Posted by rcarlon

Our grade 12 boys climbed to the top of Mt Olympus (in house points) to gaze out at their reward — a night of pizza galore. In non-covid times they would go somewhere outdoors, but the outdoors are currently cancelled. So they have earned themselves a whole slice of pizza wellbeing. Togther we watched the video that Jody kindly made for us on Non Violent Communication (NVC) and debated its content afterwards. It is beneficial to discuss our wellbeing with a full stomach 👍

Akihiro, Daniel, Vova, Marnix and Francisco enjoy their slice of wellbeing.

Francisco catches a glimpse of the camera: we’ve been spotted !

We watched the video Jody kindly put together about how to address each other in moments of stress and anger. Mr Rodrigo enjoys a slice of free pizza in the background.

Alas an evening of well being cannot end without a game of pool! Miguel and Albien on the table. Good night and good luck !

Nov

2020

Mr Ronan against all odds ! !

Posted by rcarlon

The boys play a few games of badminton and pool against Mr Ronan. It’s a slice of wellbeing!

Aoto and Mr Ronan face each other on the court

And it’s a point for Aoto !

Boris and Albion play Mr Ronan at pool. Boris debuts his 90s bleached looks. It’s the talk of the boarding town.

It’s a win for Boris !

Nov

2020

Can you riddle me this: What rhymes with agreeing❓

Posted by rcarlon

It’s Wellbeing! Thursday at Olympus is a round of the Pillars for grade 12 with Mr Tom and grade 9 with Mr Rodrigo. Agreeing could almost be a synonym for diversity: we agree to respect each other despite our differences. After their respective activities, we had a planner check with our students. Hands up and show us your homework! It’s the planner police. We hope they haven’t been too busy watching The Crown to write down their homework…!

Mr Tom prepared an activity revolving around a Kahoot quiz with the group of grade 12. It gets the debate starting around questions of diversity and the boys’ wellbeing. The boys are on their phones in order to play the quiz.

Mr Tom unveils the results of the Kahoot. Wide grins !

At the end of Mr Rodrigo’s activity everyone got their planners out. Some have used them quite a lot.

And that’s a wrap! Planners back in their schoolbags and boys back in their rooms ready for bedtime. It’s the remains of the day.

Nov

2020

Olympus has Fallen…. the Big Jenga edition 😂 💯

Posted by rcarlon

Wednesday evening means house meeting. We gather around Tom, as if the warm hearth, and he gives us the good and ill news. For this occasion we discussed our new system of house points…. a healthy dose of competition does wonders to the boys’ well-beings. Wednesday brings as well another nugget of joy: the house competition. On this evening we had a boy of each grade represent their group at jenga. Watch the pieces of Olympus come crashing down: things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.

A grand panoramic of the house meeting. Revel at the enormous common area…!

Mr Tom shared his presentation with all the key points of the evening. Courtesy of Prezi.

We watched a video about knitting for charity. Tis the time to be charitable! Twas the Night before Christmas…..

Boris goes for…. what might it be?

It’s 50 house points! Boris is boarder of the week.

Mirsadi unveils the night’s challenge. Ilya watches in awe. The stars are aligned ! May the odds ever be in your favour.

Gabriel smiles at the camera’s candid eye. Ilya attempts his chance at success. Referees take pictures and encourage the players. They surround the almighty Jenga tower. Babel can shrink in comparison.

Mr Ronan is responsible for this great low perspective shot. Mirsadi tries his best at balance. Said watches on, probably hoping for it all to come crumbling down!

All victorious on the Western Front: Sasha smiles at his victory, Ilya stands proud as second in the game. The flag of Switzerland watches us always!

And an update on our house points mountain board. Mr Tom has enabled a system of magnets to slide the figures up and down hill. Grade 12 are back in the lead ! See you next for more competition, and Wellbeing. It’s a good night from us ! Over and out.

Nov

2020

Tour du Canton

Posted by rcarlon

Mr Rodrigo and Mr George, from the house of Léman ,took the biking group into the canton of Vaud. Sounds like a far away idea but in fact… it is only a 5 minute bike ride away ! However the rules change from one canton to the other: in that of Geneva we had to be split into two groups, whilst in Vaud we could rejoin as a group of nine. Borders — what are they good for?

Aoto and Ryunosuke somewhere in the frontier between Geneve and Vaud

A pause on the way

Just… a scene of Wellbeing

A candid picture on our return to CDL

Nov

2020

Wellbeing II: Responding to Cyberbullying 💻

Posted by rcarlon

All of our students at boarding are members of Generation Z, or Zoomers, which means that their social life has grown from and revolves, whether we like it or not, around social media platforms. This is inalienable fact. It is why a major part of their Wellbeing is through a better understanding of their interactions online. The boys partook in a workshop with Mr Rodrigo about the growing problem of cyber-bullying. We hope they learnt something beyond ”cyberbullying is really bad.” And they’re not wrong!

Mr Rodrigo questions what the boys understand as cyberbullying. The answers are more surrepticious than one might expect.

The students took a quiz on responses to cyberbullying. There was heated debate about the options open to them.

Nov

2020

House Competition: The (football) Tables turn

Posted by rcarlon

After our house meeting about the plans for Skiing in 2021, we proceeded to a session of our house competition — the grades competed against each other on the table football. The final was a tight game of Grade 12 against, surprisingly, Grade 9, with a win over just 1 goal. A healthy dose of competition is sure to boost their Wellbeing!

Mr Miguel oversees a game between Francisco M and… Francisco M. The football table here takes the place of a mirror.

Grade 9 practice for the final. A surprising turn of events!

Said, Francisco and Sadi and Daniel enjoying their table football dose of wellbeing.

Max and Boris against the finalists.

A shot of the final game: a shot of adrenaline! The boys of grade 12 pulled through, by just one goal. Well done. boys!

Nov

2020

The Challenge of Coexistence

Posted by rcarlon

For our pillar II of Wellbeing we face our most difficult, often inextricable challenge as a human species: living together with all our differences. The boys had simply to create a poster on their individual cultures for our community project — a wall of diversity. The boys presented their poster and explained some key aspects of their culture. However, how do we face the clashes that arise from irreconciliable differences? Many of our boys hail from cultures of religious fundamentalism, whilst others from a hard-earned tradition of extreme freedom of expression. We hope that this exercise helped broaden their mental horizons!

Mr Tom’s group prepare their posters for their presentation, and eventually for our wall of diversity.

Sacha, Akihiro, Francisco, Marnix and Vova prepare their posters.

Vova and Marnix present their posters on their different cultures.

Mr Rodrigo explains the concept of diversity, a challenge to maintain everyone’s Wellbeing.

Hamza’s presentation was particularly difficult because he has grown in several countries, and so his culture is that of Islamic values rather than those of a nationality.

The beginnings of our wall of diversity !

Nov

2020

House Meeting…. A Game of Pool…. A Tale Against All Odds ❗

Posted by rcarlon

This autumn Wednesday evening saw the house of Olympus gathered around Mr Tom. He told us us his charity story about cycling 300+ km to raise money for the medical treatment for Mr Ricardo’s son. It is a truly inspiring story: they raised 2000+ francs, and the boy’s condition improved. This will inspire the boys for the CDL Change The World project for the boys to attempt a work of charity over Winter break. But that was not all. We had a house competition, lots of Wellbeing, and new results on our Mt Olympus board. Watch some scenes from the evening !

Mr Tom walked us step by step in his big cycle for a good cause

Some pictures from Mr Tom’s amazing story

A story of resilience for our Pillar II of the Wellbeing programme. We shared it to inspire the boys to start training for their long-term goals.

The boys partook in a house competition involving pool. A relaxing activity to boost their well being after a long day. Watch Said go for the red ball.

Watch Albion go for a shot. Grade 12 won this challenge, well done boys!

Boris goes for his shot…. while Mr Tom looks like Charlie Chaplin in reverse

The Olympus board before the challenge….

… and after! Grade 12 have got more than 500 points. To the other boys: you have some catching up to do! A slight sense of competition will boost their Wellbeing as a community in the house.

Nov

2020

An evening of Wellbeing and Games

Posted by rcarlon

This evening the boys partook in the Second Pillar of our Wellbeing programme: Diversity and Inclusion. They brainstormed ways in which their countries make them culturally rich individuals and discussed both 1) their similarities and 2)differences. In this way they came to learn that even if they are different, their similarities were more than they expected. It’s never too late to learn this lesson!

Some of the boys also enjoyed a session of Catan with Mr Ronan 🙂