Cooking is one of the most requested activities in Ecureuil, especially when we are talking about pastries!

This Saturday Ada baked an ” Ile Flottante ” a typical French dessert, with crème anglaise (also known as custard) and homemade caramel.

It might look like a difficult recipe but trust us, it’s pretty easy!  You only need to beat the egg and keep the yolk for the custard cream and mix it with milk, sugar, and vanilla, and is topped with homemade caramel for the final twist.

Ada had a lovely time with her friend Sophia baking this simple but incredible recipe.

Valentine’s Day might be for lovers, but not only!

Love is one of the most powerful words, able to unite people from everywhere in the world and in any situation. This is what we can find here at College du Leman.

Our students found a new family and took advantage of this Valentine’s Day to show love to each other. Friendship & links become stronger as they are far away from home, and they are making really good and important memories.

Tonight we gathered again in our beloved kitchen for another Dinner in the House! This time we enjoyed some delicious Mexican tacos with rice, veggies, guacamole, and lots of cheese!

This weekend the house was very quiet which can only mean one thing: time for baking!

On Saturday, we baked some delicious “American-style” cookies, and although they were very flat and not as thick as they should have been, they were great!

On Sunday we let our imagination run wild and made banana muffins with dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Needless to say, both recipes were a great success.

On this week’s house assembly, we continued working on our 3rd Pillar. Today we talked about Self-Care and Setting Boundaries, as we believe it is fundamental for students to understand that looking after themselves isn’t selfish—it’s necessary— and they need to learn to protect and prioritize themselves.

This week’s takeaway point is You can’t pour from an empty cup—taking care of yourself helps you build better relationships.

During the presentation, we defined terms like Self-Care and Boundaries, and we gave a few ideas and tips to feel better when we feel tired or stressed. Whatever it is sleeping, talking to your parents, reading a book or watching a movie, finding little pleasures that help you fill up your cup is essential to take care of yourself.

Kseniia is passionate about creative activities as they help her relax and disconnect from her school work. At first, she spent her free time coloring with her friends, but now she has discovered a new ally: air-drying clay.

Kseniia now spends her free time inviting friends over to her house for a ‘competition’, as you can see in the picture; whoever makes a more accurate representation of the model wins. We won’t say which ones have been made by Kseniia, but we have to say that, fortunately, she has made huge improvements since last time!

Ada & Sofiya’s saturday Crêpes party

They made their own dough, no mixer, only by muscles power 🙂 with a delicious homemade caramel

Cooking need and teach precisious, perseverence and team working, so good job girls.

Today we had an express assembly to congratulate the 117 interns who have achieved honours in the first semester of the school year. Among these interns are our girls Alejandra, Haruka, Kseniia, and Manuela.

With effort, time, and dedication, great academic achievements can be reached—these girls are a true example for the rest of the house to follow.

Congratulations girls!

During tonight’s assembly, we launched our third Wellbeing Pillar. Over the next three weeks, we will learn how to build a strong and positive relationship with ourselves.

Throughout the session, we discussed Self-Acceptance and shared some tips for accepting each other as we are.

Ultimately, each girl shared something positive about themselves or something they were proud of achieving in the last couple of weeks. From being proud of returning from the holidays on time to being proud of finishing a 3 summative day successfully, the girls shared their thoughts.

As a boarding community, and as House Parents, we want to make sure that our boarders accept and love each other as they are. Teenagers are very impressionable and it is important that they understand that they should never change for anyone and that the only opinion that matters about themselves is the one they have.

The Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays in many Asian cultures and it marks the start of the lunar calendar year. This celebration symbolizes fresh beginnings and hopes for prosperity, happiness, and good fortune. Usually, before the holiday begins, families clean their homes to sweep away bad luck. They decorate with red lanterns, couplets, and paper cuttings.

One of the children’s favorite traditions is receiving red envelopes filled with money, wishing them good fortune. Fireworks and lion or dragon dances are common, believed to ward off evil spirits and bring prosperity. As it occurs in many cultures, food is the center of the celebration and each dish carries symbolic meaning. Dumplings represent wealth, fish symbolize abundance, and rice cakes signify progress.

Every year we celebrate this important day with our Asian students; a way to bring them a piece of home far from home.

Happy Lunar New Year!