As the days grow longer and the air fills with the sweet promise of warmer weather, it’s time for us to bid adieu to the winter season and embrace the vibrant spirit of spring. To all our cherished boarding students, we extend our heartfelt wishes for a sensational and rejuvenating spring break ahead!

The past few months have been nothing short of extraordinary, filled with unforgettable memories and remarkable achievements. From exhilarating mountain weekends to captivating drama performances, our boarding community has truly embraced the spirit of adventure, creativity, and camaraderie.

We wish you all a wonderful spring break!

The Spring Seasonal Issue of the Philosophy Society Journal is now out. Once again we feel inspired by Otabek’s participation and interest about the perhaps most ancient human science, so linked to our human nature.

Feel free to explore this issue.

We will back shortly, after a quick week to recharge batteries.

Many of the boys are now heading home, quite a few lucky ones are heading to Crans-Montana for the Winter Camp… and one very lucky boy from Léman is heading to the Artic Circle on the exciting Finland trip.

We will back with news, photos and accounts of their adventures.

Until then, enjoy this time 🙂

The Léman team

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 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… 🙂

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?

The whole Léman family at the Boarding Winter Ball 2023!!!

This annual celebration commemorates the successful thwarting of the Duke of Savoy’s attempt to gain control over Geneva. It includes a unique food tradition that involves chocolate.

Each year, the citizens of Geneva take part in the tradition of smashing a chocolate marmite (cauldron). Decorated with the city’s colors — red and yellow, the cauldron also features its coat of arms. People typically smash it on December 12, and there is a specific ritual that accompanies this process. Within a family household, for example, the youngest and the oldest join hands and recite the phrase, “Ainsi périrent (or périssent) les ennemis de la République.” This translates to something like, “Thus perished (or perishes) the enemies of the Republic!” Then, they smash the chocolate cauldron with their clasped fists.

The attack of the Savoyards on Geneva took place during the evening of December 11, 1602. That night, when the soldiers arrived and the church bells sounded the alarm, the citizens of Geneva took it upon themselves to stop the invasion. Legend has it that Mère Royaume, a woman who was cooking a pot of soup, threw her cauldron and its scalding contents out the window to prevent the enemy from advancing. Although a rather violent act, it symbolizes the spirit of the Genevois during this battle. Regular citizens taking the initiative to protect their city! And, succeeding! To honor the occasion, chocolatiers in Geneva began creating cauldrons that are made of chocolate and filled with sweet little marzipan versions of Mère Royaume’s vegetables. The cauldron tradition apparently did not become established until the 1880s.

Thank you to Amir, our Head-boy who read the script of this historical event to our new students who then enjoyed the sweets and the chocolate 🙂

Léman House was massively represented in the Awards Ceremony for the Semester 1.

Our Boarding House is now with lots of “medalists” for their fantastic achievements in these first few months of the year.

The first award of the night was for Boarding Life. The students who get this award represent the identity of Boarding through their commitment towards others, respect for the rules, sense of community and positive energy. Our winners are Liusen, Adi, Masafumi, Apollo and Léon.

The Activities Award goes to the students who show excellence by making the most of the endless opportunities in terms of evening and weekend activities, who push and challenge themselves to new heights and achievements. These 5 boys, Teo, Ignacy, Stefan, Antoni and Léon are our heroes.

Then we move on with the Academic Awards.

Adi with the best average score in Seconde ( French Section )…

  … Aijuka in Première ( French Section ).

Antonio for the best score in IG2.

Liusen and Apollo in Grade 10 (with the other winners).

Antoni ( with the other winners ) in IB1.

Roi, Amir and Amirhossein for Grade 12 and IBCP2.

A special mention to Jinde and Yosuke for their awards as well in grade 11 and IB2.

We are immensely proud of all of you and are looking forward to seeing everyone get more awards during the year.

Léman Rocks 😀

And now Bohdan’s drawing skills… What an amazing talent!!!!

Bohdan’s drawings express intensity and energy while they encompass a bucolic feeling in them.

It’s incredible what he can do with his Stylus Pen.

Congratulations Bohdan and keep nurturing this gift you have. 🙂

Proud to share the work and talent of our Mykhail via his videos and youtube channel.

Great electronic sounds for some great music.

If you want to check out more, here is the link for his channel. There’s a variety of creations there, worth listening to.

Rock on Mykhail 😀

https://www.youtube.com/@jusikbeatz/videos

This week our wellbeing session took another shape from the usual format.

The topic of sexual orientation and gender identity can be a delicate one… Doubts, fear, embarrassment and prejudice can surely hinder ones willingness to openly talk on his views and needs.

Thus, our advocates have created a platform where any student can place his or her own questions, in a totally anonymous way, and have them answered back.

Despite the fact that we are an open community, where dialogue is encouraged and tolerance is paramount, we feel this can be of great help to some who can be not so confident to talk about these matters.

It’s great to know that CDL is a school that always tries to develop strategies to support the students and to give them voice.

Weekends are a synonym of fun at CDL and this weekend was particularly exciting with a group of 8 Léman boys joining the EuropaPark trip, in Germany.

EuropaPark was a blast and the boys have created memories of the days spent there that will link them for the rest of the year.

But for those staying on Campus, there was also some quality time reserved for them. A big group joined Tennis and others went Running despite the winterish cold day 🙂

More adventures to follow, in the next few weeks 🙂

A huge well done to Adi and Masafumi for their performance today in the Volleyball Match. Representing CDL is always an achievement to be proud of and they do it with pride and skill. Check these images out 😉

We were immensely proud of Adi for playing guitar in our monthly assembly last evening. Guitar is one of his passions and Adi gifted us with a showcase of his talent, since he had little notice to prepare his performance, a technical version of “Take me to church” by Hozier. Real artists are like this, willing to step up when needed… The show must go on 🙂 Well done Adi, and thank you

Special day to Amir today. Turning 17 is a landmark and after celebrating with his friends, he got the traditional chocolate cake.

Lots of things to celebrate in his life. He is our Head Boy, Piano magician, brilliant in academics… and a source of energy and joy on a daily basis.

We can only wish for him to continue like this.

Happy Birthday Amir. We wish you lots of joy.

Dmytry, our guitar hero, turned 17 today and after a nice meal out, we gathered his closest friends for a mini celebration in the House.

Chocolate cake and good moments were part of the celebration.

We wish you the best Dmitry 🙂

Bits of French culture… and autumn weather 🙂

It’s great to have visitors in the House, particularly if the visitors are the High School teachers who came to the House to visit the new Léman facilities and share some pleasant moments with our boarders in a relaxed and classroom free atmosphere 🙂

This initiative always produces good results as it allows teachers to see the boarders “at home” while the students get to see more the person, than the teacher they have in the classroom.

Here are some snapshots of these good moments.

Stefan, passionate about photography and aviation. In his free time Stefan loves to visit the airport and photograph airplanes, landing, taking off or taxiing…

A lot of talent indeed. We are looking for more photos and wonderful views.

Happy to be back to our weekends here in Léman. As usual, Saturday was full of exciting activities where our boys could make the most of their time… being it simply by chilling at home while playing Uno, climbing a wall, playing basketball or paddling in the lake.

What a lovely way to enjoy the summer mornings that this beautiful area offers us 🙂

The first days in a new school are always a little intimidating  but thanks to the induction days, everybody is now more familiar with the new place, new faces and new challenges.

Attached some pictures of the Escape Room activity which helped “breaking the ice” among everyone. The smiles on the faces vouch for the success of this initiative.

Welcome back everyone

Happy Birthday Aydan.

Despite the packing for the holidays, we would not miss the opportunity to share the cake and celebrate with you.

We wish you the best… and a lovely summer 😉

An afternoon of science, astronomy and radioastronomy for Seyed who joined the visit to the Astronomic Observatory of Geneva. There we could know a little more about the science of space, how we look at it and how we study it. It’s a complex activity, relying a lot on technology and there is so much to unveil that what we know is so little still… But progress is on track and we are making major steps and breakthroughs almost every day.

A good, different outing for Seyed this afternoon

The World Bicycle Relief is an action who aims at supporting underprivileged children in Africa who walk long distances only to attend school. All the fundraising is used to supply bikes to many of these children so they can make their way to and from school easier.

Coach Jamie set the challenge to Mr Rob, who mobilized many of his colleagues and Léman students to participate in a challenge. A 10 x 5Kms run, in relays vs a bike ride around the lake ( roughly 175Kms ). The first team to complete the challenge wins the bikers vs runners cup 🙂 Mr Rob, on his bike, was accompanying the runners for support.

The two teams: Riders vs Mr Rob and Antoni, just before the start of the challenge… and the cup.

Amirhossein celebrating with Mr Rob the end of their relay under the hot sun.

Mr Rob encouraging Teo for another relay of 5kms.

Teo, in full effort

Roi and Mr Rob… team spirit

… after the effort, a shade does wonders to Roi 🙂

The runners from Léman house were: Antoni, Ablai, Martin, Amirhossein, Teo and Roi. Well done for their effort and competitive spirit… and the runners won the challenge !!!

https://www.cdldailychallenge.com/wbr23

Happy 17th birthday Michel. We wish lots of joy, friends, good health and laughs. From all your Léman family.