Message from Ms Matillon, Director General
Dear Parents,
As this term draws to a close and I reflect on all that has happened in school over the past four months, I am amazed at the volume and range of learning that has taken place, the number and quality of activities and events that have captivated our children and families, and the goodwill shown by students, parents and staff toward each other and the broader community.
With the support and participation of GES parents from Pre-school to Year 13, we have praised our students’ effort and achievement, applauded their performances, and encouraged, by example, their giving back – most notably through our contribution to the Gift Box Programme that surpassed by some margin the donations of any other school in the area.
As a community, we have much for which to be proud and to be grateful!
Most sincere thanks from me and on behalf of all us at GES for your continued support of our very special school. At a difficult time for international Geneva, we are going strong and have a bright future ahead. Thank you, also, to our incredible teachers and staff who make all of this possible.
I wish everyone safe, restful and joyful holidays, and I will be very happy to welcome our children back to school on Tuesday 6th January.
All the best,
Christina Matillon
GES in the Top 10 at the Escalade
The results are all in from Sunday’s Course de l’Escalade and we are proud to announce that GES has ranked in the school Top 10, coming in at an impressive 9th place out of 121 participating schools! We are so proud of all our runners for producing such an excellent group result, as well as for their individual rankings in each of their categories. See below for some highlights:
- Harry L: 76 / 710
- Charles C: 62 / 710
- Thea B: 18 / 635
- Alexandra B: 68 / 790
- Daisy C: 40 / 900
- Enzo SB: 74 / 960
- Teo C: 10 / 725
- Danny H: 82 / 920
- James W: 18 / 890
- Arthur C: 32 / 890
- Lila AH: 51 / 425
- Emily W: 48 / 280
Special shout-out goes to Teo in Year 6, who also made it into the Top 10 of his 725-strong category!
This week in class
Our Primary classrooms were full of cheer and excitement as each celebrated the end of term with a well-deserved party! Between singing and dancing, fun sessions of pass the parcel and a visit by Father Christmas himself, our students and teachers loved every minute of their celebrations!
Thank you to Oscar G. and Cato for their excellent presentation about the Dutch tradition of the feast of Sinterklaas! Our Year 6 students learned all about this celebration which falls every year on 6 December and during which Sinterklaas fills children’s shoes full of special treats!
Year 9 joined forces to continue their study of World War I by recreating the trenches with tables and chairs. Using paper projectiles as ammunition and acting as opposing sides (with one class acting as the French and the other as the Germans), students mimicked the warfare to learn why it was not effective. An energetic way to wrap up the term and bring History to life!
Beyond the Classroom
Visiting the Père Noël
Last Friday, Reception children had an amazing day visiting the village of Père Noël (where Father Christmas lives when he comes to France!).
When they arrived, they could not believe the size of the Christmas tree in the garden – it was huge! They also found the special post boxes and posted all of their letters that they had written to Père Noël. They then visited Mère Noël’s house and found out that she loves the colour pink.
After lunch (they were so excited to be having a picnic in Père Noël’s house), they enjoyed a story with one of Père Noël’s sisters, and then saw Père Noël himself! They couldn’t believe it and launched into his arms to give him a huge hug!
It was then time to visit Père Noël’s house! First, they went into the hospital, where one of his reindeers was asleep in bed. He had a very poorly tummy after eating too much Nutella. Next, they saw the elves’ bathroom and went to see where the elves sleep; they thought that their little beds were so cute!
One of the highlights of the visit was the workshop, where the elves make the toys – they had been very busy indeed!
In the kitchen, they realised that Père Noël is not very good at doing the washing up. There were so many dirty dishes in the sink!
Just before leaving, our little visitors saw Père Noël again! He was sitting at his desk reading all the letters that had been sent to him from children around the world and they even got the chance to sit in Père Noël’s sleigh!
What a wonderful and truly magical day!
Ralph the Reindeer
What a superb performance by our Key Stage 1 students this week during their Christmas show!
Telling the story of a poorly Rudolph, Ralph the reindeer appeared and volunteered to help and replace him. The only problem is that Ralph can’t fly! Trying so hard to count 1-2-3 to get momentum and realising this strategy didn’t work, Ralph worried our audience who thought that Christmas would be cancelled. Rudolph returns and gives Ralph a top tip: start counting at 10!
Beyond their brilliant acting and dancing, this show truly embodied our school values of helping others and contributing to make everything better as a community.
Bravo to all our performers for this fantastic show!
Singing Along Some Christmas Songs
The Key Stage 2 Christmas Sing-along was such a blast! With parents and families joining in enthusiastically to sing at the top of their lungs, our young singers put a spring in everyone’s step for the day as they all intoned some favourite seasonal classics such as “Jingle Bells”, “White Christmas”, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and a terrific medley of “Let it Snow” and “Winter Wonderland”.
Well done to all our musicians and thank you to all our parents for joining in the fun of this annual GES event!
Primary House News
Our Primary House Captains organised an action-packed week of activities for their peers this week!
Working together, they planned a lovely afternoon of arts and crafts during which they led workshops to chop and paste, draw and paint some beautiful decorations. House Captain Teo also put on a magic show for our young learners in Year 1, who looked on in amazement at the real magic that was happening before their very eyes!
Thank you, House Captains, for bringing such wonderful experiences to your younger peers and for your dedication and care towards the GES community!
Success for our Skiers
Our skiers in Years 5-10 had a fantastic trip to Saas-Grund and Saas-Fee this week! Reuben in Year 9 and Ora in Year 5 report on the week’s events:
On our first day, we enjoyed our first bit of skiing of the week after a hearty lunch. Split into four groups depending on our skiing capabilities, each of us had our name called by our soon-to-be awesome instructors and caught a bus up the mountain to launch down our first slope. This was all about finding our feet again for some of us, with the more experienced skiers riding the gondolas and funicular all the way to the top to ski all the way down from the 3600m high glacier! The snow was great, yet a little bumpy, as the slopes were busy with all the Swiss locals enjoying skiing on their day off.
The next four days of skiing were all about improvement and having fun, this time with empty slopes! Some of us improved enormously, some fell a lot, some learned to carve, some learned not to fall anymore, some learned to ski backwards, some took a T-bar for the first time, some managed to go to the very top and ski all the way down, some jumped and spun… BUT all of us had such an amazing experience!
Dinner every night was fantastic, with four different courses, all served by the amazing Viamonde team. We ate every meal with our instructors, who had great banter but now all have very painful ears! At the end of dinner, we were given a briefing for that evening and the next day, before the instructors awarded a ‘ding-a-ling’, a small Swiss cow bell on a lanyard, to one person from each group for doing something funny, silly or amazing that day on the slopes!
One of the highlights of the evenings was that there were no fewer than TWO birthdays during the trip, James W. and Ben W.! On each birthday evening, a cake with candles was brought out after dinner and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” at the top of their voices. It was a real surprise!
Each night after dinner, we had night-time activities. The sledding was the most fun, with some of us flying down a purpose-built sledding hill just over the road from the hotel! We also had competitions to see who could get the furthest (Mme Bugeja won!). The moonlight walk by firelight was awesome, walking in the snow around the old town of Saas-Grund, followed by roasting marshmallows on an open fire back at the hotel. On Wednesday evening, we had the traditional “mini Olympics”. Split into teams, we had to score points in different activities (bottle flip, potato egg laying, ping pong ball blow challenge, towel shuffle and ping pong bounce game). It was great fun and we competed for sweets! The last night was the much-awaited disco and awards ceremony, with each of us receiving mentions and a certificate from our instructors with a lovely message.
Thank you to Mme Bugeja, Mr MacLean, Ms Noble and Mr Sheppard-Burgess for organising and accompanying this trip, patching us up when we got blisters or encouraging every one of us when we got tired!
Gliding Along the Skating Rink
Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 had a great time at the ice-skating rink in Versoix this week in celebration of a successful first term!
Enjoying a good session of slipping and sliding on the ice, they ended the outing with a delicious hot chocolate before the return to school.
Secondary House News
Well done to our Secondary House Captains for leading another successful House Tutor session this week!
After a brief recap of events of this past term, our House Captains announced the winners of the Cross-Country Race and the COBIS Art Competition and tallied up the House points so far:
- Jura: 146
- Dôle: 131
- Léman: 131
- Rhône: 113
They also announced the holiday photo competition, whereby each student is invited to submit photos of:
- Themselves wearing their House colours in the most impressive location
- Their cutest pet
- An unusual mode of transport
- The best trick
- A GES alumnus or alumna
- A very large Christmas dinner
We look forward to next term’s competitions, which will include table tennis and a taskmaster game!
Winter Showcase Talents
What an incredible display of talent on Wednesday’s Secondary Winter Showcase!
Ms Hopley, Ms Colwill and Ms Empson pulled together a show and exhibition worthy of the West End and best London galleries.
We were treated to the GCSE Drama devised piece, a performance that our students wrote themselves, which was a comedic rendition of the game Cluedo with larger-than-life characters, breathtaking light and sound special effects and thrilling action. The devised piece was filmed and sent off for marking last week and we wish all the best of luck to our students, who definitely deserve top grades!
The evening continued with terrific performances by Elen on the flute and Anne on the piano, our Secondary choristers Daniela, Sue and Anne, and our in-house stand-up comedian Stefan. Our audience were also able to browse past and present GCSE and A Level art pieces, including this year’s Art Club still-life competition entries and last year’s A* abstracts by Anaïs.
One of the highlights of the evening was Stella’s stunning opera performance. Stella sang with such force and passion that she reached every single person in the audience, her voice echoing in our chest and giving us goosebumps.
A Talented End to the Term
The term ended today at Secondary with some fantastic performances as part of the Key Stage 4 and 5 Talent Show!
Featuring rock’n’roll performances by Benjie and the Ants, emotional singing by Celeste and Daniela, beautiful instrumental pieces on the piano by Rose and Rameesah and on the flute by Elen, the Talent Show included some light-hearted comedy by Stefan on the karaoke, glow stick dances by Leon and Kayula, and stand-up by Anne. The audience also witnessed the incredible West End talent of Marisa, who delivered a fast-paced song, a cross between Sarah Brightman and Eminem, and a possibly controversial teacher roast by Blaithin, Saiari and Rose.
We are proud of the terrific group effort that went into producing the first edition of the GES Artist of the Year TV Show, organised by Ms Hopley, hosted by Stefan and Matt, judged by Ms “Buon’umore” De Bortoli and Mr “MC Seething” McSweeney. The audience were called upon to select the winner of another art competition, Guess the Teacher Portrait, with the “stunning” likeness of Mr Dupont-Panon definitely carrying the day!
Judges brought their own flavour to comments. While Mr “She-Roy” Shorey, Ms “Sunshine” Chalmers, Ms “Debauchery” De Bortoli and Mr “MC Tree” Crabtree deliberated at the end of the show, the audience were entertained by the staff ABBA tribute band that got everyone on their feet and dancing. The judges awarded joint third place to Rose for her piano solo and Daniela for her singing performance, second place to Elen for her elegant flute recital, and the much-coveted first place to Clemmie for her outstanding tap-dancing number!
Well done to all our amazing performers, to our wonderful audience as well as to Eliott and Charlotte for masterfully hosting this community event!
First Edition of the GES Pantomime
Our Key Stage 5 thespians had us in fits of laughter with their ecstatically funny, wonderfully delivered, first edition of the GES pantomime, Cinderella!
With its all-female cast and specially written and performed by the Friday afternoon Drama class, the pantomime went on tour at GES with no fewer than three performances across Primary, Secondary and at Wednesday’s Winter Showcase!
Thank you to our audience of parents and students for engaging so earnestly with our thespians as they were called on to cheer and boo by the characters.
Community News
Flashback to the Christmas Fair
What a great turnout of students, staff and families from both our Primary and Secondary communities at last week’s Christmas Fair!
With many delicious festive treats to tuck into, musical performances by the GES Choir, lovely home- and school-made arts and crafts on sale, games, face painting and the hugely popular Santa’s Grotto, there was something for everyone at this beloved community event.
Celebrating GES Poets
We are proud to announce three GES winners!
What began as a small annual French poetry recital competition in a little school, Poésíæ has grown into something truly remarkable. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the idea emerged to open the competition up to a wider circle of schools with the aim of spreading a love for foreign languages while strengthening students’ oracy skills and self-confidence.
The response exceeded all expectations. Over its first four expanded editions, Poésíæ blossomed into an international celebration of language and expression, featuring 7 languages and participation from more than 250 schools across the world.
This year, we are thrilled to announce that GES counts no fewer than three winners in the competition, a testament to the hard work, talent and courage of our students. Their achievements highlight not only their personal dedication but also the vibrancy of our school’s language-learning community.
Please join us in congratulating our winners and celebrating the continued success of Poésíæ :
- Artémis (Year 4) for French
- Connie (Year 6) for French
- Teo (Year 6) for Spanish
A Top Mathematician at the Olympiad
Congratulations to our very own Yuvaan in Year 3, who recently took part in the Preliminary Round of the German Math Olympiad!
Ranking 87th out of 1401 participants, Yuvaan’s excellent performance placed him in the top 6% of students!
Yuvaan has qualified for the online finals which will take place this coming Sunday and we wish him all the best for the next stage of this exciting competition.
GES Performers Shine in Elf, the Musical
Congratulations to our very own Saiari (Year 11), Thea (Year 11), Carys (Year 5), Mrs Humphreys and Mrs Empson for their participation in the GAOS production of Elf, the Musical!
Well done for your courage, resilience and perseverance in putting your musical and dancing skills to the test!
