Tonight we are celebrating Amirhossein’s birthday with a delicious cheese cake. What a blissful moment with his closest friends. Happy birthday Amirhossein !!!

Our weekly wellbeing session, evolved around signals that can be good or bad in terms of how a friendship is developing. Surely we are all aware of this but when we observe another person’s behavior and attitude we get triggered in a positive way when they do something that is reassuring and caring, or negative with it’s the opposite.

The activity proposed was to run a Kahoot, and spot some red, yellow or green flags which can guide us to assess the situation.

Congratulations to Aydan who scored the highest score… we trust he is a good friend 🙂 More important than that was to reflect on how these signs can be read and how to react to them. There are no fully right or wrong answers and it’s for each one to identify what they consider to be a decent code of ethics and a pattern on behavior in a healthy friendship.

This weekend, the Leman boys had to split up in two different locations. The juniors of the house went back to Leysin where they could continue to enjoy winter activities such as skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, etc. In addition, they had the opportunity to go to a spa where they could relax during the afternoon and also had fun at the toboggan park, what a lot of laughs they had!

The seniors could go to Crans Montana, where they enjoyed skiing and snowboarding.

They had a great time and enjoyed this weekend off campus!

Today we have a very double special celebration as our two prefects Roi and Yosuke turn 18 and 19 respectively.

A moment to remember with friends and family from Leman …

Happy Birthday Roi and Yosuke !!

Momo’s Geography Teacher challenged him to envision and create a sustainable city. He worked extensively to create a centre engineered to improve environmental impact through precise urban planning, renewable energies and good management.

We later realised that this eco-friendly goal was achieved right in front of our eyes as many Leman students and HouseParents worked sustainably together to help Momo complete his fantastic project.

Well done Momo!!

This take away point is particularly relevant as we all have been involved in a situation of this kind… as a “microagressor” or as a “microaggressed”.

We have all shared jokes where we comment about someone’s nationality, sexual orientation, creed, physical appearance, etc… There is no denying about that.

However we agreed that it’s important to think on how the receiver of the joke might perceive it. Will he be affected? Does he take it well or is he vulnerable? Has he had a good day or has he had some traumatic experiences related to this topic?

Despite not having a harmful intention, microaggressions can have a deeper impact in the receiver, and more surprisingly, unexpected ones.

The take-away point is to raise awareness on how sensitive this can be and perhaps, build a stronger awareness on how our words can affect those around us.

Something to follow and observe in the coming months… 🙂

The Boarding House wishes an happy birthday to Masafumi ! He had the chance to enjoy a good chocolate cake with his close friends. What a good time !

We are glad to say that we had a wonderful week-end in Leysin ! Over the week-end our boys enjoyed many winter activities. A lot of them decided to conquer the swiss slopes by going skiing or snowboarding with an instructor. If going on the slopes were not their cup of tea, they visited the magnificent glacier 3000 where they enjoyed the fresh air and the views. For the most adventurous ones, the tobogganing activity certainly gave them strong sensations ! At night, they had the chance to discover and enjoy typical mountain dishes such as raclette. On Sunday, they could either go back on the slopes, take some time to study or go ice skating. So good to see the boys so happy !!

We are glad to say that we had a wonderful week-end in Leysin ! Over the week-end our boys enjoyed many winter activities. A lot of them decided to conquer the swiss slopes by going skiing or snowboarding with an instructor. If going on the slopes were not their cup of tea, they visited the magnificent glacier 3000 where they enjoyed the fresh air and the views. For the most adventurous ones, the tobogganing activity certainly gave them strong sensations ! At night, they had the chance to discover and enjoy typical mountain dishes such as raclette. On Sunday, they could either go back on the slopes, take some time to study or go ice skating. So good to see the boys so happy !!

What are the qualities of a good friend ? What do we look for when we have a friend ?

Just to have a more accurate view of the opinions we have ran a quick survey on the main feature that our boys look for in a friend. We won’t be surprised to see that the 5 main answers are totally linked they naturally they complement each other and are deeply rooted in our sense of affection and bonding.

The main one was loyalty but this can be a form of respect. Caring is a sign of trust and support… and it was interesting to see that Love appeared a few times as the sum up of what friendships are about.

This exercise allowed us to reflect on something so simple and innocent as the way we bond with other people and how naturally we are inclined to get closer with people who inspire us some of these nobles values.

Many other answers were given, some of them mentioned once or twice… Brotherhood, Honour, Company, Help, Honesty…

… aren’t they all valid as well?

We bring you the winter edition of The Philosophy Society.

In it, you will be able to read opinions expressed by students and address different topics. Have a look at it!

Besides, Otabek, a boy from Léman, is the chairman of this society.

After the first week of classes, we have reached the weekend and the boys have been able to enjoy the activities on the campus. As always we had our hours of tennis, climbing, horse riding and cooking class with the chef, where this time they cooked cordon bleu and mashed potatoes. As a special activity, they had Laser Tag. Leman played against Olympus, where they drew. So, we will have to see in another field to have a tiebreaker and a winner.

We have now entered a new chapter of our Wellbeing Program which is Pillar 3 and centers on Building Positive Friendships and Relationships.

As Parents, we try to motivate our students to understand the values and skills that will help form these positive connections as having friends can greatly help them learn about themselves and the uniqueness of others. Friendship experiences teach us how to build successful relationships, handle conflict and contribute positively to the lives of others. We are certain that our students will experience many joys and challenges among friends and everyone plays a key role in helping to understand how to process their positive and negative experiences.

To launch this important reflection we interviewed some of our Leman boys and asked the following question:

What qualities do you look for in a friend? 

Have a look at their opinions:

All the Léman team wishes you a wonderful new year ! We are delighted to welcome back our amazing students to the boarding house. As we are entering the second semester, we will have amazing activities such as the mountain week-end, the trip to Rome and Finland and outstanding weekend activities. Welcome back everybody !