Message from the Head
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back! It has been fabulous to see you and the children over the last two days and to hear about all your holidays and adventures over the past seven weeks. Both the Primary and Secondary school are buzzing with students eager to share their stories and who are excited to be learning again at school.
As you will have seen from my letter yesterday, our GCSE results at Secondary were superb with 43% of all entries this summer being a grade 9 and 76% of them being A or above (now grade 7, 8 or 9). Many of these students have been with us since GES Primary and have excelled during their time at Secondary. These GCSE exams follow brilliant AS level results last week with 58% of all entries graded at an A (the top grade). Our results build on those from last year and position us at an incredibly strong academic level, not only with many international schools present in the area, but also on a global scale.
We have a number of changes to share for the beginning of the new academic year. The first is our new school calendars for Primary and Secondary which will enable you to always have the most up to date school information at your fingertips. Go to My School Portal – ‘Term dates and Calendar’ to find simple instructions on how to subscribe.
The second change is to our house names, as outlined in the start of term letter: Rhône, Léman, Dôle and Jura will be introduced to students across the school (including at Secondary for the first time), and represent our local natural environment. The final change is the introduction of our new vision, mission and core values of Integrity, Community, Achievement, Resilience and Excellence, which we are committed to as a school and which extend to our whole community.
I hope you are as excited about the new academic year as I and the whole of the GES team are. We are committed to providing your children not only with an outstanding education, but also great experiences in areas such as outdoors pursuits, sports, art and performances and many more. Only with this holistic approach can our young people unlock their fullest potential to thrive academically and socially, build on their opportunities and ultimately contribute positively to the world.
Many thanks for entrusting us with this task.
Best wishes for a great weekend,
Matt Williams,
Head
From the School Office
Extra-curricular activities starting next week
Please note that all Primary and Secondary extra-curricular activities will start next week as of Monday 29 August.
Primary families may want to look at the status of their “Booked activities” in My School Portal and check that they are confirmed. Regarding clubs which are either over or under-subscribed, Adwoa from the School Office will have been in touch directly.
Medical and Emergency forms, from Nurse Polly Pupulin
Thank you to all parents who have already completed Medical forms for this academic year.
If you haven’t done so already, please can all new families ensure that your child/ren’s Medical form is submitted on My School Portal. The form is also available to continuing families, should you need to update the information we have saved securely on our database.
Please also ensure that we have your latest contact information and emergency details. We can then effectively take care of your child/ren while they are in school and contact you in case of need.
Latest pupils' individual successes
Piano and Singing
We are delighted to share the following amazing results in MTB Piano that we have just received:
- Gavin (Year 9) passed his Grade 3 with Distinction
- Sienna (Year 3) passed her Grade 1 with Merits (just a few months after passing her Pre Higher Grade with Distinction).
Congratulations to both of them!
In addition to this, former Year 8 pupil Ava Gorman also passed her Grade 5 Singing with Merit – Bravo!
LAMDA acting exams
Congratulations to all of the Secondary students who took their LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) acting exams in May. We are very proud of them all and thrilled with their fabulous results. We are delighted to encourage this important facet of our Performing Arts programme as it builds confidence, enabling pupils to participate positively in every aspect of school life. Well done to everyone involved in these exams.
Information about this year’s LAMDA programme will be communicated very soon, but please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Ball for more information.
From the Sport & PE Department
New PE kit items
We have new unisex leggings, track pants and mid layer fleeces in stock in Primary and Secondary sizes this year.
- Fleeces (new models, different material) – 55 CHF
- Leggings/Tracksuit bottoms – 50 CHF
- Rugby and football socks – 15 CHF
(See larger photos in the gallery below)
If you wish to order any of these items please contact Mr Sheppard Burgess for Primary and Miss Shibil for Secondary kit.
Ski camp 2023
As advertised at the end of last year, our GES Ski trip will be in Crans Montana, Switzerland, from 2 to 7 January 2023 (the last week of the Christmas holiday) and is offered to Year 6 & GES Secondary students of all abilities.
We are delighted to be able to offer skiing, snowboarding and ski touring if there are sufficient students interested.
The price for the ski camp is CHF 975.
If you would like to request a place, please fill in the relevant form on My School Portal under the section Sport & Extra-curricular, GES Ski Camp for Year 6 & Secondary (January 2023) stating which snow sport activity your child wishes to participate in and pay the required deposit of CHF 250 (non-refundable) by next Friday 2 September.
