What a match! A very close tie between the Léman and Concha Boarding Houses tonight. The game had skill, goals and fantastic sportsmanship. Well done boys.

Léman 5 – 2 Concha

The latest match of this year’s Basketball tournament saw the Léman boys take on Concha Boarding House. We did well to win the match but that was not the greatest moment of the evening. We were proud of how supportive our boys were towards the younger students and it was amazing to see the little ones look up to the senior boys as role models. It is important to our values that our students are kind and take care of each other.

Tonight we enjoyed the festivities of Halloween Night. The dining room was decorated, students and staff dressed up, pumpkins were carved and the party commenced at New Portena. It was a great effort by all and a huge amount of fun.

Today we had our second House Competition. As it was also Halloween night the challenge was pumpkin carving. Much to the tradition of House Competitions, some houses were very inventful with their interpretation of the expectations.

Tuesday evening saw a fantastic musical and drama performance performed by our students. Some of the Léman 1 boys got on stage and displayed incredible performances. Well done boys.

This weekend, a group of Boarding students travelled to Disneyland Paris. They all had a lot of fun and it is fantastic to see our fantastic trips programme back in action.

Congratulations to Amir, Admir, Amirhossein, Raphael and Iman for volunteering to go down the Lake on Saturday morning to clear the rubbish from our lovely beaches. It is important to look after our environment and we are very proud of these boys.

The Léman 1 boys enjoyed yet another weekend jam packed with fantastic activities. It is so important to get outside and be active when we can. This way we can clear our heads, work our bodies, and make sure we are in the best possible condition for school, and life. The activities this weekend included running, volleyball, cooking, music, golf and laser tag!

We are now entering the fifth week of the Wellbeing Pillar 1. This week the topic to be covered in the Boarding Houses will be based around positive activities. I would like the students to ask themselves ‘how do they spend their free time?’ This is linked to the second takeaway point of this pillar which is: ‘How can we use our hobbies to de-stress?’ Therefore, I would like the students to first identify their hobbies (perhaps relating sport, art, reading or music etc), then encourage them all to use these extremely beneficial activities as positive form of relaxation or destressing. 

Every year, College du Léman organise several sports events for the Nord Anglia Global Sports Competition against all Nord Anglia schools worldwide. Friday afternoon, after school, we took some Boarding students along for the latest event, which was a 2km run around the local running track. They all did fantastically and we are very proud of the amazing effort they put in. It was a perfect way to end a tiring week at school, and a greater way to start a weekend. These students have shown a great example to the rest of our community, demonstrating the importance of a healthy body and mind – our first pillar of wellbeing. Well done to Leman 1’s Ablai, Iman, Mishaal and Amirhossein – great work boys.

Congratulations to Léman’s very own Ablai who performed very well in the opening round of this year’s Boarding Chess Tournament.

Léman 24 – 25 Concha.

Well done boys. Great performances and fantastic sportsmanship from the Léman boys towards the younger students. Sport really is the best when it is competitive, but also when there are lots of smiles.

The second match of this year’s Boarding Football Tournament saw two very evenly matched teams from the Léman and Olympus Boarding Houses. A valuable point was earnt for the championship and the Léman boys now have to wait 2 weeks for their next match, against the Concha lads. Well done boys, and good luck for the next one!

Community Service is something that at CDL we feel very passionate about and try to instil in all the students of the school. Within the school, they work on the REACH programme which promotes the students to address the areas of Health and Activity, Responsible Citizenship and Creativity. They must complete thirty hours per year during their school career.

Within the Boarding House, we accomplish many of these by providing activities and opportunities to take part in events and projects.

Today the students of Leman took it upon themselves to do some litter picking in the forest path running alongside the campus. This is a path used frequently by students and also the public of Versoix and it was therefore nice to show the responsibility we feel we have towards our local community and keeping it clean.

One of the wonderful benefits of being so close to the lake is the option to do water activities. These have ranged from sailing, paddleboarding, kayaking, wakeboarding and banana boating. This weekend we had the option of Water Skiing. Two of the Leman students who were experienced wakeboarders, but had never water skied, took the opportunity to learn a new skill. Both got up and did very well, while also enjoying the beautiful lake.

This afternoon we had a pleasure of welcoming some of our teachers into Léman 1 so they could visit their students in their Boarding House. We welcomed them onto our terrace where we indulged in some treats and many discussions regarding the boys and the House. It was a great opportunity for the teachers to gain more of an idea of what the life of a boarder is all about and get know the boys on a more personal level.

We are now entering the third week of the first Pillar of our wellbeing programme – Nurturing Healthy Bodies and Minds.

One of the takeaway points from this pillar is “How important is sleep?”. We find it a crucial topic for the students to explore when discovering how to take care of themselves and how they can maintain a healthy body and mind.

During our Boarding House assemblies this week, we will be talking to the students about ‘The effects of screen time before sleeping’.

Using phones, or any screens for that matter, before you go to sleep has an effect on your health and subsequently your wellbeing. Scrolling through your phone or watching something on your laptop at bedtime can keep your mind psychologically engaged, preventing your brain from switching off effectively at the end of the day. The blue light that comes off the screens reduces the melatonin levels in your body. Melatonin is the hormone within the body that controls your sleep cycles. It is also possible that scrolling and watching can trigger emotions within your brain that will delay your sleep and can lead to you lying awake reflecting on those emotions. We would like to outline the importance of sleep to our students so that they are fully prepared and they give themselves the best opportunity possible to achieve their full potential – in all aspects of their lives. Allowing the brain the sufficient amount of time to rest and recover means we give ourselves the best chance to having a healthy mind, and a healthy body.

This week, we had the first match of our annual Boarding Football Tournament. Congratulations to all boys from the Léman and Concha Boarding Houses who played fantastically. Every single student on the pitch showed determination, sportsmanship and quality. It was a great start to a great competition. These types of activities that we can do as a group outline the importance of the messages given to the boys through Pillar 1 of our Wellbeing Programme – Nurturing Healthy Bodies and Minds.

We are now entering the second week of the first Pillar of our wellbeing programme – Nurturing Healthy Bodies and Minds.

One of the takeaway points from this pillar is “How important is sleep?”. We find it a crucial topic for the students to explore when discovering how to take care of themselves and how they can maintain a healthy body and mind.

During our Boarding House assemblies this week, we will be talking to the students about the effects that can be caused from lack of sleep, and how it can impact many areas of our lives.

Lack of sleep reduces focus and it will make it more difficult for student’s to learn. Studies have shown that poor quality sleep, or not enough sleep, can lead poor organisational skills, a decrease in mood or behaviour, reduced attention span and even memory loss. We would like to outline the importance of sleep to our students so that they are fully prepared and they give themselves the best opportunity possible to achieve their full potential – in all aspects of their lives. Allowing the brain the sufficient amount of time to rest and recover means we give ourselves the best chance to succeed.

Also throughout this pillar, we are running a Daily Fitness Challenge across our Boarding Community. This is to encourage our students to get active, have fun and take their minds off things that may be causing them stress. The participation, competitiveness and enthusiasm the students have shown so far has been fantastic and we hope to see this continue throughout September with even more students taking part. Please find some photos below from the challenge so far…..

We have had fantastic weather here in Geneva for the first full weekend of the academic year. Our students have had the opportunity to join some amazing activities including forest walk, paddle boarding, beach volleyball, golf, horse riding, photography and more! There was even a boat trip into Geneva organised for some of our new students to show them sights, they all enjoyed it very much. It is safe today we took full advantage of the incredible lake and beautiful forest that we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep!

On Wednesday after our first Boarding Assembly, we had a Swiss Welcome Dinner. This was a lovely occasion for the students to dress smartly, enjoy some Swiss cuisine and meet each other.

This morning we showed our new students the sights and pointed out some important points of interest in our local town.

Yesterday evening we had a BBQ and we organised lots of sports and activities for our new students. Everyone had lots of fun and relished the opportunity to meet new people. Welcome everyone.

Leman 1 is open and we can not wait for the school year to start.

We look forward to welcoming back our returning students and hearing their adventures from the summer. Additionally, we look forward to welcoming our new students who get to experience CDL for the first time.

This year the House will be staffed by Mr Rob, Mr Max and Mr Gordon.