dream catcher for the  wellbeing Pilar 1 the first week sleep.

Social hour is the perfect time to enjoy playing some sports with friends. With the last weeks of Summer rapidly approaching, some of our girls decided to spent their time participating in some outdoor activities.

What a treat for the palate

Today Chihana played football with the boys in Concha

Welcome back Chihana, we missed you!!!

If you have a moment come and visit our new wellbeing space in Old Portena. Here we will inform you of all the news, activities and ideas we will use for all of us.

This year as usual we will start with our Pillar 1: Healthy minds and healthy bodies and we will focus this first week on:

 How do we find our balance?

How much sleep is enough?

Today, as every sunday we enjoyed the beauty of our Lake Geneva. We took the boat in Geneva and had a lovely tour around it.

Today we ate our favourite meal of the week; BRUNCH!

And then we made some origami, Chisa is a professional!!

The girls enjoyed together this amazing weather playing volleball

This afternoon, we had the perfect Summer afternoon in Versoix, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy an afternoon by the lake! We walked down all together and enjoyed some local snacks.

Classes have already started at Collège du Léman, and we thought the best way to celebrate was having a traditional Swiss dinner. Yum! Our students enjoyed a lovely night all together, filled with cheese, laughter and lots of Swiss flags. We captured some of their best moments 🙂

SMIIIIIILEEEE!!!

First day of school means “no homework”. So, the girls enjoy their time having fun while getting to know each other.

It is never easy to go to a new school and a new house, but with these lovely girls, everything is easier

Today the new girls in Old Portena did the test,  meet her homeroom teachers.And bonding time.

Today we welcomed our new students and their families.

We are very happy to see the House getting full of happy faces.

The Welcome Assembly and Cocktail took place today in the Eiger Auditorium.

Alana and Ella are full of energy and ready to join any activity, the pool was awesome!

Alana and Ella met today, they will be roommates and they are the first girls to come this year. Welcome to Old Portena ladies 🙂

Chisa also arrived today. She had a great week of fun during the Summer Camp Excursion Week. She looks tired but happy. Welcome back home Chisa!

We are looking forward to meeting our new girls and welcome them to their new home

Old Portena team is waiting for you!! We can’t wait to have all of you in the House.

Old Portena team wish you Happy Holidays!!! Enjoy the summer!!!!

Today was the graduation of Chisa,Lola, Yustyna and Elsa.Well done!!!

Today Taissia,Arina,Raquel,Roberta and Anna  graduates. We are so proud of you!!!

Miss Maria’s personalised cakes      are so delicious that we may need more than one!

This evening the girls had so much fun at the end of year party! They played in laser tag, water activities, slides and many more, while enjoying some delicious ice-cream!

Today all the girls went to the Lake to do the Dougnut activity.

Arina won a gold medal for her incredible art work this year!

today Arina, Taissia and Paria went to Coop for the Samedi Du Partage they went in the first group at 8 am. We are so proud of you girls!!!!!

Over the past year, Old Portena have made wonderful memories with friends and taken part in so many activities, that we have enough photos to fill up our Memory Books! The girls will be able to keep these books forever to remember our special year together! We are looking forward to seeing the finished books next week!

Today we enjoyed a beautiful walk in Lavaux.

Today as a House Activity we went to SENSA. We had so much fun and full of sensations.After we had McDonald’s and our Geneva time.

Even that the girls don’t have School they did Biking, STEAM Club and Volleybal.

Paria and Anna represented Old Portena in our Annual House Competition! Good job ladies!

On Saturday the girls participated in Cooking, Running Club and  Photography where they took amazing photos with Dia.

This week the Old Portena ladies took time to think of someone that had been truly inspirational in their lives, and they wrote a letter of gratitude thanking them for all the ways that they had made a difference. Soon afterwards, the girls sent these special messages to the person that they had in mind via photos of their letters, phone calls, and emails. Many families, members of staff, and friends were contacted throughout the evening. These tokens of appreciation brought much love and true happiness to both people involved. It was a special evening as we heard of the truly inspirational ways that people can make a difference in another person’s life, and of the power that a grateful heart has towards everyone’s happiness.

Today the girls did Tennis, STEAM Club m, Volleyball and Football. The rain don’t stop them 💪🏻

Today the girls did Tennis and Cooking where they cooked delicious crepes with orange.

On Friday Arina,Karina,Paria,Rin,Anna and Lola went to  Signal de Bougy to do the Accrobranch they love that!!!

Yesterday the girls went to the Jumping Park in Lausanne. They had so much fun like Kangaroos!!

We a visitors in Old Portena. The ducks couples 😍

To the mothers of all these blessed kids who are far from their children on this special day; we are thinking of you and wishing you a very happy Mother’s Day! Your kids are very special to us, each one unique in their own extraordinary way; all gifted and talented in different areas that create our CdL family.

Today was another Recycling Day where the Old Portena gilrs, with the help of their friends, all had fun being Environmentally Friendly! Great job!

This  Weekend the girls enjoyed Tennis, Cooking  and STEAM Club.

Today we went to Cailler and Gruyere. We came back to the school with our pockets full of chocolate 😄😄

The girls went to visit the tulips in Morges  and also enjoy the day  in a theme park.

Today the girls did  this activities Tennis , Biking in the forest and Cooking where they made Sushi.

you have all left and the House is quiet without you! We are comforted by the fact that you will be back in a couple of weeks and fill the House with fun loving energy, each one of you in your unique way. In the meantime, we wish you the Happiest of Holidays with your families and friends!! See you in a couple of weeks..

Miss Monica coooked a wonderful House meal of burgers, fries and salad for all the girls to enjoy! Thank you!

The Individual and Community Projects have enabled the girls to research and understand, for themselves, the importance of online safety, which will stand them in good stead for many years to come.

It’s been a great evening of laughter, listening to music, enjoying pizza and spending time together!

Each Wednesday, we are very privileged to enjoy a meal from a different country around the world!

This week was delicious Japanese food!

Yustyna is painting a drawing from Mr.Corbin. Thank you!!!

The girls were so happy because the shops are open and we could go to Geneva!!!

The 8th of March is International Women’s Day that grew out of the labour movement to become a recognised annual event by the United Nations. The seeds of it were planted in 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote. The idea to make the day international came from a woman called Clara Zetkin. She suggested the idea in 1910 at an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. There were 100 women there, from 17 countries, and they agreed on her proposal unanimously. It was first celebrated in 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland and in 1975 the United Nations started celebrating the day officially.

International Women’s Day has become a date to celebrate how far women have come in society, in politics and in economics. Please join Old Portena as we celebrate this day by honoring our Director General, Pauline Nord, and thanking her for building an excellent school community and helping our students achieve outstanding academic results by inspiring them with her hard work and dedication, to becoming the world’s future leaders.

This week we began our new project on etiquette and manners. The focus in our meeting last night was on the importance of greeting people correctly.

The girls enjoyed the role-plays and we hope to provide them with some life skills which they can use with confidence and grace.