On Monday, after the student parent teacher conferences were finished, we took the boys to Nyon to have an nice afternoon outside in the fresh air.

Bullying is the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. It can happen face to face or online.

Despite being a famous and common phenomenon, “bullying” and its causes are still sometimes neglected and we believe it’s worth reflecting on its origins.

As human beings, we tend to identify ourselves with people who share the same features like us. It can be a language, an history, a background, a physical trait or a personal experience. As we create bonds and links among people of the same group, instinctively we start defining defence strategies against those who do not share the same features or values. That is the principle of stereotypes.

A definition of stereotype can be “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” With it, we assert our dominance, our power. We express jealousy or disagreement.

And this leads to discrimination because we wrongly believe that we are protecting ourselves by keeping ourselves apart from people different from us. It is a mechanism of defence that ends up causing more harm than good.

Bullying then happens as a result of this. We get blinded by our values, our features and we close our eyes to those who are different from us and ignore that so much more could bind us together.

Among many other things, bullying is then a form of discrimination. In the video below you can hear some testimonials about this and the effect on the people being discriminated against.

It is interesting to see how discrimination, bullying and racism work very tightly together. It is therefore essential we tackle them all in order to eradicate such hurting behaviors.

Below we can also watch the Bullying Experiment. It’s worth having a look and question where would we stand in those case scenarios and what our actions would be? Would we intervene? Would we let go and ignore?

All the boys travelled to Lausanne today to visit the Jump Spot trampoline park!

They had so much fun!

This afternoon, Kevin and Manuel volunteered to help collect litter which had been blown around by the wind. Thank you for your help boys!

Some more delights from the Concha Kitchen!

In the evenings, the boys have been helping the cleaning staff carry the heavy litter bags! It is greatly appreciated by the team! Well done boys!

We have formally introduced today, to the whole Boarding Community, the 2nd Pillar of our Wellbeing Programme.

As the title indicates we will be discussing Bullying and how to protect us from it while we will work in promoting diversity not just here at CDL but also in our lives outside school, as a core value that is dear to us.

There is plenty of scope for discussions and debates but certainly, there is no debate or discussion on the gravity of bullying. Yearly, thousands and thousands of people – young people – are victims of this phenomenon. Unfortunately, this is not just a matter of displaying a sense of discrimination towards someone. Unfortunately, the bullies sometimes go way too far in their unawareness and lack of tolerance. Bluntly speaking, thousands of people die because of bullying: either as a direct consequence, either because their self-esteem is so low that they end up ending their days themselves.

We can’t be indifferent to that. We are not.

The solution is all in the hands of education. Promoting tolerance, diversity and respect are the key elements to this social therapy. The world needs it and we promote it as the source of better days.

Being open to diversity is being open to learning, understanding, being flexible and receptive to perspectives. It is important and healthy to debate, to have different points of view and to deepen our reflection on who we are. But it is simply not acceptable to simply condone or discriminate just based on stereotypes.

As an international school, we pride ourselves on the sense of community we have. Realistically, there is so much more that links us than whatever differences we may have. So why focus on the latter?

Our efforts in Community Service and Charity aim at bonding people and allowing them to see the world in the eyes of those in need of help. It allows us to have a glimpse of a reality that is quite often unknown to us, and with this, we can open our eyes to visions and feelings that we probably have never heard of.

CDL Boarding is working together, like a big family, and our projects in the coming weeks will focus on getting tighter together as a force aiming at uniting the world a little more.

Another valiant effort from the ConchAttack team!

They lost by three points to the seniors boys, but should be proud of themselves for their hard work and working together as a team! The boys from Léman Boarding House were extremely encouraging with the younger boys from Concha Blanca, which was hugely appreciated!

Result – 34-37

MVP – Loris – Great leadership and put up 18 points in the process!

Autumn has arrived, please pack your warm jackets! 🧥