Helping young adolescents understand how beneficial reading can be for them is not an easy task. In Concha Boarding House we have a bi-weekly Reading Club that regularly starts with us dragging the children into the living room and persuading them to grab a book to read.

You can imagine the push back we get everytime we even mention the words Reading Club, tonight was no different. Especially as some of the boys went to the Valentine’s Dance this afternoon. We really didn’t expect them to be willing to take part in the club. It started off as usual with the expected push back but the boys settled down calmy and did some reading; success!

After these weeks there is definatley one thing I have really noticed about this Reading Club. As much as the children a reluctant to join and it’s a struggle to get them started, when we tell them times up they will always continue to read. It’s these moments you see that the children are invested in their books and won’t stop immediately when told but would rather get to the end of their sentence, paragraph, page or chapter. I’m sure with consistency and finding books the children really enjoy, we can light the spark for them to start reading more and pick up books in their free time just for fun.

Fanbo found the confiest spot

Zhengtai chuckling to himself.

Voici Gianni et Adrian en train de recréer Le Classique en eSports. Le Classique est la rivalité entre les clubs professionnels de football français du Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) et de l’Olympique de Marseille (OM). Les deux clubs sont les plus titrés du football français et les seules équipes françaises à avoir remporté des trophées européens majeurs. Il s’agit donc de la plus grande rivalité en France.

Première Match: (Gianni) PSG 4 – 1 OM (Adrian)

Deuxième Match: (Gianni) PSG 4 – 5 OM (Adrian)

Match de la vengence demain….Allez les gars!

Choisissez votre équipe

Nous sommes prêts

In the evening we love getting the boys out the house to kick the ball around. Mr. Sam and the boys had a great time. Boys enjoying time together and making sure to show Mr. Sam who is boss.

The Squad

Eduardo, Martin, Sam, Emir and Quique joined the Climbing Club this weekend. Lots of time spent on new challenges and tougher boulder problems.

The boys are focusing a lot more on not concentrating all of their strength through upper body but using thier legs more. Prioritising footwork and body positioning is key to finding their centre of balance, once they start putting these techniques in place their climbing level will sky rocket.

Keep your feet up Edu!

Push with your legs Martin!

Just hanging out with Sam

Started from the bottom now we’re here – Emir

Swinging from the top

Fancy footwork

Celebrating Friday nights in. Sam found the weather too cold this evening so we decided to watch a comedy film together in the common room.

A sofa all to himself.

Calm down time and having a little read with the Grade 8s. It is nice to see them in their own worlds and how their vocabulary is flourishing each time we run through the tricky words.

Top words of the evening:

Resignedly: (adverb) in a way that expresses giving in to the insistence of another or to circumstances beyond one’s control.

Busted: (adjective) in trouble; caught doing something bad or wrong.

Hyper: (adjective) overexcited; overstimulated.

Fanbo, Javi & Firdavs – Caught in the plot.

Jiarui found a quiet spot to himself.

Well done to our young ones for being great students. Our Head of Boarding Mr. Usher wanted to give a big thank you to the students for being great examples here at Collège du Léman. Our Concha representatives are Alex, Juze, Eduardo and Fanyang – good job boys and keep it up!

Congratulations!

Juze & Fanyang on stage.

Boarding and Crans Montana are back together. Unbelievable weather, skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating, sledging, snowshoeing, bowling. It was non-stop fun and activities for everyone in boarding. Our boys showed respect towards their ski instructors and all House Parents on duty in the mountains. They really showed great effort skiing and snowboarding, the beginners enjoyed their first experience in the Swiss Alps and really tried their best. Well done everyone!

Not a cloud in sight

Sam was selected once again to represent Collège du Léman and joined the basketball team. This time the Panthers traveled for a tournament against 10 other teams. Sam  played really well contributing to his team with, and I quote, ”Quite a lot of points”. We’re sure he’s being modest. So proud of this young talent and great to see him trying his best to succeed in all areas of his life.

He’s cooking!

Another calm night in the common area with our young Grade 8s, each reading their chosen books. It’s wonderful to see their vocabulary progressing as we go over and log in their reading diaries key words they may have misinterpreted or not understood. 

Adrian is deep in another world and Firdavs is distracted by the camera.

Javi and Sam doing great and Jerry too – but needs to work on that posture.

Jiarui and Fanbo find it more comfy on the beanbags.