Today it is World Pizza Day! To mark this celebration the Léman 1 Boarding House entered a competition along with the other Boarding houses here at Collège du Léman. A big well done to Nadim for his excellent work on our entry.

Happy Chinese New Year from Léman 1!

This evening we had a wonderful dinner together with the entire Boarding communuity, to celebrate another culture belonging to some of our Boarding students. The food was delicious and enjoyed by all. This is the year of the Tiger and it is said that people born in this year are brave and strong-willed.

This weekend the entire CDL Boarding community travelled to Crans Montana for our first Winter Mountain weekend. The students maximised the skiing and snowboarding opportunities, and there were a range of other incredible winter activities for our students. These included snowtubing, ice skating, bowling, as well as a trip to Sion for an escape room activity. Please find pictures below of the Léman 1 students and staff enjoying the mountain air!!

Living in a boarding community and surrounded by an amazingly diverse range of people, it is impossible to not find common interests and make new friends.

We promote diversity and internationalism within boarding and encourage students to mix with people from other cultures.

With the huge amount of different activities, trips and excursions on offer, these are excellent ways to interact and meet others in the community.

Wellbeing Pillar 3- Building Positive Friendships

@thatboardingvibe Friends good friends #wellbeing #pillar3 #thatboardingvibe #schoolstaff #boardinglife #goodfriends #positivefriendships #toxicrelationships #rob #max ♬ You’ve Got a Friend in Me – From “Toy Story” – The London Film Score Orchestra

This week we continued on our Wellbeing Journey of Pillar 3- Building Positive Friendships. We explored the topic of Boundaries and how these should be a healthy part of any friendships, partnership and relationship.

An example of this within the context of boarding are the boundaries we have as part of our boarding rules, or indeed the agreements in place with roommates. These are normal parts of our lives. We should feel comfortable and open to be able to share our boundaries with friends too. Even more so in relationships.

Being so close to the Swiss Alps we have the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful snow on the mountains. Each weekend we have been able to offer activities on the slopes, from snowshoeing – to snow tubing- to sledging- and of course this coming weekend to Crans Montana for our 2nd Mountain Weekend.

Including, running, tennis, cooking, photography, woodwork, climbing and badminton.

Happy Birthday to Vlad, Mishaal, Baudelio and Junqi who ALL had birthdays this week. We hope you had great days boys. Now it’s time to eat the mountains of chocolate cake we now have in the office!!

This weekend we introduced an all NEW Weekly Badminton Tournament, with our very own Mr Max! Well done to all our boys who took part today.

This week we introduced Wellbeing Pillar 3 Building Positive Friendships. Next week we will discuss with the boys in the House: What is a Toxic friend? and how can we identify them?

Nadim will have a birthday during the break whilst at home with his family. Have a great time Nadim!!

On Saturday we celebrated “L’Escalade” a traditional Genève festival that celebrates the victory of the Geneva republic against the Savoy’s Army in 1602. Each year we buy a chocolate marmite full of candies. By tradition, the youngest and the eldest person in the room smash it.

For more information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Escalade

Our amazing Amir played a stunning piece of music as part of his upcoming concert with the Geneva Conservatoire.

He did a fantastic rendition of Beethoven moonlight sonata 3rd.

Here is a small teaser….

This weekend we had our annual Christmas Dinner. A lovely opportunity for the whole Boarding Community to come together and have a formal evening. The students dressed very smartly and we had some beautiful food.

This week we had our Boarding Award Ceremony to celebrate some of the achievements made during 1st Semester. We acknowledged those in each House who showed outstanding enthusiasm, motivation, and involvement in the Boarding programme.

Winning the Boarding Life award were Gabriel and Karim. Both these boys are polite, respectful, and courteous to both their peers and staff. They are held in high regard amongst their peers. They are happy and willing to assist the House Parents and often take on extra responsibilities within the house.

Winning the Activity Awards were Ablaikhan and Hector. These boys enthusiastically participate in the afternoon activity schedule along with enjoying the sports facilities on offer during social time in the evenings. They also eagerly participate in the weekend programme, taking advantage of the trips on offer or the activities offered.

Finally, we also awarded those students who achieved the highest grades in their year. We were very proud that Gabriel and Nadim achieved these awards.

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Coinciding with Swiss traditions, the annual Geneva Escalade running race took place this weekend. Kosei, Iman and Vlad from Léman 1 took part and ran an impressive 5km. The boys did really well and can all be very proud of themselves!

The Léman 1 boys got the opportunity to take part in the wide range of activities we have on offer this weekend, including ice skating, boxing, tennis, running, cooking and basketball. A fun, action packed weekend.

On our journey for Pillar 2– this week we explored Community Service and Charity.

This is something we are incredibly passionate about in the Boarding Community. It is a way for us to give our time, energy, love and support to those in need or who are less fortunate. It is an important educational moment for students to learn empathy for others and to appreciate the position we are in and how we can use it to spread kindness.

We had our Boarding Counsellor come to give an introduction to Empathy. In her conversation, we concluded that empathy is the first step in making us sensitive to the importance of community service. When we help others, we express our empathy. When we help others it is the best way to combat social differences, and it also gives us a glimpse of the meaning of life from a perspective that is sometimes completely opposite to ours.

This week Dias gave the presentation.

This week we had a wonderful Lebanese dinner. It was another way we promote Diversity and celebrate the Internationalism that we have in our Boarding Community. Each week we have an offering from a different country.

This past weekend was another busy one. With plenty of activities on offer for the students to take part in. We had our usual offering of tennis, Cooking, Running, Volleyball, Climbing, Photography, Woodworks, Baking, Chess, Biking and Zumba. However this weekend we also had the charity events of Samedi du Partage a trip to Gruyere and our Community Service.

For this week’s part of our Pillar 2, we focused on Discrimination and Diversity.

This week Hector did our presentation.

A lot of our Boarding students, including some of the Léman boys headed to Paris this weekend. They saw the sights, ate all the local food and had a fantastic time.

A huge well done to Vlad who has set himself the amazing goal of running 7km in this year’s Geneva Escalade. He has shown fantastic determination and an amazing attitude to achieve this goal and he has been training very hard. Keep up the good work Vlad.