Message from Ms Matillon, Director General
Dear Parents,
All the rain that has made our playground – and us – quite soggy this week has provided a very welcome dumping of snow on the mountains. The timing was perfect for our Key Stage 4 and 5 sledgers who went to La Tzoumaz and Saillon les Bains, and Category A ski racers in Verbier who took full advantage of these ideal conditions. See details of their adventures featured below, including our students’ success in the SGIS ski competition. Congratulations to our racers from all of us at GES for your individual achievements and for representing GES so proudly!
Our work with the team from Inspired continues as our integration becomes tangible and impactful. This week, we shared with Inspired details of our curriculum and teachers and, next week, we will take a deep dive into systems and processes. I have no doubt this work will lead to increased efficiencies which will be appreciable in all aspects of the GES provision.
For GES families, Sabine Hutcheson is ensuring that you have access to information about the Inspired Global Exchanges programme as quickly as possible. An overview is provided below, and details of a webinar, led by the Coordinator of Camps and Exchanges is being planned the week after our half-term break. Mark Wednesday 4th March at 18:00 in your diaries if you think an exchange – from a half term to a full year in any of Inspired’s premium school locations – could be of interest to you and your children. This year, approximately 250 students across the group’s network of schools have taken part in this unique opportunity. It is definitely worth a look!
I look forward to meeting with our Class Representatives next week – Secondary Reps on Tuesday and Primary Reps on Wednesday. Please convey any questions you may have to the representatives of your children’s classes before those dates; I am always eager to hear from you.
Until we tackle next week’s busy agenda, I wish you and your families a fun-filled weekend, hopefully above the cloud line and with your boots, skis or snowshoes in the fresh powder.
All the best,
Christina Matillon
Primary Ski Day at Portes du Soleil
At the end of last week, Primary students and teachers were treated to a day of skiing with our fantastic team of SnowPros instructors at the Portes du Soleil. Glimpses of sun came out throughout the day, along with some lovely powder skiing! Hitting the slopes enthusiastically, our skiers had great fun with their friends while improving their technique.
We look forward to more days like this!
This week in class
Year 3 were incredibly lucky to have a visit from Mr John Hutcheson this week as part of their History unit on Ancient Egypt. A former archeologist and Ancient Egypt enthusiast, John answered the children’s many questions about this fascinating past civilisation. Our learners were even able to handle a 2000 year old Roman roof tile as well as some extraordinary Egyptian artefacts!
Grammatical concepts in French lessons are never boring! During one of their weekly lessons, students took part in an interactive game to revise the verb aller before exploring which preposition to use with masculine and feminine nouns after the verb. To practise, they placed images representing different places in the city into the correct categories (masculin or féminin), encouraging them to recall both the noun and its gender. This active approach helped them reflect on language through movement.
After a whole-class feedback to ensure the nouns were correctly classified, students were ready to apply their knowledge in writing. The initial activity also remained available as a support, allowing less confident learners to stand up, check their answers, and reinforce their understanding of noun gender.
In our Year 5 and 6 Advanced French group, students have begun an exciting new topic centred on exploration and discovery. Each week, our fictional explorer “Lucian” will write a letter describing a new country he has “discovered”, taking the children on a journey around the world through his eyes.
In their first lesson, our learners brainstormed the key skills needed to be a good explorer. Their ideas were shared, discussed, and enriched together, encouraging collaboration and critical thinking. They then read Lucian’s first letter, revealing the first destination of their adventure: Madagascar. Using a world map, our explorers located the country and enthusiastically scratched it off on their exploration map, which marked the official launch of their journey.
Through these letters, students will work on important grammatical features, including the use of past tenses (passé composé and imparfait), and analyse sentence structure. At the same time, they will develop a rich vocabulary to describe atmosphere, landscapes, and daily life in different countries.
Each letter also serves as a strong support for reading comprehension and as a model for written expression. Later in the unit, they will write their own letters, pretending to be adventurers themselves and allowing their peers to discover a new country through their writing.
This cross-curricular project combines French and Geography in a meaningful way, strengthening language skills while deepening students’ understanding of the world around them.
Our Year 5 and 6 artists had an amazing STEAM day! Inspired by the work of contemporary American artist, Kimmy Cantrell, students created mixed media sculptures out of largely recycled materials. After taking visual notes from a virtual exhibition of Cantrell’s masks, they drew a draft sketch in their sketchbooks before scaling up their drawings to create a pattern or template for the sculpture. They loved the vibrant colours of the acrylic paints, coloured wire and pipe cleaners, using them for impact and effect in their finished artwork. Well done, everybody!
Our Year 7 athletes have been developing their skills and understanding of Parkour this term in P.E. This week, they designed and performed a short course whilst also learning about aesthetic sports and how these are scored. They then scored each other based on 5 categories:
· Technical skill
· Skill execution
· Speed
· Fluidity
· Creativity
What’s in the box? was the question posed to our Year 7 scientists. Learning about how scientific theories are made, our students were presented with 9 mystery boxes. Using only a magnet and a balance, they had to attempt to identify the contents of each box without opening them, an exercise that prompted them to reflect on how theories and hypotheses are formed about natural phenomena and the world around us.
Our Year 9 English students have been working on their spotlight essays about how Orwell presents Napoleon in Animal Farm. Looking at his character traits and appearance, students have been considering how these evolve as the character puts his tyrannical methods of control into place.
Our Year 13 chemists have been investigating transition metal complexes, important structures used in industrial chemical reactions and cancer treatments, and which also exist in biological systems (such as haemoglobin and chlorophyll), using a colorimetry experiment.
In their second practical, they carried out a redox titration with iron (II) ions and potassium permanganate (VII) to calculate the percentage of iron by mass in an iron tablet.
Beyond the Classroom
Secondary Maths Challenge
Results are in for the UK Maths Trust Intermediate Mathematical Challenge in which many of our Secondary mathematicians took part at the end of January!
With four gold, two silver and sixteen bronze awards, our students did tremendously well in this tough competition designed to encourage mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency.
Well done to all our students for receiving awards:
· Gold: Jun, Sebastian, Jaylen and Ben
· Silver: Matt and Isobel
· Bronze: Lila, Edgar, Ravi, Romain, Rafael, Kayula, Barnaby, Katrina, Mariana, Arun, Miatta, Reuben, Tim, Arjan, Oli and Leon
Special mention goes to the following students for their outstanding performance:
· Gold Best in School: Jun (Year 11)
· Gold Best in Year: Sebastian (Year 8)
· Gold Best in Year: Ben (Year 10)
· Bronze Best in Year: Lila (Year 9) and Edgar (Year 9)
Secondary House Chess Preparations Underway
Our Secondary students came together for their House Registration on Wednesday to pick players for next week’s much-awaited House Chess Competition!
A favourite event in the busy GES House calendar, the Chess Competition has our top strategists vie for the winning place in this thrilling, tactical tournament.
We look forward to sharing results next week!
Sledging Fun in La Tzoumaz
Students had an amazing trip to La Tzoumaz as part of their Outdoor Education programme.
After a train, bus and cable car ride up to the ski station, our adventurers launched down one of the longest sledging pistes in Switzerland! This afternoon of high-speed excitement had them zooming down no fewer than 711m of piste with a backdrop of stunning alpine views.
The day’s events continued with a slower-paced relaxation at the Bains de Saillon, a thermal centre nestled in the middle of the Valais vineyards, followed by a good night’s sleep.
Thank you to our accompanying adults, Mr Pearce and Ms Magowan, for yet another successful Outdoor Education trip!
Extra-curricular Activities
First Indoor Football Tournament for GES Footballers
What a fantastic morning of football for the 13 Year 1 and 2 Boys last Saturday!
GES 1 (Year 2) and GES 2 (Year 1) played five games each, with both showing huge individual and team development as the tournament progressed.
All players received medals for their efforts, with GES 1 finishing 2nd and GES 2 finishing 6th.
For students, these tournaments mark the start of their footballing careers, with many of them playing their first ever tournament! Congratulations to all our players, who had such a fantastic time!
As always, the parent support was outstanding. And a huge shout-out goes to our stand in coaches, Ms Livesley and Ms Humphreys! Being present for these events shows how important sports are to the GES community!
Team GES Mounts the Podium
Congratulations to the 16 Year 3 and 4 Girls and Boys who attended the SGIS Indoor Football tournament this week in Geneva. Up against the trio of Ecolint schools, the GES teams played four matches in the group phase, both qualifying for the semi-finals. After a hard semi-final, the Girls won their third place play-off, finishing in 3rd place overall! The Boys won their semi-final and narrowly lost the final 1-2, finishing in 2nd place!
Well done to all our young athletes who competed and proudly brought home medals and trophies! This age category at GES is continuing to prove to be very successful in sports this year, with medals and trophies having been brought home from all of their tournaments so far!
On the Trail of Science Club
Our Year 6 Science Club-goers turned into real-life detectives this week as they investigated fingerprint loops, whorls and arches. After collecting their own finger prints, they carefully dusted the lab for the prints of others, examining each trace for differences that would show how many people came and went throughout the day.
A Great Day on the Slopes for Team GES
GES racers delivered an exciting performance at the SGIS race in Verbier! With over 400 competitors on a challenging course, our students rose to the occasion, showing impressive technique, resilience and incredible team spirit from start to finish.
Standout GES Results:
· F-Girls: Artémis (16th)
· E-Girls: Alice (6th) and Valentina (20th)
· E-Boys: Danny (6th), James (11th) and Bryan (20th)
· D-Boys: Oscar (12th)
· C-Boys: Arthur (3rd), Bram (8th), Vasco (32nd) and Jaylen (39th)
· B-Boys: Matt (29th)
A few racers were unfortunately disqualified due to missed gates, but these moments provide valuable experience and fuel our motivation to keep improving for future competitions.
Under the sunshine, it was a fantastic day of racing followed by some well-earned free skiing. Well done, Team GES!
Community News
News from our Ski Prodigy
Congratulations to our Year 5 student Alice, who finished third out of 38 girls in her age category at the Grand Prix Migros qualification race in Les Diablerets!
Alice’s impressive results have qualified her for the finals that will take place in Crans-Montana at the end of March. Well done, Alice!
Smashing News from the Vaud Tennis Tournament
We are thrilled to celebrate our very own Year 5 student Danny’s accomplishment in the Kids Vaud Tennis Circuit Tournament in Puidoux!
Danny has qualified for the Vaud Masters Kids’ Circuit Final in Vevey in March, in which we are sure he will perform outstandingly well.
GES Successfully Re-Accredited
We are delighted to share the news that Geneva English School has received successful re-accreditation from the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) for the next five years!
Our renewed accreditation attests to our school’s continued high standards and compliance with rigorous international standards in education, safeguarding and leadership.
Reminder | Inspired Global Summer Camps
Registration is open for the Inspired Global Summer Camps!
The Inspired Global Summer Camps take place over nine different locations, including Portugal, UK, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and the Bahamas, and families from Inspired schools benefit from a 10% discount on all camps.
Click here for a video about the upcoming 2026 summer camps.
Coming Soon | Graduation Bake Sale
Help support the Year 13 graduation fun by popping to buy a sweet treat at our upcoming bake sale on Friday 20 February.
If you would like to donate a home-made cake, please drop it off in Mrs Hutchesons’s office before 9am on Friday 20 February.
Kindly note that we are a nut-free school and that all baked treats should be made without nuts or nut products.
Inspired Global Exchange Programme
We are proud to present the Inspired Global Exchange Programme!
Open exclusively to Inspired students, this programme enables learners to take their learning across borders by spending half a term, a term or a school year in another Inspired school.
There are currently still places available in exciting destinations such as Vietnam, the United Kingdom or the Bahamas.
We will be holding a webinar presentation about the exchange programme on Wednesday 4 March at 18:00. More details coming soon.
If you would like to register your interest ahead of the presentation, please contact Sabine Hutcheson at [email protected].
Click here to learn more or browse the brochure.
