Message from Ms Matillon, Director General
Dear Parents,
As you will read in this newsletter, students and teachers were busy from Monday to Thursday, but the end of our week has been, and will be, especially lively.
Today, in Primary, we celebrated La Journée de la Francophonie – the highlight of our French department’s annual calendar, and a day “vivement fêté” by children from Pre-school to Year 6! Along with delicious waffles (thank you, Parents’ Association) and Swiss chocolates shared by maîtres chocolatiers (thank you, Elenna and Daisy in Year 4), everyone enjoyed the various ways in which we marked our commitment to French teaching and learning, culminating in a parade through our playground, and flashmob. A huge effort was made in organising and executing this event – merci Mesdames Durey, Briand, Bugeja et Cottard – and in creating some amazing costumes. Everyone looked magnifique today, but I was particularly impressed with the trio of Asterix, Obélix and Idéfix, Tintin (with Milou), the Eiffel Tower personified, and the marvelous imagination that gave us a French poodle and French fries.
Also today, some of our strongest skiers formed TEAM GES, representing our school at an Inspired ski race in Verbier. Mr Sheppard-Burgess accompanied our team with extra pride, not only for their determination and sportsmanship, but also as we now are part of the Inspired Education Group. Our membership in this exclusive community will allow us increased access to a broader range of such opportunities, which will be wonderful for children and teachers alike.
GES girls will take part in two netball tournaments this weekend – Years 5 and 6 on Saturday, and Years 7-9 on Sunday. It is terrific to see the enthusiasm with which our teams approach these competitions, with netball being a long-standing favourite at GES, leading, for many students, to it being a chosen sport for their P.E. GCSE qualification. Best of luck to our players and coach!
As we head into the weekend, my thoughts are with GCSE, AS-level and A-level students who are preparing for their mock exams that start on Monday. Their intense focus in the months leading up to these exams, topped up by a final push, is sure to produce a successful and rewarding experience for them. Their results will encourage them, and guide them in their drive to final exams in May and June – the culmination of all their hard work. My thoughts will be with them along the way.
All the best,
Christina Matillon
Celebrating Francophonie at Primary
This week, under the leadership of our very own Mme Briand, the French department organised a rich programme of activities exploring four countries that are part of the Francophonie organisation. While not all of these countries are francophone, French remains an important part of their culture and heritage, which is why they are members of the Francophonie organisation.
Each year group focused on a different country: students in our Early Years classes explored Senegal, Key Stage 1 learners discovered Mauritius, Years 3 and 4 learned about Morocco, and Years 5 and 6 students studied Canada.
Throughout the week, children developed their cultural understanding by learning key facts about their chosen country, practising songs and comptines, and engaging in meaningful discussions. They also had the wonderful opportunity to interview members of our school community connected to these countries, including Mme Matillon (Canada), Nadia from our canteen team (Morocco), and Catherine (Mauritius), our speech therapist.
Creative and hands-on learning was at the heart of the week: students designed flags, some year groups learned traditional dances and songs, and all classes prepared a recipe from their focus country to share during a tasting session today.
The week culminated in a vibrant dress-up day and a celebratory assembly, where children proudly presented their learning. It was truly a colourful and joyful celebration of language and culture.
A heartfelt thank you to Mme Briand and the entire French team for their dedication, creativity, and energy in making this week such a success.
This week in class
Year 1 have just begun their exciting new Art unit on “Spirals.” Starting with an exploration of how different parts of their bodies help them draw spirals (fingers and hands, wrists and elbows, and finally their whole bodies), our students experimented drawing spirals to music, thinking about how their movements can change depending on the sound. Could their spirals feel calm and quiet, or angry and loud?
They then looked closely at wooden discs and discovered the beautiful spirals hidden within the wood grain. This led them to the beautiful work of artist Molly Haslund, who uses large, overlapping circles to transform outdoor city spaces and make them more playful and interesting. Inspired by her work, our artists created their own overlapping circle designs in their sketchbooks.
Continuing on from their indoor artwork, Year 1 took their creativity outside, embracing the opportunity to work on a larger scale and explore bold overlapping circles and spirals, transforming the playground into a vibrant canvas for their collaborative creations.
Our very own Mr Rademaker had the fabulous idea to encourage amazing retelling of our students Talk for Writing text maps by creating a weekly Oscars ceremony!
Our Year 2 authors are enjoying the nominations and the chance to celebrate each other. Well done to Evelyn, who won this week, having the award passed over from Aidan from last week.
This week in class
Year 3 students have been exploring measurement in the real world! Linking it with their knowledge of the Olympic Games, our mathematicians looked at the 100m Olympic record and timed how far they could run in the same amount of time. They then measured their own standing long jump distances and compared them to the Olympic record. Though they were unfortunately all quite far off the Olympic record, they all deserve special mention for giving it their very best attempts!
Our GCSE P.E. students had their netball assessment sessions this week! These were carried out in two sessions: the Competition assessment during a two hour lesson for Years 10 and 11, and the Skills assessment, which had a group of students in Year 9 to 13 cheering the netball girls being assessed.
The GCSE P.E. curriculum requires assessment in three sports for each student on the course. Over the course of two years, each sport must be assessed in two areas: Skills and Competition. These assessments are filmed for external moderation.
It’s been another busy week for our Secondary scientists!
Year 9 students have been extracting copper from copper oxide through reduction with carbon, an experiment that enabled them to gain an understanding of how this process is applied in metallurgy, electrochemistry and biochemistry.
For Year 12 chemists, the week was all about using different tests to identify alcohols, aldehydes and carboxylic acids and their progressive level of oxidation.
In Year 13 Chemistry, students carried out chromatography of various medicines as part of their understanding of analytical techniques.
Beyond the Classroom
Secondary House Maths Competition
Students from across Secondary took part in an exciting House Maths Competition this week!
Bringing together our school’s top mathematicians, this long-awaited event had them answering questions taken from past UK Maths Trust competitions which tested their knowledge of geometry, trigonometry, logic and more.
Congratulations go to House Léman, who carried the day!
Learning Water Safety
A group of 23 students in Years 7 and 8 took their Water Safety Certificate test ahead of their watersports residential trip in June. With a terrific 100% pass rate, they all enjoyed 30 minutes of swimming for leisure during which they took part in some fun drills and races.
We wish all the best of luck to our Year 9 cohort, who will be taking their test next week!
Neurodiversity Celebration Week
Our Secondary students marked Neurodiversity Celebration Week through whole-school assemblies.
The aims of the Neurodiversity Celebration Week this year were not only to raise awareness but to value and celebrate our differences. Discouraging the antiquated language of “deficits”, it aimed to show the strengths that neurodivergence can bring to societies.
Our students learned that in the same way that biodiversity is essential for our planet to survive, neurodiversity is important for societies to function because they need a variety of thinking patterns to push forward innovation and development, and add efficiency and different perspectives to everyday situations.
Extra-curricular Activities
Spring Cooking at ASC
Our little bakers in After School Care had a fun afternoon making chocolate crispy nests. The perfect treat for a perfect Spring afternoon!
A Tent Pitching Challenge
Our Year 10 Outdoor Education Club goers practised putting up their tents and folding them back into their bag this week, an exercise which proved much more challenging than setting it up in the first place.
This training developed in them some of the skills they will need during their end of year bike ride around Lac Léman, during which they will have to carry their own equipment in paniers.
Community News
Congratulations to GES Skiers
With the ski season slowly drawing to a close, a group of 11 skiers from Team GES took part in today’s Inspired Ski Race up in Verbier. Competing against some very accomplished skiers, including a truck load from St George’s, the hosts and our new friendly neighbours, our athletes had hopes of making a statement at our first event as an Inspired school, and that we did! Strong performances across the board meant everyone finished in the top 10 for their category:
U10 Boys
1st place – James L.
2nd place – Danny H.
U12 Girls
6th place – Valentina S.
U12 Boys
2nd place – Bram H.
3rd place – Arthur C.
9th place – Vasco S.
U14 Girls
5th place – Caiomhe M.
U14 Boys
1st place – Callum H.
9th place – Matt M.
U18 Girls
3rd place – Blaithin M.
4th place – Katrina S.
A huge bravo goes to all our athletes who proudly represented GES and participated with enthusiasm and boundless energy in all the many winter sports competitions. From the very first outings back in December through to last week’s Aiglon Cup, in which students Arjan, Ravi, Artémis and Cosmo brilliantly took part, they have all done us immensely proud!
Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards
We are delighted to announce that the excellent results produced by our students have once again earned our school three Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards!
Congratulations go to Nia for earning the highest mark in Switzerland in her IGCSE History, and to Mitra for getting the highest mark in Switzerland in IGCSE Geography and the highest mark in Europe for GCSE Mathematics.
Our two students and Mr Crabtree received the awards this week from the hands of Ms Nicola Fox, Regional Development Manager for Pearson Edexcel Europe.
