We are sure that some of us might be experiencing different feelings due to this extraordinary situation. We are experiencing a pandemic. It is normal to feel overwhelmed with emotions. Sometimes we feel sad, scared, and a bit worried. But there is a way to avoid falling into a sad spiral.

During our weekly assembly, the tip to take care of our mental health was practicing mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation can bring to our girls, clarity and calm. It’s a practice that encourages them to be present, acknowledge their emotions, and let it go. And it’s all grounded by breathing.

The regular practice of it will help them to be less overwhelmed with all the emotions triggered by the pandemic. It will remind them all feelings are normal and it’s okay. And eventually, what they’re feeling will end.”

Il fait froid à Genève  🥶  Petits pains au chocolat avec chocolat chaud et tea  !!  ❄️

Today our girls took part in the Inter House Bake Off Competition led by Mr Usher. Each boarding house had to bake their own cake. Well done girls, a truly delicious effort !!

This week in our wellbeing session, we have watched this video regarding the unbelievable shocking cultural norms from around the world. We also discussed our differences and similarities between our countries. It was very interesting !!

For this sunny afternoon we treated ourselves to some pancakes and Ice-cream 🙂

It was so good that we had nothing left by the time this picture was taken!

Promoting diversity and protecting against bullying- Wellbeing Pillar 2, community project.

Many of us are using lockdown to reflect on our personal values and take a meaningful look at the structure of the society we live in. It is everyone’s responsibility to come together and stand for equality, diversity and inclusion. For that, the girls in JB Terray chose to participate in the Annual Gift Box project. Now, what is the annual Gift Box project?

The annual gift box project is a project where students choose to participate by donating either money or items. This includes items like toothbrush, soap, school supplies, socks, toys, chocolate and etc. Essential items that make their lives easier. The boxes are sent to needy children in orphanages, schools and hospitals in Eastern Europe who are living below poverty.

We spent the afternoon preparing the boxes, and as you can see, the girls were thrilled to be part of this.

Thank you, girls, for all your effort and kindness!

This past week we celebrated ‘Spirit’ from our school motto and each section of the school did a project to demonstrate their Community Spirit. Within the Boarding Community, we aligned this with our Wellbeing Pillar 2- Promoting Diversity and Protecting Against Bullying. We believe we have a strong bond as a Boarding Community and that together with the diversity among us we bridge cultures to come together and show our community spirit. To demonstrate this we created a video.

This week in our Wellbeing session we focused on Respecting Diversity. Our ‘RISE’ values of Respect, Internationalism, Spirit and Excellence, are at the heart of everything we do, bringing together more than 110 nationalities and cultures to create one family.

Respect for diversity is the hallmark of our school community that is confident and strong in its values and beliefs. When students understand that each individual is unique with their own individual differences they can begin to value and appreciate these for the richness they bring to the school and wider community.

What language do you speak? What is your religion? What holidays do you celebrate? What is your racial identification? What is your ethnic identity? What is your culture? Why is cultural diversity so important?

Our culture is what shapes us, it shapes our behavior and our identity. Culture is our way of living, it refers to the shared language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects that are passed down from one generation to the next.

WHAT DOES “CULTURALLY DIVERSE” MEAN?

The term “culturally diverse” is often used interchangeably with the concept of “multiculturalism.”

Sociologist Dr. Caleb Rosado, who specializes in diversity and multiculturalism, described seven important actions involved in the definition of multiculturalism:

• recognition of the abundant diversity of cultures;
• respect for the differences;
• acknowledging the validity of different cultural expressions and contributions;
• valuing what other cultures offer;
• encouraging the contribution of diverse groups;
• empowering people to strengthen themselves and others to achieve their maximum potential by being critical of their own biases; and
• celebrating rather than just tolerating the differences in order to bring about unity through diversity.
  

  WHY IS CULTURAL DIVERSITY A “GOOD THING”?

  Cultural diversity is important because our country, workplaces, and schools increasingly consist of various cultural, racial, and ethnic groups. We can learn from one another, but first, we must have a level of understanding about each other. Learning about other cultures helps us understand different perspectives within the world in which we live. It helps dispel negative stereotypes and personal biases about different groups.

  In addition, cultural diversity helps us recognize and respect “ways of being” that are not necessarily our own. So that as we interact with others we can build bridges to trust, respect, and understanding across cultures. Furthermore, this diversity makes our country a more interesting place to live. As people from diverse cultures contribute language skills, new ways of thinking, new knowledge, and different experiences.

  

  HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT CULTURAL DIVERSITY?

  • Increase your level of understanding about other cultures by interacting with people outside of your own culture
  • Avoid imposing values on others that may conflict or be inconsistent with other cultures
  • When interacting with others who may not be proficient in English, recognize that their limitations in English proficiency in no way reflects their level of intellectual functioning
  • Recognize and understand that concepts within the helping profession, such as family, gender roles, spirituality, and emotional well-being, vary significantly among cultures and influence behavior
  • Within the workplace, educational setting, and/or clinical setting, advocate for the use of materials that are representative of the various cultural groups within the local community and the society in general
  • Intervene in an appropriate manner when you observe others engaging in behaviors that show cultural insensitivity, bias, or prejudice
  • Be proactive in listening, accepting, and welcoming people and ideas that are different from your own

  

A huge thank you to our Kitchen Staff for another delicious brunch !!!

Monthly Boarding Meeting on Wednesday 

First Virtual Boarding Assembly

Friday Weekly Meeting

This educational sequence entitled Spirit Week consists of an integration week which students spend some time together, an opportunity to promote community at school and learn about each other’s diversity and do activities creating cohesion and wellbeing within the community school.

Unfortunately, with the pandemic situation, this doesn’t allow us to be close together but we did manage to, within the limits, spend a moment in the open air to try and pass on the message to the students. We got together, sang a song and wrote, using ourselves, the word SPIRT.

But what does the SPIRIT week have to do with our 2° pillar? The second pillar is about Diversity and protecting against bullying. Diversity improves critical-thinking skills, builds empathy and encourages students to think differently. Diversity is everything that makes people different from each other. This includes many different factors: race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious belief, or political conviction. All these factors work together to inform how students (and everyone else) encounter the world. Therefore we are all different and our differences should be respected. As John Lennon once said;

Well done girls!!!

Our November Action Calendar is full of great things. It starts from tomorrow!

Here is a sneak peek;

Keep calm, stay wise and be kind 🙂

🎃 👻 🕸️ 🕷️ Happy Halloween !!  🎃 👻 🕸️ 🕷️

🎃

🎃🎃 👻 🕸️ 🕷️

After our October Break, we started the Second Pillar of our Wellbeing Programme, focused on Protecting against Bullying and Respecting Diversity. 

Through the next seven weeks, we will be asking students to explore an area of interest relating to this pillar through a podcast or other research area. We will be asking them to take note of their thoughts and feelings. The aim of this experience is to have a lasting impact on how the students view diversity or bullying. 

Tonight, during our weekly house assembly, we discussed what bullying is, what bullying includes, and how to deal with bullying at school.  Furthermore, and as we did in our First Pillar, students will think about an individual and a community project to carry out during this period, until the Christmas Break.

Thank you to our House Representative Kateryna and to our House Captain, Louise for your support

Today, we had the pleasure of hosting our first virtual university fair with the Council of International Schools for Grade 11 and 12, Première and Terminale. Students had the opportunity to interact with more than 20 prestigious universities from 8 countries around the world!

#collegeduleman #internationalschool #madeforyou #university #classof2021 #classof2022 #future #virtualfair #geneva #IEuniversity #HultBusinessSchool #universityofbath #universityofbristol #concordiauniversity #universityofwarwick #universityofstandrews #universityofedinburgh

We hope you had a great relaxing week!

We are waiting for you to celebrate our traditional fall Pumpkin-Carving Competition !!

To say goodbye for the October Break in a proper way, we had creps, ice-cream and fruit for a snack on Friday before everyone would leave!

We wish you all a great break, get all your energy back, charge your batteries and don’t forget to take care fo yourself and the others around you!

We will be waiting for you all with a warm welcoming 🙂

Today we had our virtual parent & teacher meetings and we are so proud of the girls and all the positive feedback we received.

We would also like to thank all the teachers and staff from CDL which are directly and indirectly involved in their education and wellbeing. We are sure they are on the path of Lifelong learning, the voluntary act of learning throughout life. Discover the benefits of a learning mind-set for personal and professional development and we can only thank everyone for providing them that.

Congratulation girls, for all your efforts and dedication! This is the way to go and that is just the end of the first term!

The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achievement), leadership, service, and character. The National Honor Society requires some sort of service to the community, school, or other organizations. Welcome new members into our community!

Yoga for Wellbeing.

For our wellbeing community project this Sunday we all decided to do a 20mins session of  Yoga for wellbeing.

In these challenging times, it is especially vital to maintain inner balance, peace, and wellbeing. We did a Yogic practice that cleanses the *nadis – the pathways through which pranic energy flows – resulting in a balanced system and psychological wellbeing.

Benefits:

• Enhance vitality, focus, memory, and productivity
• Stabilize the body, mind, and emotions
• Strengthen and stabilize the spine
• Relief from back pain, stress, anxiety, and tension
• Alleviate chronic ailments and improve the overall health
• A lasting sense of joy, peace, and fulfilment

Thank you, girls, for these 20 minutes of sharing and relaxation!

*In yoga theory, nadis is a life force energy. In the physical body, the nadis are channels carrying air, water, nutrients, blood and other bodily fluids around and are similar to the arteries, veins, capillaries, bronchioles, nerves, lymph canals and so on.[1]

In the subtle and the causal body, the nadis are channels for so-called cosmic, vital, seminal, mental, intellectual, etc. energies (collectively described as prana) and are important for sensations, consciousness and the spiritual aura.

Pizza Dinner and Movie. What else?

Well done girls !

Tonight we had our Monthly Boarding Assembly led Mr Usher, as usual. One of the Boarding Prefects, Diana gave an awesome speech about friendship issues and  making friends in boarding .Thank you Diana for your contribution !!

World Heart Day is celebrated every year on 29 September

In May 2012, world leaders committed to reducing global mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by 2025. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is accountable for nearly half of all NCD deaths making it the world’s number one killer. World Heart Day is, therefore, the perfect platform for the CVD community to unite in the fight against CVD and reduce the global disease burden.

Created by the World Heart Federation, World Heart Day informs people around the globe that CVD, including heart disease and stroke, is the world’s leading cause of death claiming 17.9 million lives each year, and highlights the actions that individuals can take to prevent and control CVD. It aims to drive action to educate people that by controlling risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, at least 80% of premature deaths from heart disease and stroke could be avoided.

World Heart Day is a global campaign during which individuals, families, communities, and governments around the world participate in activities to take charge of their heart health and that of others. Through this campaign, the World Heart Federation unites people from all countries and backgrounds in the fight against the CVD burden and inspires and drives international action to encourage heart-healthy living across the world. We and our members believe in a world where heart health for everyone is a fundamental human right and a crucial element of global health justice.

Izzuddin Faalan, Maldives, illuminated in red for World Heart Day.

Food is not only fuel, food is pleasure and the basis for a healthy life.

Following our Pastoral Programme we baked apple pies for other barding houses. Our First Pillar is based on Nurturing Healthy Minds and Bodies and we decided to bake these pies because it induces students to eat more fruits.

This pie in special doesn’t have any sugar, so it is a different way to eat fruit in a heathy way.

Jessica at the Horse yard this morning  🐎

Following our Pastoral Programme today we had our first Wellbeing Workshop organised by the boarding school and our counselor, Mrs Jody .
Focused on Emotion Regulation, we all learned about expressing and dealing with our emotions. We worked in small groups and tried to solve scenarios, and  understand our feelings.
It was lovely to see our girls listening to each other and creating a safe space for everyone to feel welcome to share their feelings.

You will have heard us talking a lot about R.I.S.E and our students learning to embody the values of it. Here is a lovely video to discuss our thoughts on this.

It is important that we identify what can make us happy, healthy and confident and keep a balance with our achievements or academic skills.

During this month Terray girls are reflecting on their quality of Sleep, Nutrition, Mood, Physical activity, Leisure time and School.

This insight can help us to find  where is our balance or what are the consequences of choosing bad habits, how is all connected and the most important… how can all we find opportunities to improve our well being with small changes 🙂

We hope you have a lovely day. We love Jessica

Thank you to Mrs Murray, Mr Lars, Mrs Nowakowski, Mr Thomas, Mrs Vaughan, Mr Van Leeuwen, and Mrs Skidmore to visit us in J.B. Terray 27 today. It was a pleasure being able to spend time with you, and we hope you enjoyed yourselves too.

If you really want to eat, keep climbing the fruits are on the top of the tree. Stretch your hands and keep stretching them! Success in on the top, keep going!!

In our community we believe that fruits are very important for the daily food intake, and as we are supporting a healthy lifestyle, every Tuesday and Saturday we are getting the fruits-sources of many essential nutrients that are under consumed, including potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin C, and folate.

Also, a healthy and well-balanced diet supports brain development!

In 2008 scientists have proved that a diet that includes fruit can also increase your focus in the classroom, so you will be able to learn new information and get higher test scores…

A huge thank you to our Kitchen Staff for another delicious brunch !!!

Working out and dancing!  Terray girls had a blast!

Happy Jeûne Genevois !!

The Jeûne Genevois is a public holiday specific to Geneva. It falls on the Thursday after the first Sunday in September. On this special day, the people of Geneva traditionally eat prune tart.

 The practice of fasting could be observed in the. Swiss cantons as far back as the 15th century. The Diet, an assembly of the representatives of the cantons in place until 1848, organised penance and thanksgiving days. Each canton could decide what form these fasts would take.

The origin of the Jeûne Genevois dates back to the first fast recorded in Geneva, at the beginning of October 1567 following the repression of Protestants from Lyon. From 1640, fasting was seen as a moral and religious act and became an annual practice at the initiative of reformed cantons. It was seen as an act of humility and solidarity with the poorest members of society.

Our “ J.B. Terray 27 ” Boarding House is ready to celebrate a holiday! And since we don’t have to go to school tomorrow, we are all looking forward to the trips to AquaPark and Charles Chaplin Museum in Vevey which are going to be organized thanks to our great Boarding Activity Managers! !! You will be able to see the beautiful pictures of these trips tomorrow.

Have a great holiday, everyone !!

For our Weekly Assembly we had an amazing time. Thank you  Maeva for your help with tonight’s topics , full details about Covid protocol at CdL, University Choices, individual pastoral project, house rules, reach hours programme, activities,….

Thanks for your contribution !

At College du Leman our students’ ‘wellbeing’ is defined as being physically and mentally healthy and be able to cope with life’s challenges in a positive and constructive manner. Our students’ health and academics are very important and this year we want to have a different focus on their wellbeing by providing them with the tools that a teenager needs to maintain a healthy body and mind.

This week has seen the launch of the first Pillar of our well-being programme, Nurturing Healthy Minds and Bodies

This first Pillar will accompany our students through these first weeks of the school year, and it will offer them the opportunity to work on a range of many different projects and activities until the October Break.

Throughout this school year, students will be encouraged to complete an individual project and a community project for each pillar of well-being. These projects are focused on activities that are meant to support growth and self-awareness. We believe that this will allow our students of all age groups to take ownership of their wellbeing.

Parents, students, educators, walk with us this path. We count on your support to make the best for our students wellbeing.

Katya and peers had a great Saturday wakeboarding on Lake Leman

Bravo!

Today, the Panthers volleyball tryouts.

Working hard to get better, use their skills and fight till the bitter end!

Go Panthers!

We hope you have a lovely day. We love you Lou Lou !

As a new school year begins and following our Pastoral Program, tonight we had our First Well-Being Tutorial. This will be a 5 Pillar Program carried out over the year, focusing on different areas of our lives. We will be focusing on looking after ourselves and others around us. We will be spending an hour a week together concentrating on what it means to have a positive attitude towards our own well being and the benefits it can bring us both academically, socially, and personally. 

As a novelty, this year we use Padlet to choose a challenge. Padlet is an online virtual “bulletin” board which can be used by students and tutors to post notes on a common page.Students can choose their individual project and the House Parents can share community ideas. The notes posted by tutors and students can contain links, videos, images, and document files.

 

During this first session focused on Nurturing Healthy Minds and Bodies, we began by asking them to give us a synonym for the word Well-Being and what personal association they have with that word. Understanding the initial concept is important. Some of their responses included: feeling happy, healthy, calm, lively, vital, energetic, having a good sense of humor and being glad.

 

Following, we asked them questions like:

 

– How many hours do you sleep and what time do you approximately fall asleep?

– How do you manage to relax in the face of problems in general?

– How many meals do you have per day and what do you eat? What do you drink?

– What sports do you practice and how often? Do you practice yoga or meditation?

 We discussed it together and we set up a new action plan:

 

1– Unlike us, who have grown up without the internet and mobile phones, our students were born into the age of the Internet and for them, it is something intrinsic and second nature.  Students need 7/ 8 hours per night to sleep. Due to their lack of sleep, we made a deal: During the week, they are not allowed to use mobile phones after 22.30. 

 

2- To help relax their body and mind after an intensive daily routine, we suggested that they take a shower and drink a tea or infusion before bedtime. Obviously, family calls/chats are important as well as attending yoga classes or meditating, all helping them feel more relaxed.

 

3- They need at least five meals: breakfast, snack at school, lunch, snack after school, and dinner. We suggested that they avoid eating fast food and energy drinks. Best to drink water. Tuck shop is cancelled so they can buy their health food.

 

 4- They must practice more sports. Almost all of them have signed up for 1 or 2 activities during the week/weekend: fitness, volleyball, horse, soccer, tennis, and pool.

Thank you  for your support ! Have a nice day!!

These first days all of the girls in  Villa J.B.Terray  are settling in their daily routine . We are keeping an eye on them to support and help them in this settlement. Last night first Italian dinner🍕 at home !!

Our Boarding Team  led by Mr Usher , Mrs Salamin, Mr Politano, and Mrs  Kallay  is wishing you a successful School Academic Year 2020/2021

We hope you all had a wonderful summer – the staff of J.B. Terray are ready and eager to welcome you all back for the 2018-2019 academic year!

Your team this year is made up of House Parent Beatriz Lourido Fernandez, Deputy House Parent Henar Blanco.

We look forward to seeing you all soon, if you have any questions before getting here please contact terray@cdl.ch

Dear girls,

We wish you an amazing new beginning! Bring the best you learned at College du Léman with you through the world  no matter where you are!

We will keep you all in our hearts ♥️♥️

Be happy! Bonne continuation! Lots of love!

Mrs.Henar and Mrs.Sofia

During the year Rikka was attending the weekly culinary classes with our school chef making great recipes. Now she has sent us this picture of an amazing cake she has prepared for her bother’s birthday….. Looks delicious!

Well done Rikka!

AP exams are taking place during the month of May and all of our girls in Villa Terray are participating.

We wish you the best of luck for these examinations 🙂

We wish you a deserved rest After 4 weeks of a Virtual Learning Experience!

It has been a challenge but Well done to all the Villa Terray girls: Olivia, Rikka, Helen, Jialin, Aya, Ana Sofia, Jasmine, Natalina and Julia 🙂
We are looking forward to seeing you back in the House as soon as possible, we miss you tremendously!

Please see a little video message from us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-dEx7CcnfA&feature=youtu.be

Make every day at home with your child the best it can be with our top tips for effective #VirtualSchool – made for any child around the world studying at home.

Download our printable posters, perfect for sticking up in the house, and our guide which is packed full of practical advice:

https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/about-us/virtual-school-experience

Congratulations for completing the first week of the virtual learning experience!

You rock Girls!

‘Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women.’ – Maya Angelou
#collegeduleman #internationalschool #switzerland #internationalwomensday

During these weeks, we have started a new topic from our Wellbeing program. Pillar 4 making safe and responsible choices.  Extremely important topic, especially as they grow older and head towards college to become fully-fledged adults.

In this last session, we have to talk about Peer pressure, that represents both a challenge and decision for teens, as they struggle to choose between what they know is right and what their friends are doing.

Not only we have discussed about right choices but we have talked about how to say NO.  As a part of the session, we did a role-play putting in practice refusal skills with body language and assertive communication.

Thank you, girls, for your honest talk about teens challenges.

Some pictures of last weekend in Crans Montana!

Rikka and Gabriela  (first picture) and all of our boarding students had a great time in the slopes 🙂

Have a lovely day! We are proud of you girl! All the best! Lots of love! <3

Anyone else craving a hot chocolate with this weather?
#collegeduleman #internationalschool #snow

Many of our students spent February break in the amazing resort of Crans Montana! Among them, it was Helen who snowboarded 6 days, notably improving her level!

Kids enjoyed tremendously with also many activities as bowling, escape room, cinema, skating, swimming pool…..

Have a look at these wonderful pictures 🙂

  Getting ready for the new week at school after the break…Good luck girls!

Friendly folks are not the same as folks who are your friends.  It’s nice to feel welcomed when you attend an activity, but it’s much more valuable to have relationships that thrive outside of the meetings. But how do we build those relationships?. Sometimes relationships will grow quickly on their own, but if they don’t, how do you encourage them to grow? Fortunately, making friends is a skill that we can develop.

In the last session of the Wellbeing programme -third Pillar: Building positive friendships, we have talked about tools and strategies that can take us to fulfiling friendships and, through an acting game, Terray girls have represented some of these social skills. We can practice them every day and will help in almost any situation.: smiling, making eye contact, finding common interest, empathize…

Thank you girls, for such a wonderful session 🙂  !

Watch this video with Natalina picking up this Style dance Choreography

Each of our monthly assemblies begins with a brilliant interpretation of our students.

In our February assembly, we have been able to count on Gabriel who, with only his voice and creating loops, has achieved this wonderful melody.

Please listen carefully……….

Fascinating picture took by Jasmine tonight. Simply beautiful!

As we approach some exams of the second Marking Period, students thoughts have turned to revision.  The importance of revision is twofold. Firstly, it helps you to remember what the students covered some time ago. Secondly, If done correctly it will help increase your confidence and reduce anxiety.

Keep revising girls, you will be well prepared!

This week in our Well-Being session we have explored the benefits of making friends from around the world in School.

Internationalism is a cornerstone at CDL, a school with more than 110 nationalities. Only in Villa Terray, we count with 8 different and this is going to lead to many international friends.

Terray girls came up with many benefits such as the cultural exchange, learning languages or a greater sense of empathy for the world. After this discussion, we played a quiz about international food which made us laugh out loud!

This Sunday Terray went to the cinema to watch Greta Gerwig’s newest film, Little Women.

Based on the classic American novel by Louisa May Alcott, the movie tells the story of the March sisters and their family. The sisters are all living their lives in their own way and bucking conventions all the while.

It’s a story with no real villain and a lot of love, friendship and compassion. We are glad you enjoyed it!

One of the extracurricular activities that Rikka enjoy the most is cooking.  With our chef students learnt tasty recipes from all over the world. So far Rikka has cooked churros, lasagna, cupcakes and this week…. an amazing Rissotto.

Keep learning to cook beautiful and delicious meals, Rikka!   🙂

Last night we continued with Pillar 3 of our Wellbeing program, Building positive friendship. 

We watched a very inspirational video from a Harvard University researcher, about the longest study on human happiness. For over 75 years, they did interviews, medical tests, and checked up on people to see how they were doing. And what they found about happiness surprised them.

The fourth director of the study, in his TED talk video, “What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness” says that while many young people tend to think that fame, fortune, and hard work will bring them happiness, it’s actually our social connections that are most important for our well being.

Waldinger explains the three lessons the researchers learned. First, having social connections is better for our health and well being—and conversely, loneliness kills. Second, having higher-quality close connections is more important for our well-being than the number of connections. Third, having good relationships is not only good for our bodies but also for our brains.

The girls were really interested in knowing about this study and all together discussed what implies a good friendship.

Thank you, girls, for your thoughtful words.

We wish you a super great day Ana Sofia!

Teenagers learn when adults act as good role models. But when it comes to developing great communication and social skills, practise with other kids can be invaluable. Building strong social skills can help teens make friends and feel better equipped to deal with stress and other issues as they develop and grow knowing there is support from the people around them.
One of the best ways for kids to learn to communicate well is to have them interact in a group and use the teachable moments which are created. Board games are fun and one of the easiest ways for kids to engage with one another. Playing a game requires patience, being able to take turns, agreeing to and sticking to the rules, and being a good friend – whether you win or lose.

Tonight to introduce Pillar 3 of our wellbeing program: Building positive friendship we have played Jenga,  a game of coordination where players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating an increasingly taller and more unstable structure. May not be ground-breaking or new, but, with a few simple tweaks, it can be used to teach valuable communication skill.

Jenga is a great game for building decision-making skills and improving hand-to-eye coordination.  But, most importantly, the aim of this game is to teach kids the importance of being patient, how to be a good friend under pressure, and how to contain their excitement when a friend knocks the tower over!

It was a great start for a great topic! 🙂

Tonight’s assembly started with a brilliant interpretation of   ‘O sole mio from our Boarding trio the Three Tenors!… followed by the many upcoming events for this new year :

• CDL TALKS, inspiring new leaders-  with Ismael Fernandez the 28th of January
• Mountain weekend + Winter camps
• Wellbeing – pillar 3:  ” Building positive friendship”

We also had Sofia, Miss Cristina, Mr Usher and Mr Salva talking about important matters as Healthy habits, Environment or friendship.

Thanks everybody for a great assembly 🙂

Thank you Natalina for this wonderful speech!! <3

Continue reading →

In our Wellbeing latest conversations  (Pillar 2 Protecting against Bullying and Respecting Diversity) we focused on Charity, “providing for those in need; generosity and giving”  finding that even small actions can make a significant difference.

As previous years Boarding students have been very enthusiastic participating in the Christmas Action Project where presents are prepared and delivered to foster homes with children.

Terray girls decide to do their bit. They bought a personalised gift,  wrapped it nicely and attached a meaningful message. Natalina and Olivia were one of the lucky students who accompanied the delivery of the presents with Mr Usher and Mr Salva and they couldn’t be happier seeing the smile of the kids receiving their present 🙂

During yesterday’s Boarding Assembly Olivia, Natalina and Johannes shared their experience with all the Boarding students and expressed the positive impact of this action.

Thank you for your generosity!

The CDL group including Ana S., Maeva and Louise travelled to Germany’s biggest amusement park.  Europa Park is situated in the town of Rust near Freiburg and has beaten the global competition to win the award for the best amusement park in the world several times in a row. Europa Park is first and so far the only park in Europe to be given this award!

Also, the students played a visit to the traditional Freiburg Christmas Market in the heart of the beautiful old quarter.

That was a great weekend!

One of the highlights of this week has been the participation of Aya and Helen in the art exhibition held by Webster University. Congratulation girls for your participation!

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein

In our weekly wellbeing meeting, we have talked about the important role Community service plays at Collège du Léman. How can we participate, what are the positive effects of our actions in favour of the community and what kind of sense and fulfilment we can find.  These are some of the questions we have talked through in our meeting discovering very positive answers.

Our school encourages all students to connect with the greater community, giving them the opportunity to engage with a variety of activities. Terray girls have helped to mentor students, cleaning up lake Geneva, helping staff in our everyday tasks, teaching younger students, etc..  Some of our girls started really early! like Ana Sofia who helped to clean up the beaches of her hometown with her family as you can see in the picture below 🙂

Wonderful to see your kind spirit girls!

Congratulations to ……
Ana Sofia for her Boarding life award, Rikka for the Activities commitment award and Jasmine, Jialin and Helen special mention in academics.

Well done Terray girls!

Wishing you a beautiful day and happy eighteenth Jialin!  Also to our lovely Louise.

We had a double bday celebration at home tonight!

During last weekend in Paris…..

On Saturday CDL students visited iconic places as the Louvre Museum, Montmartre or Champs Elysées, finishing the day at the Arc de Triomphe with amazing views from the top.

On Sunday they went to the famous Eiffel Tower, climbing to the top of the tower where they had an incredible panoramic of Paris. Afterwards, they enjoyed a nice excursion by boat through the Seine River where they could see how is now the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Thank you for the pictures Rikka!

Today Jasmine had an amazing time in Aquatis, the largest freshwater aquariun -vivarium in Europe!

Respect is on the cornerstone principles of our School ( RISE: Respect, internationalism, spirit and excellence). It denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person and also specific actions and conducts representative of that esteem. Respect can be defined as allowing yourself and others to do and be their best.

But “How does respect look? How does respect sound? How does respect feel?”

We have revised this concept with the help of a very personal Aya’s presentation.  She has shown a lot of gratitude to the ones who work closer with students, Teachers and House Parents and has displayed very meaningful reasons to respect them.

Most of us had a special teacher that had a lasting effect on us so, last but not least, Aya encouraged us to talk about a teacher who was important in our life’s 🙂

Thank you Aya for your thoughtful words!

A great language and culture diversity is represented at CDL. Promoting this diversity is everyone’s business — students, teachers, Leadership and parents.  Join us to celebrate!

You choose 2 first places. Congratulations!!

Dear girls thank you for your participation, for your effort, your vote and for all these wonderful photos you took yourself!

Good bye Autumn!

2nd place:

3rd place:

Welcome Winter!

Today we have continued with the second pillar of the Well-being program: Protecting against bullying & respecting diversity with an excellent Olivia’s presentation about Bullying .

We have learnt about it; what is , people affected: those who are bullied, those who bully, those who witness bullying and their negative effects in all of them. Olivia did a fantastic job not only preparing this presentation but sharing her own experience and facilitating that everyone in the house shared their experience too.

Thanks Olivia, brilliant work!

Terray girls took the masterchef competition to another level with this incredible Terray Cake!

Ana Sofia’s creation has Austro-Hungarian roots, it is a light sponge with the main ingredient being almonds and hazelnuts. It is filled with homemade raspberry/strawberry jam, as well as crème pâtissière and chocolate cream. On the top it has 11 choux craquelin, covered in caramel filled with vanilla crème chantille or crème pâtissière. The piping is meant to resemble the very classic gâteau St-Honoré.

Very proud of your effort!

Check out the pictures of our Saturday trip to Lyon  !!!

It is the third largest city in France, after Paris and Marseille and is set on a hilly site at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers.

We wandered the streets of the old town, Vieux Lyon and around the nice squares of Presqu’île. We climbed the hill to to arrive to the Ancient Theatre of Fourvière. We visited Lyon Cathedral and we had a french lunch just next to its door. Not forgeting we crossed some of the many Lyon’s bridges and discovered the lively street markets.   🙂

Nous avons fait un bon voyage!

Such a great time yesteday in our House dinner!  We cook a delicious homemade menu with pumpkin soup, spaghettis au pesto, tuna empanada, Spanish omelette and a churros dessert!

Thank you girls for such an amaizing time together and for your cooking skills !

Prefects are students that have proven they can be trustworthy and responsible. They have an interest in obtaining a leadership role in the House amongst their peers and they help bridge the gap in a number of areas between our Boarding community at large and the staff.

We are very lucky to count with two Prefects in Villa Terray, Ana Sofia and Natalina!  They were helping in our last Boarding assembly. Also, Natalina went on stage to talk about the hidden reality of “brands”.

Thank you girls for your active collaboration!

Last week we started the second pillar of our well being Program: Protecting against bullying & respecting diversity.

During two sessions we have explored the term Stereotype. Studying in such a diverse School community, it is important that we challenge many stereotypes around us in order to respect each other.

With different games and discussions we have been looking about gender, looks and nationality stereotypes. Our discussion focused on identify them, think about their origin and their negative impact on our community.

Often when we begin to interact with people who are different from us, our experience of the “other” expands. It’s important to surface these general ideas about others that plays in our head. Once stereotypes are challenged repeatedly, it makes it harder to stereotype in the future.

https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/en/our-schools/switzerland/cdl/students/international-diversity

We hope that our wonderful Miss Henar spent a great Birthday on the 28th October and we all wish her lots of happiness and love!! Thank you for everything you do, for being so caring, kind and dedicated! Lots of love!! Sofia and the girls <3

Great work from Ana Sofia and Rikka carving our Villa Terray Jack-O-Lantern, Pepito! Fingers crossed for a good result in this Boarding House competition.

Thank you Aya and Natalina for participating in the The 4th edition of Hooping for a Cure that took place at the end of this month in Collège du Léman.  All proceeds will be donated to ESCA Cancer Support!

https://www.cancersupport.ch/

We hope you had a relaxing week girls 🙂  We can’t wait to welcome back to Villa Terray and continue with more adventures!

Have a safe flight! Enjoy your holidays!

Congratulations Jasmine for becoming a new member of the National Honor Society!

We are very proud you!   🙂

https://www.nhs.us/about/

Following our last session in Healthy nutrition, this week we have talked about sugar in our diet.
Teenagers have the highest intake of sugar among all population and, as any food, can be harmful if taken in excess. Especially sugars added during processing foods such as sodas, candies, pastries and snacks.

With a quiz game we have checked the daily intake recommended for teenagers and the surprising amount of sugar in some of our favourite drinks and foods!

Thank you girls for helping with the shopping and Villa Terray decoration.

You make this house a home!

Thank you girls! # Team Terray

Great battle between  Team Jialin- Helen and  Team Jasmine – Yida.   #AboutlastSunday

4th Session of # Wellbeing at Terray’s

Mission –> Nutrition

This weekend we talked about balanced food, cooking ideas and methods of cooking, as well as we discussed about the budget and the healthy products/essential nutrients.

Bon appétit! Source of the pictures on the Power point: Google

Thank you Rikka for opening our Boarding assembly playing a beautiful violin piece.

We are very proud of you!

While some of the girls went adventurous and played Paintball other were playing tennis, Trivial Pursuit or eating dinner with friends 🙂

A basic in the kitchen, very healthy and versatile.  With a few apples from our nearby farm https://www.fermecourtois.ch/

Enjoying fruits at Villa Terray 🙂

Mont Blanc…Just contemplate and admire… La vie est belle!

This week we have discussed the importance of sleeping well. We started taking a questionaire about our routines and the scores showed that almost all of us should improve the cuantity and quality of sleep!

The disccussion after was interesting. Everybody shared the reasons that can make us go late to bed: social media, homework, stress, etc.. and we compared them with the one’s from the teens of the following video

Finally, after expolring ways to improve our sleep, we took a challenge …No phones or computers in our beedroom during the night. How was it?… Some of them read a book, others were chatting before bedtime but all of us saw that is possible to disconnect earlier from our phones and find ways to get better rest 🙂

Thank you girls. It was great to hear your ideas!

We would like to dedicate you one of your favourite songs for your Birthday, dancing queen!

In our third session we have talked about meditation and the ways we quiet our mind down.

We have also listened to a guided meditation podcast. The theme was accepting change.  As a senior high students there are many changes to be faced and sometimes we have desperately tried to prevent and stop change from happening.
Instead of resisting, it is better to allow change to unfold and try to understand what’s transforming and why.

The girls enjoyed of this calmed session and took some time after to relax before coming back to study.

Thank you girls for your ideas and your willingness to participate 🙂

Villa Terray girls did their very best along with the boys of Concha and the girls of Louis Yung 7 team. It was a terrfic afternoon where they battled it out across a whole field events, including badmintong shooting, tug of war, three legs race, ping pong race, keep the ball up and basket.

Thank you girls for your energy!

This week we had the visit of Yuna, a very friendly Yorkshire terrier. The girls were playing with her and enjoying of her sweet company.

No long after….. Olivia was walking our neighbour Dixie, a cute cocker spaniel.  They went for a stroll and came back very cheerful after their first walk  together 🙂

Last Tuesday we had our second Wellbeign session and we focused on the benefits of nature. We went for a walk in the nearby forest, part of Les Douves nature reserve.

We did this activity because just a walk in the woods can awaken the innermost feelings of happiness and peace.

After our walk we shared how we were feeling and noticing we were much happier and relaxed.

Studies show benefits of walking in nature like reducing stress, helping with depression, helping brain fuction or increasing positivity. A great discovery to realise how such a simple action can help us so much boosting our wellbeing.

Thank you for an amazing walk girls!

https://www.ge.ch/document/nature-petits-guides-reserves-bois-versoix/telecharger

Wonderful activities, fresh mountain air, great new friends…what more ?? 🙂

Not only respectful and motivated but very well organised and positive!! Thank you and well done girls!!