After loads of packing and cleaning, our lovely house of Old Portena will soon be closed for the summer…
Thank you to all of our girls for an amazing year full of memories and love ! Thank you also to the parents, agents, all the CDL team, for making this year so enjoyable.
We wish you all a beautiful summer holiday.
We will be back soon, and we can’t wait to see our girls again and meet our new girls. Take care of yourselves and enjoy the summer !
As it’s the last weekend of the school year, it is a good time to reminisce of everything that has happened in Old Portena since August. So many beautiful memories to cherish while getting ready for this last weekend before the great summer holidays !
In Old Portena, a lot of our girls like to get creative in the kitchen. You will often smell some ramen, eggs, bread, some vegetables, etc. being cooked !
Today, our girl Yustyna decided to make dango, and make a video out of it. She also helped me making the crêpes and showed of her amazing flipping skills ! See for yourself, she can even double-flip !
Preparation : check
Both the crêpes and the dangos turned out amazing of course !
Crêpes : almost done
This Saturday, despite the heatwave, our girl Chihana and her amazing team had a veeeeery long day at their football tournament with 14 teams in Bern… 7 matches in one day !
And guess what ?
They got second place ! It was a long, exhausting, but fun day for them. We are so proud of Chihana, and her team of course, well done !
What best idea than jumping in the pool after a long tiring day of exams?
Today we enjoyed the Concha garden pool with our friends, in this heat, the best thing to do is to get in the water!
Out football star, Chihana, got the opportunity to travel to Barcelona to play in an International tournament to represent Switzerland with her team, USTS.
They are trying their best to qualify!!
Today Marina visited us and helped us relax a little bit through an amazing mindfulness exercise during this important exam period. I am sure it will help us in a stressful moment.
Thank you very much Miss Marina.
Monday was a bank holiday here in Switzerland and we did not have school, therefore we used the opportunity to enjoy a little fair in Lausanne. It was great fun and the weather again was incredible.
It might be Sunday evening, but the weekend is not over yet ! Nevertheless, let’s have a look at what our girls have been doing these last two days.
A super fun activity made its’ appearance on Saturday : wakeboarding. Perfect in this sunny and hot weather ! An exciting opportunity to say the least.
Our girls also had the opportunity to cook some delicious cupcakes, or go horseback riding, chess, biking, baking, etc. A lot of things to choose from !
The process…
The result ! Miam.
Tomorrow, our girls will be out for the afternoon at Lausanne’s fair : Luna Park. Enjoy it !
This Saturday was a very exciting day for Old Portena and Concha Annexe. We had a common house activity proposed by CA girls : Paintball !
Two teams, but one common goal : just have some fun. We have to admit that the girls got us at every match… One day, we’ll have our revenge ! In any case, great game girls ! Also, great behaviour and spirit for this day, very proud. 😀
Beware !
Concha Annexe + Old Portena friendship
On Thursday evening, grade 6 and 7 did a play. The girls did their very best, and put on a fantastic show for the public ! Well done girls.
The end of this school year might be getting closer, but the fun is certainly not over !
We might not be the winners, but we feel like it.
Well done to the teams, it was great atmosphere.
This lovely Sunday was perfect to enjoy the sun and our surroundings. Versoix has a lot to show us.
After the tiring day, we needed to cool down, and what is better than a quick jump in our Concha pool? And we can not forget, our water fight!
Today as we do not have School due to the Swiss bank holiday, we used this opportunity to enjoy this fantastic weather; we visited Chateau Chillon in Montreux, a beautiful fort by the Lake Geneva.
Yesterday our girls performed their musical choices in front of their class after been practiced the whole year in their music lessons.
WELL DONE GIRLS!
This afternoon Darina performed in the IMYC showcase in front of her class and showed her most valuable talent.
Well done Darina, we are really proud!
This weekend felt just like summer, over 30°, sunny skies, humid weather… But still, activities went on as usual, and our girls kept up with a busy lifestyle here at CDL !
What did they do, you ask ?
Well, let us show you…
Some of them went horseriding
Others worked their brains in a game of chess
then some cooked some deliciousness
or went for a bike ride through the woods
or even played some volleyball, very appropriate with the current weather !
and more !
Next week, the girls will enjoy an especially long weekend of 4 days ! What will you do for the long weekend ?
This weekend we got the opportunity to join the School trip to Europa Park. We left on Friday evening direction Germany. There, we spent two fantastic days in the park with our friends. There were many type of rides to make the most of each second in this great Theme-park.
Last night during our House Meeting we discussed a few topics we needed with the girls and then we watched a video Mr. Salva sent to us to launch the last pillar of our wellbeing program.
We started the delivery phase of Pillar 5: Making Safe and Responsible Choices.
As announced during the Assembly the key take-away points will be:
Time in: how do you connect with inner world?
Attachment figures: how our attachment style influences the way we make our decisions?
This week we will focus on Time in!
What we experience in our inner world, which includes our feelings, thoughts, perceptions, memories, beliefs, hopes, dreams, desires, motivations, longings etc, can occur even without us being aware of it. The lack of self-awareness entails the failure to see the patterns in our behaviors and thinking. As a result, we risk making choices that are not aligned with what we really are and with what we really want.
On the contrary, when we develop the habit to pay attention to these inner experiences we become more self-aware. This can help us have more control over the decisions and choices we make and prevent us from being at the mercy of our own feelings, desires, and external negative pressure.
On Wednesdays, we get the opportunity to enjoy our international dinners. Yesterday we also had the choice to eat outside and enjoy this beautiful sunshine. Our girls made the most of the time with their friends to charge the batteries and get ready for this difficult exam period at the end of the School Year.
We are really happy because the SPRING is finally here. We got to enjoy our inter-houses volleyball tournament against New Portena. We nearly won and had so much fun!
Really proud of Alana, Yustyna, Nastia and Luciana who did their best with Miss Cristina.
Well done team!!
Today, the girls went to the picturesque city of Yvoire, in France. The weather was beautiful and shiny, perfect to fully enjoy the day of wandering around in a postal-card place !
The coast of Yvoire
When on a boat, you have to try…
It’s another week-end at our boarding house, and as usual, the girls had a lot of different activities to choose from. Some of our girls went to play some tennis. Some went horseback riding. However, as usual, cooking is a winner !
And when you’ll see what they made, you will understand why.
Separating egg whites and yolks takes concentration !
Cooking is always better with good friends.
Mousse au chocolat, with langues de chat !
This month is also the fitness challenge, and today’s challenge was made for one of our girls. They had to do uppy-keepys with a football… Chihana was so good at it, that she didn’t stop at failure, she stopped when she got to 1000 !
1000 keepy-uppys for Chihana !
Some of our girls also went to Geneva. Perfect time for a bit of shopping, of course !
So.many.figurines!
That’s it for today. Tomorrow, all of the girls will have the opportunity to visit the beautiful town of Yvoire ! And they will get there by… boat ! Pretty exciting, no ?
Our football star Chihana joined the boys in their tournament this evening. What an experience!
Did you know? The fitness challenge is back!
Yesterday the challenge was to see how many baskets you would score in 1 minute.
We tried our best 🙂
When the weekend comes and the sun is by our side, we make the most of the time with our friends. We have learnt a new Chinese card game and we also made some delicious food.
Yesterday night, some of our girls took opportunity during their social hour to do some extra sports, as they usually do on Thursdays.
It’s always great to see our girls moving and enjoying doing some sports ! Great job girls !
You’ve got this Darina !
We’re one month into spring and right now, the sun is shining full blast ! The trees are full and green, temperatures are nice enough and our winter jackets are gone.
You know what this means ? This means that outside activities will be possible again, biking, kayaking, walking by Leman lake, enjoying sunny evenings outside the house… We can’t wait to enjoy the beautiful weather even more !
I’m sure there will be a lot more outside pictures to share soon. 😉
Perfect weather for a bike ride !
Two of our girls, Luciana and Kylie, spent their Easter break surrounded by beautiful landscapes… They went to Cyprus and Greece with a fantastic group of people !
The girls got to do some historical visits, as you can imagine, but also had the opportunity to snorkle, swim, try out some survival tricks building tents, kayak, etc.
Good food, beautiful weather, fun activities, great people, it was a good break !
Thank you to the team for making this possible !
After a long break of two weeks, the house will be ready and open from tomorrow 9AM to welcome our girls back. We can’t wait to see them again and hear about their Easter break.
We have missed you girls !
All the girls are off on their holiday adventures and we hope that you can all enjoy spending time with your family.
We can not wait for you to tell us your amazing stories!
Enjoy 🙂
The approach of Easter breaks also means the end of this term’s wellbeing theme : our online safety.
Through the weeks, we talked about many different subjects, going from how we present ourselves online, to the pictures that should or should not be posted, and who do we follow, do we know them in real life ?
The girls brought up many good points during these discussions. Most of us agreed that we only post the good sides of our lives. And we shouldn’t believe everything influencers post, because it’s mostly a facade. We’ve also taken some time to see how much time we spend behind our screens, and to be more careful about our privacy and who we follow and who follows us back.
Although internet will continue to play a central part in all of our lives, we are now more aware and able of how to handle it.
Thank you girls and CDL team for making this a very interesting pillar !
Yesterday we had an amazing House Dinner. Lasagna with some salad. DELICIOUS!
And after it we got some time to play with our friends!
And another round of diverse activities on the campus !
Between horse riding, cooking, running, chess, etc. There was a lot to choose from.
One activity is consistently popular on weekends… Cooking !
After all, who wouldn’t want to learn how to cook their own choux à la crème ?
Others put their brains to the test thanks to a chess game.
And others went for a walk, got to bake, or play some music. In any case, it was another busy week-end for our girls at the house !
Finally, it’s Friday ! More time for the girls to meet up with each other in other houses. Today, Luciana, Darina and Nastya spent some time at Concha Annexe.
And they got an amazing treat thanks to Miss Maria who made them some amazing chocolate and peanut butter rolls as well as jam rolls. Made with oats and apples, for our health ! Needless to say, it was delicious.
What better way to start the weekend and all the activities it brings !
Today in our International Dinners we got INDIAN TIME
Yustyna is happy to be back and has missed these amazing dinners really much.
Of course, we can not forget our afternoon snacks. Yesterday we had home made banana muffins. R
DELICIOUS!
Thank you very much Miss Maria for baking for us.
Finally after 3 long years, we got the opportunity to meet together and celebrate our Boarders Talents.
Well done to those who got the courage to go on stage.
This weekend we got the opportunity to visit the amazing city of Barcelona. Chihana and Miss Cristina had an amazing time together with a great group of students.
We not only visited the most famous monuments but we also got the chance to visit Barça’s football stadium.
This weekend Berru and Nastia played some tennis during Saturday morning, they will become professionals very soon!! 
Sally, Kylie and Amy spent a lovely Sunday afternoon enjoying the company of our great Musician Rogerio from Leman 2.
Darina, Luciana and Rin practiced their best shots in Badminton.
Yustyna and Chisa enjoyed the lovely weather we are getting these days and got some inspiration for their art creations.
This weekend, we also had the Chamonix Trip. Rin and Yustyna took this opportunity to visit our neighbour country, France and its lovely mountains.
This Wednesday, Chihana played an interschool championship with the Panthers High School girls and they won it.
well done team!!
Yesterday was on of the funniest, nicest and best days at CDL!
Thank you for helping us having so much fun!!!!
And of course, after a long day, we need a good recovery, Nutella sandwiches with a some banana on top.
DELICIOUS!
“Sunday, Crêpe Day” – New tradition at Old Portena
This weekend our girls enjoyed some of the activities organised by the school. From cooking, horse riding and also a visit to the amazing Aquarium in Lausanne.
Chihana participated in a External School Competition with Panthers team, they won the 3rd position.
Chihana scored 6 great goals to help the team reach the Podium
We are very proud of her
Darina won the ski competition last weekend in the mountains, we are very proud of her.
WELL DONE!!
Hugs, Laughter, Friendship, Snow and Sun: The mixture for a perfect second Mountain Weekend!
Yesterday evening we had our weekly house assembly.
We had a lot to discuss with the upcoming talent show day and many other things.
Every girl also got awarded a house prize. There were prizes for the funniest girl going till the most hard-working till the master of sports.
We are proud of each of them, for having their own different personalities, characters and various talents! 😀
Every day after school our girls take part in various activities.
Today Paria, Sabina, Stacy and Manu went to Photography.
Check out their amazing results in this blog!
Even their activity leader congratulated them for the beautiful work they delivered today! Well done Ladies!
Today our girls were literally put in the flowers during International Women’s Day. Darina received a beautiful note from her Father accompanied by a bouquet of gorgeous flowers. Sabina’s brother surprised her as well with a big bouquet of colourful flowers.
In the evening we all ate a delicious meal: Piadina, Grilled vegetables and houmous and Hake Parmentier.
A perfect way to end this special day! 😀
Last Wednesday we got together in Eiger Auditorium for our Boarding monthly Assembly.
This month was a bit special as two 16 years old Kate and Ksenia got on stage to share an amazing message of peace between Russia and Ukraine. How friendship and respect go beyond politics
Today Paria, Luciana and Manuela practiced together their keyboard homework.
Feel free to come to Old Portena to have some time in our lovely new space, all for us.
Chihana, Rin, Paria, Chisa and Kylie had the opportunity to enjoy our amazing camp in the mountains, they had such an amazing time.
We are happy to announce that the Boarding House is now open and we are please to welcome all our girls soon.
WE HAVE MISSED YOU 🙂
Whether you are skiing, travelling or enjoying some days with your family and friends, we hope you get a well deserved rest this week and enjoy a lot!
Today it was the Sports gala for the grade 8s and Luciana did an amazing job! She is so talented that she won the first place, we are so proud of her!
Annie is improving each day in her piano, we would love to see her on stage very soon.
Keep working hard Annie, well done!
The girls love their Sunday snack, there is nothing like a homemade healthy pancake, with loooooots of chocolate on top
Berru, Kylie and Sally went cooking on Saturday, they will become professional chefs.
Our favourite moment of the week – Sunday Brunch
Ghida and Cherry from New Portena skied today with Darina, such a great team!
Bonding between Houses
And Luciana in her usual Ski Club:
Tennis is so much fun when you play with your friends
Rin and Chihana enjoyed an amazing match with in Volleyball Club
Getting up this early is worth it if we get to enjoy an amazing snow day as today.
Finally Old Portena confronted Champ des Bois once again in Olympus 😉 Old Portena was not successful this time in terms of score, but what a great time we had! The pictures speak for themselves.
We are coming for you CDB!
After an intense week, our girls just needed a relaxing night in. Home-made cookies, popcorn and a movie just did the trick!
We’re always happy when it’s the weekend and we see the girls doing a lot of fun activities. Luciana went to the climbing accompanied by some boys from other houses. She showed she was really strong and climbed many difficult walls, always to the top! 😀
Sally and Kylie went to the Dinosaur expo in Geneva. Luckily they went after the Dinosaurs’ lunchtime and didn’t get eaten by any of them! ;p
The rest of our girls went cooking, enjoyed some time outside in the sun and did some groceries in their beloved Coop! 😀
After two weeks of working around the wellbeing pillar: Healthy relationships – What makes a Good Friendship, we wrapped it up today.
Every girl defined for herself what a good friend makes. Afterwards, they read them out loud and they gathered all of them on paper which we hang up in the house 😀
Today we had our monthly assembly for February, online! The discussion for the day was the impact of charity and we concluded our pillar on friendship and healthy relationships ☺️
Today we celebrated the birthday of super Chisa! And look at that 🍰 we even sang in 7 languages, the list keeps getting longer.
Today we had a lovely house dinner with our girls and enjoyed some slices of pizza 😁 music, ice tea and some good mood for the last hours before our ski weekend! Thanks to our kitchen staff for working so hard on this.
Happy birthday Kylie
We hope you had an amazing day, we loved the cake 🙂
Most of our girls chose tennis this morning 😁 they had a great time!
Today, as part of our wellbeing program, we explored healthy and toxic relationships and what to do if we find ourselves in one. The girls did a Kahoot and chose their group projects for our new Wellbeing Pillar. Some will be working on videos, posters and impactful images that reflect on friendship and how to build healthy relationships.
Manu helped this afternoon Maryan to get to know the last bits of our community. Thank you very much Manu! What a great House Captain!
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Maral made some nice crêpes today, we are so lucky!!!
The Boarding House is officially open and we cannot wait to have our girls back for a new semester full of challenges, adventures and lots of great memories. We hope everyone enjoyed a great start to the new year and some holiday cheer in family.
Wishing you a well deserved Break!
As every other Thursday the girls palyed a match against Champs De Bois. The final score was 6-6.
Tonight the youngest of the house Alana and the oldest of the house Luciana have to break the marmite of chocolate as a tradition of Geneva.
Last night in Collège du Léman we had our anual Winter Dinner. Nice food, fancy clothes, magical lightning and the best company made it a night not to forget. It was the perfect way to remind everyone how close they are from the holidays and this magical time of year, as well as a great opportunity to spend some time all together and dress up.
Our girls looked absolutely stunning!
Today Sally was busy in Old Portena! She made us some lovely sugar cookies and apple pie!
This afternoon we took advantage of the strong snow storm we had this week and went a bit higher up the mountain. The views were absolutely stunning and our girls enjoyed some great time in the snow and a hot chocolate 😁
We are so proud of them 😍
Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Falalalala 😁 Today we had our Secret Santa gift exchange and we were really impressed about how much thought our girls put into their gifts. It was one of those nights in which everyone shares moments of joy and laughter, we sang, we clapped, we ate some of Maria’s homemade snacks…! Merry Christmas Old Portena!
Merry Christmas ☺️
We could not be prouder of our girls. Tonight we celebrated our boarders in our Award Night, in which we recognised some of our most outstanding students in academics, boarding and activities. Specisl congratulations to Alana, Chisa, Ella, Manuela, Luciana and Anastacia.
Miss Maral made us the best crêpes ever. Thank you very much they were delicious!
Today we spent time learning who to skate, and also practicing a lot. Together we helped each others to keep going.
This weekend competition was GINGERBREAD HOUSES. We tried our best with the ingredients they provided to us, we also created some new additions.
It was really good fun to work all together with Christmas songs playing on the background.
We hope we win this one!!!!
Today we played a bit of everything during our activities morning
Today Chihana played with her US Terre Sainte FF15 team from Mies in Lausanne Nord Academy. They not only won the first place, but Chihana also got rewarded as the BEST PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT.
We are extremely proud of her, WELL DONE!
Ho, Ho, Ho…
…and the second of December was for Rin!
We are reaching the end of our Pillar 2: Fighting Against bullying and promoting diversity.
Last night during the House Assembly we had the chance to talk about bullying. Ella and Alana did their presentation and showed the girls some videos of how to stop it if you see something could be going on.
“Don’t do to others something you wouldn’t like to be done to you” Alana.
Alana got the chance to open our first door of the House Advent Calendar
What a perfect snowy day. Today we visited one of the most traditionally Swiss villages, the epicenter of cheese, chocolate and meringue: Gruyere! We enjoyed some snow fights and snowman building with some amazing views and a bit of shopping. After, we left for the Cailler chocolate factory and learned more about the history of the exclusive Swiss brand. Pictures to follow 🙂
It’s early in the season, but we already had our first day of snow!! The girls couldn’t believe it, everyone was so excited that we just had to go and play outside! And of course, after we made some delicious hot chocolate with cookies.
Today we celebrated Annie’s birthday at an authentic Chinese restaurant in Geneva. We are so thankful to her family for organising this beautiful afternoon for our girls 🥰 To many more celebrations, Annie!
Rin, Chihana, Paria, Darina, Alana and Chisa participates in this charity. They had an amazing feeling after all and wants to do it again! 👏🏻
Normally we have pancakes for our Sunday brunch, but it is never a bad time for some fluffly pancakes! Ask our grade 6 girls 🙂
As part of their individual projects for this Pillar, some of our girls prepared some posters about bullying and how to prevent it. We are very proud of our girls who dedicated some time to this topic.
Our football stair played a championshop yesterday in her team with High School girls getting the Third Position, only loosing in the semifinal.
The cold did not stop them to get to give the best of themselves, great job girls.
We are incredibly proud of this super star!
WELL DONE CHIHANA
No word can explain, just the looks of happiness and the smell of vanilla in the house.
Alana joined the boxing activity last Sunday, she used it to get some stress out before the busy week ahead.
Be careful if you see her on guard, she is ready!
Learning and laughing before bedtime 😊
Today was the day… after weeks of training and playing, Old Portena obtained the victory for the house against Champ des Bois! It was an exciting match full of emotion. Thanks to our girls for not giving up 🙂
For our school, one of the main values is RESPECT, therefore we created a House Box full of Respectful values followed by our community.
We RESPECT and VALUE:
Ourselves and our families
Other cultures and religions
The environment
The property of others
All members of our community
The laws and traditions of the societies in which we live and work
Tuesday’s mean basketball! Tonight we had a surprise in the field and we played our monthly basketball match against Concha! And what a match! This time it was super close and the girls were more motivated than ever to take the lead. We also had some special guests from New Portena, who supported the girls in the field and joined the fun. Thanks to everyone for this evening 🙂
Winter days are approaching, but that only means it is the perfect opportunity to enjoy some warm water fun! Today some of our girls went to France to enjoy this amazing water-park with warm swimming pools and slides. It seemed like they had a great time!
A big part of our philosophy is showing the importance of giving back to the community. As part of the gift box action, some of our girls made some generous contributions and helped prepare and wrap up the boxes for them to be delivered. Good job Old Portena!
Rin,Paria ,Sabina and Mnauela did cooking in Old Portena. They made Cookies and Pancakes.
Today is Luciana’s birthday and her brother bought her a cake to celebrate her 14th birthday.
We hope you had an amazing day.
Wishing you all the best!
Thanks to Ms. Rym, yesterday some of our girls enjoyed a Sound of the Soul workshop, in which they could feel the sounds and vibrations of the instruments and achieve a state of relaxation. Please see some of the pictures from this beautiful moments.
After a cozy morning indoors, we took a bus and explored the beautiful city of Nyon. Shopping, castles and walking around the Old Town were the order of the day. We love showing our girls some new spots in Switzerland!
Today we had our Parent Teacher meetings, so that means no school for our boarders! Some of our girls decided to play some games this morning 😁 
Last Wednesday we used the meeting to call our friend Sabina, luckily she came back home very soon.
We missed you so much, welcome back!!!
Thank you very much for this tasty cake, what a baker 🙂
Thank you Mrs. Bea for coming with us for this amazing walk and for showing us your lovely house. We can not wait to go back again!!!
On Wednesday we enjoyed the sunny sky and went to the forest to take some amazing nature pictures
Tonight our girls from grade 6 played basketball against Champ des Bois and other grade 6 students from Concha. It was a very tight match and they had a lot of fun!!
On today’s menu we had Miss Maria’s banana bread 😍 It was so good!
As our Halloween outing we took our students to Chaplin’s World this weekend. We learned a bit more about the life of the actor and enjoyes his movie studio. See some of our nicest memories below.
Spooky and delicious!
It’s a rainy day today in Versoix, so for some of our girls it was more appealing to stay in after their activities and stock up at the local supermarket. Afternoon plans include movies, Just Dance and a bit of room tidying up!
What a better way to begin a Saturday than with an early tennis session!
Miss Maria made us not one, but two cakes for today’s “quatre heures” 😉 Our girls loved them!
… with the sound of music 🎶
Yesterday the Photography students did a very special workshop in which they captured a lot of beauty. We want to share these moments with you 🙂
Yesterday we had a welcome meeting where we got back together after a week apart. We called Sabina as we miss her so much.
Basketball is about team work, strategy and fun. Our girls challenged Villa du Lac once again and demonstrated an amazing skillset and willingless to play as a team. We are very proud of our girls for playing tonight and even more for playing with a smile. Next time we will go for the win 😉
Today most of our girls are coming back and we can not wait to see them after their breaks.
Today is the start of the October break! Our girls are real travelers, and while many of them are returning to their home countries, others have decided to explore new places like Paris, Lisbon or even Switzerland. It has been a great start to the school year and we hope everyone comes back with lots of energy and new stories to tell.
On behalf of the Old Portena team, we wish everyone a great holiday and see you very soon!
The girls wanted to go to the Lake and enjoy the last hours in Geneva and the nice weather.
When you love something, inspiration comes with it.
Healthy eating is one of our main points of focus for this year, but eating healthy doesn’t mean not enjoying what we eat. Today Miss Cristina made us a delicious apple cake with cinnamon and dates. Dates are an amazing natural sweetener, full of nutrients and good energy 🙂 The girls definitely approved!
Social Time in the House!
This weekend we had an amazing experience in DisneyLand Paris. Our girls could enjoy the time with their friends and get to know some other Boarding students from different Houses.
What a magic place to spend a sunny weekend!
Wednesdays mean assembly, and today we were able to see some beautiful perfomances and learn about the importance of manners and nurturing healthy minds and bodies.
Finally all our girls arrived! Yesterday night Sally joined Old Portena. We hope she will feel at home in no time and start to make some memories 🙂
Thank you Aida for coming every week to teach our little ones something really interesting. We are getting there!
We don’t need to do great things in order to improve our wellbeing, sometimes the simple things like a walk or making healthier snack choices can have a big impact! Some of our girls stayed closer to school and tried this at the local supermarket. They were all encouraged to make at least one healthy choice in their weekly shopping and these are some of the results.
As every Saturday, our girls today enjoyed a shopping afternoon in Geneva, the perfect way to relax and disconnect after a long week in school 😁 Today they took advantage to enjoy the delights of French and Japanese cuisine, and even did some shopping to cook at home!
For our wellbeing session of today we proposed a drawing meditation to our girls. First, they closed their eyes and tried to be aware of their bodies and emotions. After, they drew freely with their eyes still closed listening to the meditation guide. Finally, they started filling their drawings with the shapes that expressed best their present state. We love the results 🙂
Miss Maria made some snacks for the girls. They are so happy went they came back to the house and see that delicious snacks.
Old Portena and Villa du Lac played the first match of the tournament season this evening. Our girls played really well and fought for the win, but this time the advantage was for Villa du Lac! In a few weeks we have the second match, we will be ready 😎
Today everyone dressed nice and we took our House picture all together. We can’t wait to see the results 🙂
Elsa, Ella and Alana took some bikes and enjoyed our great football pitch surroundings.
Chihana and Rin played volleyball
Look at these cooks:
… and models …
Thank you very much Maral for this amazing steak.
“It was delicious!” – Chihana
Rin’s face looking at the amazing steak!!!!
Anything better than a movie and some snacks for a rainy day?
What do you eat for brunch? Salty?, Sweet? or BOTH?
Sharing is caring!
Chihana met her sister who is studying in Collège Alpin Beau Soleil
We went for a nice walk by the lake, we better enjoy the last bits of the summer before the Autumn weather arrives.
Thank you very much Elsa for this amazing treat!
Alana, Chisa and Elsa enjoyed the quiet in the House to have an afternoon movie party with yummy Chinese food.
They also had a lovely walk to the local shop.
Dari is nearly a professional chef.
Today Chihana, Sabina, Manu and Berru had fun in the Volleyball Club.
Wellbeing is a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health factors. Wellbeing is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction.
Today we put all of this in our plates and had an amazing time at home.
Today Anna Mariya came home and we spent the evening showing her around campus
Elsa got a new bike!!!
We also participated in the September Fitness Challenge – How long can you hop on one leg for?
Chisa holded it for nearly 1:3o – WELL DONE!
Our Well-being is one of the most important part for us. We are all starting to miss home a lot, therefore we want this to be our new home. We are trying to give ideas to make Old Portena cosier.
When you feel home and comfortable all your habits change. In this Pillar we are working on Sleep and how to get more sleep and of the best quality and feeling at home is key.
These are the pastries to celebrate the mid autumn festival in China.
The moon’s roundness symbolises harmony and prosperity, and the festival celebrated the harvest, often bringing together family members from near and far.
Today’s snack was homemade non-sugar pancake
Rin and Chihana decided to sign up for chess this afternoon with our own chess master, Mr. Gordon. Maybe they will beat him soon with a little bit of training 😊
Sundays are usually trip days for our girls. Today grade 6 had a visit to the Botanical Gardens of Geneva and the rest of our girls enjoyed a variety of sports on campus.
During our Geneva trip, we cama across a Street Food Festival! There were so many options it was hard to choose just one! Our girls were finally tempted by the fish and chips, but we could also enjoy some fries, Mexican tacos, Argentinian empanadas and Venezuelan arepas, yum!
Today Mrs. Aida came during social time to continue the Crochet Club because the girls can’t wait to Tuesday to continue.
Weekends are always packed with activities! Today some of our girls decided to take a horse riding lesson in our local school in Versoix. They are both advanced, so we are sure that very soon we will see them jumping high 😉
Today during the Wellbeing Session of selfcare. So the girls made some face masks with oat, yogurt and honey.
Today we start the Crochet Club. Ella, Amy and Elsa love that!! Next time we will start with the headband.
Old Portena loves sports! Today’s fitness challenge was “How many basketballs can you score in one minute?”. Alana and Chihana gave it a go and did pretty well!
Today the girls learn how to selfcare of themselves as a part of the wellbeing Pilar 1. They made face masks with oats, yogurt and honey.
We had a lot of fun in Leysin, we enjoyed the amazing weather and landscape with our friends.
What an experience!
Chisa and Chihana took the most challenging experience, they decided to join the group for an overnight stay, up the mountains at 3000 metres.
So proud of you girls!
Some of us could learn some orienteering skills and took the time to get to know Leysin forest.
After our first day in Leyin we got ready for several activities:
AIGLE CASTLE
Annie and Amy had the best time visiting this part of the country. Such a lovely castle!
The girls from Old Portena went today to visit Lausanne and the Olympic Museum. Perfect combo, Museum and shopping for a day without school.
Yesterday in the House Meeting we organized the Mountain Weekend to come, some news and we watched a video about body image. Here some quotes from our girls:
“Societies beauty standards are generalized. We should all love each other for who we are, non of us were born the same and we will never be the same”
“Don’t judge by looking. Inside of the body is more important than looking”
“Everyone should be confident in their own body. Everyone is different”
It was great to celebrate Rin’s birthday today. We are so lucky to live in an international community, we were able to sing for her in English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Ukrainian!
This month we are dedicated to wellness. As we know, taking care of our body is a great part of our wellbeing, so our girls are taking part in the Fitness Challenge organised by Mr. Rob 🙂 Today the challenge was to hit a football as many times as possible. Of course, the winner was Chihana, with a record of 3 minutes 14 seconds, and she could have kept going!
In our boarding houses, we have a House rep and House Captain to support their fellow students and give them a voice if they feel they have something they want to share. Two of our students came upfront and volunteered to take on these roles. Both of them will be a role-model to our community and we feel they are capable of this and more 🙂 Allow us to introduce them to you…
HOUSE REP
Paria Jowkar
Paria was house captain last year. As an experienced and returning student, she will lead by example and give voice to our girls in front of the whole community. She presented her candidature in the form of a poem which warmed our spirits and demonstrated her amazing use of words. We knew right away she would be perfect for this role!
HOUSE CAPTAIN 
Manuela Kapose
Manuela is a new student at school, but since the first day her warm and caring personality has brought her many friends and made her a support for those around her. We believe she will be a great leader for our girls.
What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Today, Annie, Amy and Berru decided to spend their time baking some sweet treats. Cupcakes, apple crumble, peach cobbler… Old Portena smells like cinnamon!
What a fun way to spend a Sunday!! We had so much fun at the Aquapark this weekend. Pirate ships, slides, swimming pools… The perfect balance between fun and relaxation 🙂
This afternoon we enjoyed our usual afternoon in Geneva. It’s a great opportunity to relax, do some shopping, enjoy the city atmosphere and enjoy some of our favorite snacks! Today was specially busy, as we needed to get the last bits and pieces for our upcoming Mountain Weekend 🙂 after our long day, we are getting ready for a Disney movie night!
STEAM stands for Science Technology Engineering Art and Maths. For the first session of this year, our students participated in the Egg Drop challenge! Helium balloons, recycled materials, PET bottles, parachutes… and of course a little bit of art to give life to our eggs. Chisa did an amazing job and both of her eggs survived!
Today Mrs. Jody visit us to meet the girls and do some mediation. After the mediation the girls make some dream catcher for the wellbeing Pilar 1 the first week sleep.
Social hour is the perfect time to enjoy playing some sports with friends. With the last weeks of Summer rapidly approaching, some of our girls decided to spent their time participating in some outdoor activities.
What a treat for the palate
Today Chihana played football with the boys in Concha
Welcome back Chihana, we missed you!!!
If you have a moment come and visit our new wellbeing space in Old Portena. Here we will inform you of all the news, activities and ideas we will use for all of us.
This year as usual we will start with our Pillar 1: Healthy minds and healthy bodies and we will focus this first week on:
How do we find our balance?
How much sleep is enough?
Today, as every sunday we enjoyed the beauty of our Lake Geneva. We took the boat in Geneva and had a lovely tour around it.
Today we ate our favourite meal of the week; BRUNCH!
And then we made some origami, Chisa is a professional!!
The girls enjoyed together this amazing weather playing volleball
This afternoon, we had the perfect Summer afternoon in Versoix, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy an afternoon by the lake! We walked down all together and enjoyed some local snacks.
