Message from Mr Crabtree, Executive Head
Dear Families,
This week’s newsletter almost writes itself – a celebration of the people, values and opportunities that make our school so special, framed by Wednesday’s visit by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.
The event was an opportunity to bring our school community together, with GES Secondary students and A-Level alumni at our Primary campus. The Duke’s arrival was a real moment for our school. As we stood on the steps of the main house with our Early Years children, the quad and surrounding classrooms were filled with excited, smiling faces to welcome His Royal Highness to the sound of our Key Stage 2 choir. This video captures the experience wonderfully.
I want to share with you my thanks to the Duke and Royal Household for the time, energy and genuine personal interest they invested in our school and children; two hours of non-stop, authentic engagement in conversation and discussion with our students that will live long in our memories. We hope to share the benefits of the visit as widely as possible through our social media accounts. If you don’t already follow them, I invite you to do so using the following links: Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook. You may have already noticed that GES featured for the first time on the Royal Family’s Instagram account!
Although the visit was a highlight, it sits between three other exciting GES Duke of Edinburgh Award activities at school. Last week, our Year 13 Gold Award students completed their 200km cycling expedition in the Italian Lakes region. I recommend you take a moment to watch the short travelogue film made by our very talented A-Level Art student, Gavin. Next week, our Year 10 Bronze Award students will be in the Ardèche kayaking and camping by the Rhône, and our Year 11 Silver Award group will travel to Germany to cycle around Lake Konstanz. I look forward to sharing news of these trips with you next week.
I hope you have all had a wonderful Jeûne genevois holiday and you will enjoy the long weekend to come!
Mr Crabtree
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh Visits GES
We were honoured to welcome His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh on Wednesday to our Primary campus for a morning of exchange with our students, alumni, staff, and participants from other schools.
The Duke joined students in a wide-ranging conversation about the challenges facing their generation, the importance of skills such as resilience, adaptability, communication and leadership, and the role of enrichment activities in preparing young people for the future.
Students also shared their experiences of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, discussing how opportunities to volunteer, develop new skills, take on challenges and step outside their comfort zones can help young people grow in confidence and independence.
Most importantly, the conversation had student voice at its heart – giving young people the opportunity to share their views directly with The Duke.
Despite the pouring rain, the Duke received a royal welcome, with our Key Stage 2 Choir filling the campus with song and our entire Primary community – including our youngest learners – gathering at the entrance to the school or at their classroom windows to wave as the motorcade arrived.
Ahead of the royal visit, our Year 13 student, Gavin, produced an excellent clip of his and his fellow adventurers’ recent International Award cycling expedition to the Italian lakes, which faithfully conveys the real spirit of the student experience of the Award.
This week in class
This week’s French lessons were marked by celebrations of the Jeûne genevois through culture and cooking!
Once again, our very own Mme Briand organised a special atelier cuisine during French lessons, giving our students the opportunity to discover one of Geneva’s local traditions: la tarte aux pruneaux.
During their French lessons, students learned about the history of the Jeûne genevois, discovered why plum tart is traditionally eaten on this occasion, and, of course, had the pleasure of making – and tasting – their own! A wonderful way to bring language learning to life through local culture and traditions.
A huge MERCI goes to Max, Imogen and Gemma, who picked no fewer than 12 kilos of plums last weekend!
What a wonderful start of the year for our youngest learners! Our students have been busy exploring their new classroom, getting to know one another and discovering all the exciting things Pre-school has to offer. They have played together, laughed together, got messy together and, most importantly, started to build friendships and feel at home in their new environment.
We can’t wait to see where the rest of the year takes them!
Our Year 3 students can confidently and proudly name and describe the layers of the Earth… in both English and French! Once they were secure with their understanding of each layer and where it stands in relation to others, they made plasticine models to support their explanations.
Journalists in Year 4 have continued developing their newspaper writing skills as part of their ongoing investigations into the mystery of the iron hand found in the campus woods. They interviewed local resident Lucy Howen, a former GES employee, to learn more about the discovery. Ms Howen shared what she remembered from the 25th of August and gave them some interesting insights about Genthod, including local figures like the town’s wood sculptor. Students asked thoughtful questions and carefully noted down her answers throughout the visit. These notes will now be used as quotes and key details when they write up their final newspaper reports.
Stay tuned for some breaking news!
Our Year 4 physicists tackled a challenge set by their teachers: they were given a paper clip, two drawing pins, a piece of cardboard, and a working circuit to make their own switch. Working in pairs, they discussed how energy flows through a closed circuit and worked together to design a functional switch. Once it was complete, they used key scientific vocabulary to explain exactly how their circuit works.
Evie and Mariia volunteered to step into the shoes of a teacher and explained brilliantly the scientific mechanism of their switch using their classroom’s big screen.
Bravo, everybody!
Our Secondary scientists have had another busy week in the school labs!
Science lessons for Year 9 were all about using models to represent elements, compounds, mixtures and molecules. By looking at the building blocks that make up matter, our students are able to visualise more clearly the various bonds that come into play when elements combine.
Our Year 11 students carried out an electrolysis experiment of different ionic solutions. This demonstrated how electrical energy can drive a non-spontaneous chemical reaction to break down a compound into its fundamental elements, and provided insights into how this process is used in real-world industrial processes.
On Wednesday, our Year 10 thespians worked in groups to develop their devised theatre piece, a method that involved creating a performance from scratch using a stimulus instead of a pre-existing script. In today’s session, they explored various techniques to convey a tragedy, testing them out to see which was the best fit.
Beyond the Classroom
Save the Date | Course de l'Escalade
Save the date for the 48th Course de l’Escalade coming up on the weekend of 5 and 6 December!
Our school will proudly be entering this race once more and we invite you to register your child to join Team GES. Read on below for step by step instructions on how to proceed when registrations open on Monday 14 September:
When you register your child/ren, please sign them up to be a member of the GES group via this link: (i.e. not as an individual runner).
- The cost for children participating is CHF 26, which will be invoiced to you by the school once sign-ups have closed.
- Please register early as there are limited places in each category (2025 races filled up very quickly).
- You should receive a confirmation email once your child’s registration is approved in the GES team. This will happen within a few days of you signing up.
There are three categories of races that may be of interest:
Children and Youth races
The children’s/youth races will take place on Sunday 6 December. Children/teenagers aged 6 or older (born between 2009-2020) can participate as part of the GES school team. Each runner will receive an official, individual placement in their own age group and their individual times will also be recorded as part of Team GES. They will all receive a fantastic prize and medal at the end of the race.
Child-Parent races
Children born in 2021 or 2022 have the opportunity to run with one of their parents. This also takes place on Sunday 6 December, in the morning and is part of the GES team. The aim is to introduce 4 and 5 year olds to the Escalade races and prepare them to run alone in the future. Only one adult (minimum 16-years old) can accompany each child.
We encourage you to sign up as part of Team GES team if you and your child are running in this category.
Adult races
Adults are also welcome to register individually via this link, however you will not be able to sign up as part of Team GES.
Go, Team GES!
First House Quiz at Secondary
We had the first of our first GES Mastermind House Quizzes on Wednesday! Tasked with cracking the clues in a crossword puzzle, our students racked their brains to hoist their House onto the podium.
Well done, everybody, for giving it your all in solving these tricky questions!
Public Speaking Coaching
In their Key Stage 3 assembly, our Year 9 students took on the role of teachers to give a crash course on public speaking and effective presentation skills.
Demonstrating impressive confidence and using humour to illustrate how to engage an audience, our coaches shared some top tips with their peers in Year 7 and 8 for the delivery of future presentations.
Extra-Curricular Activities
A Close Look at Onions
Our Science Club students learned how to view life in (highly) magnified detail this week! Following an introduction with Kenny, our pet spider, as well as a short lesson about tarantulas, students learned how to use a microscope.
Applying their newly acquired skills, they first observed various types of plant and animal cells under the microscope, and then proceeded to prepare and observe their own slides using an onion.
