A fun evening of water rocket launches while taking advantage of the wind conditions!

Amir going for height points

Vlad and Shintaro setting distance records

The same rocket on another launch. NASA take notes!

Vladislav serves up a delicious lemon meringue pie at the end of his Saturday morning cooking activity. YUMMY!

Team léman sharpen their badminton skills.

The first weekend back after the February break and we again had it action-packed. While many of the boarders were up in the slopes enjoying the fresh snow, we still had many back on campus enjoying the activities on offer. This weekend it included tennis, badminton, table tennis, cooking, horse riding, fitness, chess, photography, Olympus facilities and a day trip to Vevey!

We had our final Ski day of 2021 on the slopes of Verbier and La Tzoumaz.

This was a well enjoyed day by all and one that will hopefully stay in the memory of those who took the opportunity.

Check out the view!

@thatboardingvibeWait for the hand trail, so slick ##thatboardingvibe ##skiday ##verbier ##swissmountains ##🇨🇭##boardinglife ##swisstourism ##snowboarding ##wellbeing ##suisse♬ Dynamite – BTS

Continuing our Wellbeing Programme we have now started our 4th Pillar. This will be on Online Safety.

This is an extremely important topic for this generation. We know that our students spend more time than we would like on their phones and laptops.  Much of this leisure time is spent on social media. While we know the benefits of this in staying connected with our family and friends, there are also things that can make us vulnerable online. These include things such as bullying, privacy, identify theft and harassment. It is therefore imperative we ensure our students have the tools to stay safe online and keep their activity healthy.

We will therefore be focusing on three elements under this umbrella term;

What Goes Online, Stays Online

Who are those Followers?

Online Harassment

For this upcoming week we will be focusing on the thought- ‘What Goes Online, Stays Online’.

LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER……..

YES, IT’S TODAY’S DATE

It is both a PALINDROME and an AMBIGRAM! Which means you can read the date from left to right, right to left and also upsidedown!

AMAZING

Last night we celebrated the Chinese New Year.

祝你牛年吉祥

This is the year of the Ox. Oxen are the hard workers in the background, intelligent and reliable, but never demanding praise.

The dining room was decorated to add some atmosphere to the occasion and the kitchen really impressed us with the meal provided.

It is important in the International community that we have in boarding, that we share in each other’s celebrations.

This links in with our first wellbeing pillar of promoting Diversity.

It was a wonderful occasion, enjoyed by all. We wish all our family and friends a successful and prosperous year.

This weekend we had another one of our Ski Days. These are proving to be very enjoyable and gaining great feedback from the students. This weekend we were split between the two resorts Les Crossets and Morgins. We had an extra surprise when the sky turned a strange hue of yellow. This was not a photographic error but rather a rare meteorological phenomenon that occurs around three times a year in Switzerland due to dust sand travelling from the north-west African Sahara Desert and upward towards Europe.

@thatboardingvibeHow was your ski day? ##thatboardingvibe ##bau ##snowdays ##skiday ##campsrock ##wellbeing ##boardinglife ##swiss ##morgins ##cdl ##smiletoday ##lovelife ##thatsky

♬ Monster – LUM!X & Gabry Ponte

As part of our Wellbeing Pillar 3 Community project. We created a video ask the House some questions about their perceptions of friendship. Enjoy

As part of our Wellbeing Pillar 3- Building Positive Friendships, we are looking into peer pressure. We are all familiar with the feeling of being coerced to do something by our friends. Feeling that in order to fit in, or not be judged negatively, or to gain influence or credit, that we do something we ordinarily would not feel comfortable doing.

This week we explored whether Peer Pressure can also be positive. Can that pressure from friends be felt in a positive way. To instil motivation in us, or self-confidence, or help us grow.

Continuing the schools effort to celebrate the motto of R.I.S.E. this coming week will be Respect Week. To show our contribution to this effort, the Boarding Community demonstrated how we Respect the environment. On Sunday every Boarding House was challenged with caring for a particular part of Versoix. The boys of Leman undertook the forest paths behind the school and armed with tongs and bags, they cleared the area of any trash and recyclable items.

This year we are having ski days! For 5 Saturdays throughout the next couple of months, we will be offering the students the opportunity to do a full day of skiing. These are at local resorts in Switzerland which we can easily get to for the day. This Saturday we were split between the resorts of Villars and Leysin

We have continued this 2nd semester with our Wellbeing Programme. We are now onto our 3rd Pillar which is Building Positive Friendships. While this title may seem simple and straightforward, there is a lot more context behind it. Friendships are without a doubt an important and essential part of our existence as humans. We are sociable beings and now more than ever like to be connected with people. It is however important that these Friendships are positive, that the relationship is healthy, symbiotic and mutual. And finally, within the Boarding context, we are given the instant opportunity to build new relationships as soon as we arrive, from the diverse population we have. Therefore, bringing these three features together we understand its important we share without students how to Build Positive Friendships.

Within this Pillar, we will be looking at

• Authentic Connections
• The Power of Listening
• Peer Pressure
• Conflict
• Changing Friendships
• Online Friendships

In addition, we will be asking the students to again be working towards and Individual and Community Project.

He’s no couch potato,  Karim puts his practical skills to good use as he successfully attends to a few homes improvements alongside Mr George.

Carlos & Shintaro made π this morning. They turned out a total success and were incredibly delicious. Yummy

Waiting For You!

@thatboardingvibeWaiting for your return ##welcomeback ##comebacksoon ##safetravels ##timeforschool ##thatboardingvibe ##cdl ##happiness ##lovelife ##versoix ##emptyschool♬ Aesthetic – Xilo

We wish all our students and their families a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and a Happy New Year!

Admir is a fungi when he is making pizza on his Saturday morning.

Luther learnt how to make his own pizza for his lunch on Saturday. It looks delicious.

On Friday 4th it was 4 months since the explosion which devastated the lives of so many people in Lebanon. As we have a Lebanon community within boarding we wanted to show our respect and remembrance of this occasion. The students from Lebanon created the ‘Light for Hope’ event which was then embraced by the boarding community on Friday evening.

As part of Pillar 2- Respecting Diversity and Protecting against Bullying the students again undertook individual and community project.

For Leman’s community project we wanted to demonstrate the diversity but also similarities among us.

We are reaching the end of Pillar 2- Respecting Diversity and Protecting Against Bullying. 

Part of our program for this Pillar included a presentation by Ms Jody on Non-Violent Communication. This is about being conscious of how our language and communication can influence other people. It helps us think more empathetically about others and thus improves our relationships.

When we become conscious of how our communication skills impact others, we can see this from both the negative and positive. We can see how the words we use can either be for good or bad. If we can train ourselves to take accountability for or own actions and communication then we can avoid conflicts and help to inspire others.

Vladislav is learning one of the most important life skills – how to cook an authentic Italian pizza… yummy

Karim enjoys a chilly morning ride along the stream to complete a 10km loop back to school.

Shintaro offered to use his wood-crafting activity to help the birds that live on the Léman One terrace by providing a very well made nest box. It didn’t require any owlgebra or a crow-bar, but to put it up we might require a crane and receive a very big bill.