Nov
15
2020

I like to Ride my Bicycle, I like to Ride my Bike

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Sunday was a beautiful day, a group of boys from the House and Mr Tom went for a local bike ride around the local area. The weather was amazing and the views to match, and if you look closely you can see Mt Blanc poking her head out in the distance of this photo.

 

Fransisco was ahead of the group leading the way, the boys spoke of  how amazing the local woods are and their desire to someday go camping, this is something we will definitely look into in the future.

The boys had a little history lesson on the ride, as we came across and old defensive post from the Swiss Army, here you can see Ryunosuke having a good look inside the small quarters for 3 men.

There were some uphills and some downhills, even though David seems to still argue this, he remembers it all being uphill.

Nov
15
2020

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

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This week we listened to the words of Jack Johnson and decided to take steps to be better at Recycling in the House. We have always recycled in the Olympus Boarding House but we thought that we could do better, and what better way to motivate the boys than some healthy competition.

 

As is the case with majority of the planet, plastic bottles are a not in short supply in the house, so to encourage the boys to recycle their bottles every time they have finished them, we are now offering 1 House point per bottle recycled, these points will go towards the overall House Competition.

 

As you can see we have had a successful first week, and the Grade 10s are well ahead.

Nov
12
2020

The Challenge of Coexistence

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For our pillar II of Wellbeing we face our most difficult, often inextricable challenge as a human species: living together with all our differences. The boys had simply to create a poster on their individual cultures for our community project — a wall of diversity. The boys presented their poster and explained some key aspects of their culture. However, how do we face the clashes that arise from irreconciliable differences? Many of our boys hail from cultures of religious fundamentalism, whilst others from a hard-earned tradition of extreme freedom of expression. We hope that this exercise helped broaden their mental horizons!

Mr Tom’s group prepare their posters for their presentation, and eventually for our wall of diversity.

Sacha, Akihiro, Francisco, Marnix and Vova prepare their posters.

Vova and Marnix present their posters on their different cultures.

Mr Rodrigo explains the concept of diversity, a challenge to maintain everyone’s Wellbeing.

Hamza’s presentation was particularly difficult because he has grown in several countries, and so his culture is that of Islamic values rather than those of a nationality.

The beginnings of our wall of diversity !

 

 

Nov
11
2020

House Meeting…. A Game of Pool…. A Tale Against All Odds ❗

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This autumn Wednesday evening saw the house of Olympus gathered around Mr Tom. He told us us his charity story about cycling 300+ km to raise money for the medical treatment for Mr Ricardo’s son. It is a truly inspiring story: they raised 2000+ francs, and the boy’s condition improved. This will inspire the boys for the CDL Change The World project for the boys to attempt a work of charity over Winter break. But that was not all. We had a house competition, lots of Wellbeing, and new results on our Mt Olympus board. Watch some scenes from the evening !

Mr Tom walked us step by step in his big cycle for a good cause

Some pictures from Mr Tom’s amazing story

A story of resilience for our Pillar II of the Wellbeing programme. We shared it to inspire the boys to start training for their long-term goals.

The boys partook in a house competition involving pool. A relaxing activity to boost their well being after a long day. Watch Said go for the red ball.

Watch Albion go for a shot. Grade 12 won this challenge, well done boys!

Boris goes for his shot…. while Mr Tom looks like Charlie Chaplin in reverse

The Olympus board before the challenge….

… and after! Grade 12 have got more than 500 points. To the other boys: you have some catching up to do! A slight sense of competition will boost their Wellbeing as a community in the house.

Nov
09
2020

An evening of Wellbeing and Games

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This evening the boys partook in the Second Pillar of our Wellbeing programme: Diversity and Inclusion. They brainstormed ways in which their countries make them culturally rich individuals and discussed both 1) their similarities and 2)differences. In this way they came to learn that even if they are different, their similarities were more than they expected. It’s never too late to learn this lesson!

Some of the boys also enjoyed a session of Catan with Mr Ronan 🙂

Omar, Karim, Boris, Aoto and Nihad create the posters for the presentations on their respective countries. Model UN!

 

Mr Rodrigo oversees the process of poster making. We discussed American foreign policy in light of Nigel’s poster, as he is from California.

 

Sadi during the presentation about Azerbaijan.

Last but not least, a stimulating game of Catan with Mr Ronan. A time for the boys’ Wellebeing! Thanks Mr Ronan.

 

Nov
08
2020

Just Another Wonderful Weekend

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Well-being takes many forms…. Here we  may see it on two wheels… on two tomatoes… or even two onions. It’s just another wonderful weekend. The leaves are turning yellow, brown and red. The boys rejoice!

Fran, Tony, and the rest explore the central European landscape.

 

Hanwen, Fran, Arsenii, Aoto, Ryunosuke and Tony… sometimes happiness means a pair of wheels.

 

Our animal friends

 

Francisco and Mirsadi partake in the joys of French cooking…. watch out Julia Child!! We’re sure the meat was ”au point”

 

Said, Francisco and Mirsadi pose in the midst of their creation. Happiness sometimes is just a full stomach. Bon appetit, boys!

Nov
07
2020

Mid-autumn Saturday Wellbeing

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The boys partook in some very engaging activities today that kept them entertained and boosted their Wellbeing.

Mr Jaime guides Ilya, Francisco and Boris through bootcamp… excellent to maintain a healthy mind-body balance.

 

The boys were very tired by the end of the activity…. mens sana in corpore sano, boys!

 

Arsenii and Nihad cooked a very elaborate brunch. Wellbeing for their stomach!

 

Tony looks on in awe and disbelief….it’s the joy of French cooking.

 

Iyowuna participated in the photography activity in nature… is this our future Henri Cartier Bresson ?? Time will tell!

David channels the work of Ansel Adams by taking a black and white picture of nature, Give him a LIFE magazine cover already!

Nov
04
2020

Mr Usher goes Virtual!

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This was our First Virtual Boarding assembly, Mr Usher spoke to the whole boarding community, Mr Antonio introduced us to the Second Pillar in our well-being program and Mr Rob gave us some news from around the world.

Nov
01
2020

Olympus put the P in Spirit

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The Olympus boys got together today to be part of Spirit week. Together with the rest of the boarding community, they created the word spirit, Olympus being the P.

The WIFI also went down this weekend which resulted in some great board game fun…… This was the start of a marathon 6 hour game of Monopoly

Harry was designated dice roller.

 

Oct
31
2020

Well-being in Olympus… Pillar 2, Respecting Diversity and protecting against Bullying

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This week the Boys in Olympus began their exploration of the second pillar in our Well-being program. Over the coming weeks we will explore, discuss and educate each other on the topic of Respecting Diversity and we will look at methods and examples of ways we can protect ourselves from Online Bullying.

For this Second Pillar the boys will again choose an individual project for them to complete, some of the boys have already started to research and educate them on the topic of Diversity. Some of the boys decided to listen to podcasts weekly the learn more. Each of the boys will be helped to choose a project to help them grow emotionally.