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 !

This evening our talented Jason took on this Musical challenge and joined the WATU Winter Concert in aid of one of our school’s charities. Whether he was playing or singing, he was enjoying every minute and we are proud he joined his fellow Musicians.

Well done Jason!

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 🙂

Last Saturday, Liusen took part in a fencing tournament in Martigny. The team won the bronze medal which made us very proud. This has only just begun however our Leman boy has shown immense dedication and we are very happy to see him back in tournaments perfecting his art. We look forward to seeing how his fencing year continues …

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 😀

This weekend, the boys built a gingerbread house. The idea was to make a replica of our house, Leman. Judge for yourselves, but it looks great and has the bearing of many of the boys. Let’s hope we win! Let’s go Leman!

Today, 3rd of December, is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and advocates have suggested an initiative. The other day students had to send in their suggestions to improve the houses, now they have to post the suggestions they gave around the house. This way they are all aware of the barriers that people with disabilities can encounter in their daily routine.

In this cold weekend that we have had in CDL there have been activities where the boys of Leman have participated. As always we have some of them who have continued to improve their tennis or climbing or horse riding or woodwork skills. They have also continued to participate in the history and chess clubs. As we have entered December and it will soon be Christmas, this weekend it was time to visit the Christmas market in Montreux, one of the most wonderful in Europe.

This week from the advocates of the second pillar came an initiative related to people with disabilities. The boys from Leman had to think how to improve the house for a disabled partner. They have come up with ideas for people with reduced mobility, visual and hearing impairment, etc.

We are still looking for suggestions to make the boarding school more inclusive!

On Wednesday after dinner the first Christmas concert of the boarding school took place. Some of the pupils of the boarding school, although we could call them artists after what they did, played different instruments and sang Christmas songs. There were instrumental moments, sung songs accompanied by the guitar or the piano. We had the wonderful opportunity to see Adi, one of our Leman boys, playing the guitar to the song Snowman by Sia with a student from another house.

Another weekend of fantastic activities for the Léman boys. The opportunities keep growing, for our students to try new activities, enjoy the wide range of activities with their friends, and live active and healthy lifestyles.

The activities the Léman boys participated in this weekend included Tennis, Climbing, Woodcrafting, Cooking, Horse riding, Running and Chess club.

There was also a trip organised for some of our students to go and watch a professional Ice Hockey game in Geneva.

This weekend saw the latest installment of the Boarding House Competition – The Bake-Off!!

Well done to all the students from all the Houses for their fabulous creations.

Thanks to Seyed and Otabek for their efforts with Léman’s amazing entry – A tasty lemon sponge!!

Congratulation to the CDL Volleyball teams who represented the school in a Volleyball tournament in Warsaw, Poland over the last few days – including Léman’s very own Masafumi and Amirhossein. Well done everyone!

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

We are proud to say that Seyed did an amazing job today for the Samedi du Partage. He directly volunteered to participate and successfully collected food, hygiene and cleaning products for the association. He demonstrated willingness to explain the purpose of it, practicing his french, and was really polite and welcoming. Thank you Seyed for this amazing experience !