Tonight we enjoyed a lovely Mexican themed evening, filled with salsa, gucamole, beef and tortilla chips!

Our Chef for the evening

A cart full of flavor

Candid munching

This weekend we took our students to the Mountains of Verbier.

Nico took part in the overnight expedition to Cabanne Mt. Fort

Jonathan hiked around the village and learnt a lot about botanic.

Jules also hiked with another group

Omar preferred the speed and adrenaline of the mountain scooters.

The boys had a blast on the roads down from Ruinettes.

Nihad faced some steep terrain on his way back from the expedition.

Back in the main campus, Karim and Nadim were playing team sports

The evenings were full joy, music and laughs.

Today our students had the day off from school thanks to it being Jeune Genevois, a public holiday here in the canton de Genève that celebrates the youth of Geneva. We took a trip over to Lausanne so that they could explore the city and make sure they have everything they need before leaving for the mountains this weekend.

Bus 2 outside the Palais Rumine.

It is that time of year again when we launch the first pillar of our wellbeing programme in the Boarding Houses – ‘Nurturing Healthy Bodies and Minds’. 

Throughout this pillar we will be ensuring our students understand the importance of taking care of our bodies and our minds in our day to day lives. Furthermore, we will be highlighting sport participation, sleeping patterns, nutrition and relaxation methods, as sub topics. With the students, we will discuss and discover how all these could play a key role in maintaining a healthy balance.

This week we will be asking the students how different sports or creative activities can help them with both their physical and mental health.

We sat down together as a house and watched the following video:

Afterwards, Karim and Jules, our student advocates for this pillar, discussed the following questions with the rest of the house, as well as gave their own answers and thoughts:

1. What sports/activities they participate in?
2. Why they do it?
3. How they feel afterwards?
4. What benefits they find (physical and psychological)?
5. What you would say to someone who doesn’t participate in much sport or does not focus on any particular hobbies?

Franconis is quite an active house, with many of the boys frequenting the gym several times per week. It was interesting to see how the ways they get their exercise differs based on their own individual interests and physical capability.

Some of the boys discussed how exercise helped them blow off steam, grows their confidence and just generally makes them feel better if they have had a tough day.

They are looking forward to challenging themselves as a group!

With the arrival of our 6th housemate – Nihad – we are now full!

“You got it dude!”

The first of a series of posts introducing the various members of our house and sharing some photos from their first few days at CDL this year.

We begin with Karim, our resident lover of techno/house, ABBA, pancakes and GAINS.

Unpacking on the first day. The house sweater fits well!

Role playing as a House Parent. Where’s your blazer??

Ready for the gym!

On this rainy evening, Nadim decided he wanted to bake a cake.

Improvising a measuring cup out of a protein shaker

Blending it up

Oddly hypnotic

We were getting a bit worried about how much it was rising…

Fresh out of the oven. Nadim is trying to ignore the big slice I made checking if it was done…

The Finished Product

Thank you Louis Degallier for letting us use your cake tins!

This evening we had our first Boarding Assembly of this academic year!

On time, focused and ready. Good stuff.

The Welcome Assembly was opened by a lovely rendition of Yesterday by Gabriel from Léman. He did a great job!

I couldn’t resist sharing some blurry yet genuine smiles from the Franconis boys.