Message from Mr Crabtree, Executive Head
Dear Families,
Following last week’s break for Jeûne genevois, it’s great to spend time at both campuses with students in classrooms immersed in their curriculum and learning with our teachers.
Well done to our Year 5 and 6 Boys team who represented GES at the first ADISR football tournament of the season. I have enjoyed photographs from this week’s Year 2 and Year 12 Geography field trips to Genthod and the Mer de Glace, respectively, and our two Duke of Edinburgh expeditions (Bronze and Silver Awards) currently underway – kayaking in the Ardèche and cycling around Lake Konstanz.
It is also pleasing to be able to highlight two sporting opportunities shared by our Director of Sport this week: enrolment in our school Ski Team, and competitive running events, including sign-ups to Escalade and the upcoming Balexert and Founex races.
Over the next two weeks, the Heads of Primary and Secondary will be holding their first meetings of the year with the Class Parent Representatives. We are eager to receive parents’ feedback and suggestions for development.
Mr Crabtree
News from our Duke of Edinburgh Expeditions
Students in Years 10 and 11 have launched into their Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh expeditions this week!
For Year 10 adventurers, their expedition has taken them on a kayaking trip in the beautiful region of Ardèche. Leaving from Vallon Pont d’Arc, they have travelled downriver by kayak, entering the Ardèche Gorge today, with an overnight stay planned at the Bivouac de Gournier. Tomorrow, they will continue on their journey to Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche.
On Wednesday, Year 11 expedition-goers took the train to Konstanz, from where they departed on a 3-day bike ride around Lake Konstanz. Riding in groups, they have stayed in local campsites in Hagnau am Bodensee and Rheineck.
These outdoor education trips are a great opportunity to build resilience, gain in confidence, develop cooperation skills and make lasting memories.
We look forward to hearing about all the exciting experiences our students have had during these trips!
Click here for photos of the Year 10 expedition down the Rhône.
Click here for photos of the Year 11 cycling expedition.
This week in class
Our youngest learners celebrated International Dot Day this week with the wonderful story The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, which prompted them to talk about being brave, having a go and believing in their own creativity.
Inspired by the story, they created their very own Dot Art Gallery, with everyone making beautiful individual pieces using stickers to decorate paper plates, carefully choosing and naming the colours as they worked.
Our artists also worked together on a special collaborative masterpiece, bringing all of their individual dots together to create one big painting with a dot in the middle, just like in the story.
It was a wonderful opportunity to explore… and most importantly, to celebrate that everyone can make their mark!
Over the last couple of weeks, our Reception students have enjoyed reading the story The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas, which has led them to discuss how they are feeling and the different types of emotions that they can sometimes experience. Students agreed that sometimes they can be a little unsure about their feelings, which can be confusing – just like the Colour Monster felt at the start of the story.
Our little learners like the different colours that the Colour Monster sorts his emotions into later on in the story – yellow for happiness, blue for sadness, red for anger, black for fear and green for calm – and talked about the times when they have felt angry, sad and frightened, as well as the times when they have felt happy and calm.
This exercise of using ‘colours’ to describe feelings helps children explain their emotions more confidently.
Year 1 students have been busy exploring new vocabulary from their model text! They carefully looked at unfamiliar words, discussed what they meant and listened to short, simple definitions to help them understand each term. They then matched each new word to a picture representing its meaning before putting the words into their own sentences to show that they could apply their new understanding.
The final exercise involved the creation of a glossary for their classroom washing line, which everyone can refer back to.
Well done, Year 1 – you have been fantastic word detectives!
Year 7 Art lessons have had something quite magical to them lately as students have been completing their potion bottle designs, which will be brought to life in the form of sculpture.
In parallel, they learned about the Art Department’s painting of the week, Night and Sleep by Evelyn De Morgan, an 1878 oil on canvas painting depicting dark-haired Night guiding her son Sleep across a landscape.
Another busy week of experiments have been happening in our Secondary labs.
Our Year 8 students investigated the chemical change brought about by heating a mixture of iron filings and sulphur. Some of our more intrepid students were brave enough to take a whiff of the end result – a sharp, rotten egg smell!
Year 9 scientists had their first practical experiment on separation techniques, with the aim of purifying water collected from the lake. After a first step involving its filtration, they moved on to evaporating the filtered lake water.
Our Year 10 GCSE P.E. students each presented their homemade model of a working lung this week, describing the mechanics of breathing as the air is pulled into the lungs (inhalation) and then pushed out again (exhalation) through the different processes at rest and when exercising. This transdisciplinary exercise forms part of the Anatomy and Physiology unit of the P.E. course and has strong links with what students will be learning in Biology.
Our Year 13 Art students have been working on their A Level projects this week, with each creation beautifully taking shape.
Beyond the Classroom
A Geographic Tour Around Genthod
As part of their inquiry into “What makes Geneva special?”, our Year 2 stepped into the shoes of real-world geographers and out of the classroom for an exciting fieldwork trip around Genthod. Working with their maps, our investigators walked through the village to spot and record its main features. They practised reading map keys, using symbols to mark down key spots along the route – including the school, church, post office, train station, and local parks. They kept a close eye on their surroundings, followed the route safely, and got a real feel for how maps really work.
Introducing our Primary House Captains
The results are in from our Primary House Captain elections following the excellent presentations made by candidates a couple of weeks ago.
Congratulations to our new Primary leaders for school year 2026-2027:
· Léman: Austin and Sophia
· Rhône: Bryan and Carys
· Dôle: Ora and Eddie
· Jura: Valentina and Leon
We are confident that you will lead your Houses to much success!
Secondary House Football Kicks Off
Secondary House Football season has kicked off with lots of enthusiasm this week!
In a fast-paced series of face-offs, our Secondary students challenged themselves to score some valuable points for their House. In Key Stage 3, Jura carried the day 4:0 versus Dôle, while in Key Stage 4 Léman won 2:1 against Rhône.
Well done, everybody!
Looking to the Future in Tutor Time
In Year 9 Tutor Time, Thomas delivered a fantastic presentation on the future of electric cars. He spoke passionately and with excellent knowledge around the topic, discussing the impacts of how car batteries are developed, their impact on the environment and the socio-economic implications of the industry.
Bravo, Thomas!
The Dangers of Looksmaxing
During Key Stage 4 Tutor Time, Henrik gave a very informative presentation about the new social media trend of looksmaxing, which focuses on maximising personal physical appearance based on the belief that physical attractiveness dictates social, romantic and career success. Henrik did a great job at highlighting the dangers this trend can have on young men, both physically and mentally, by triggering body dysmorphia, low self-esteem, anxiety and health complications.
Well done, Henrik!
Year 12 Geography Trip to the Mer de Glace
Our Year 12 A Level geographers took part in a day trip to the Mer de Glace glacier in Chamonix on Tuesday, a great opportunity to contextualise their learning from the classroom and to visit one of our region’s most breathtaking sights.
After arriving in Chamonix, they took the funicular railway to Montenvers where they were able to view the rapidly receding glacier from a viewing platform and visit the Glaciorium, an educational space dedicated to glaciology and the impacts of climate change. They also undertook some fieldwork to determine the previous ice extent and, during their 5km downhill walk, observed numerous glacial landforms that informed their reconstruction of the previous glacial extent.
This fieldwork outing was carried out specifically for their Geography AS course, which will inform their AS level exam.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Perceiving Patterns in Maths Club
Our extra-curricular Key Stage 1 Maths Club students have enjoyed their first two sessions working with shapes and repeating patterns in nature. Using the lovely school grounds and natural materials to create shapes, patterns and pictures, they have now been able to explore symmetry. In addition to using their bodies to make symmetrical movements, they have also looked into shapes, flags and peg boards to create their own symmetrical pictures.
Into the Forest
Our Forest Adventurers are so lucky to have a beautiful forest right on their doorstep! Students have enjoyed perfect conditions to explore the forest, take on new challenges and earn badges along the way. This week, they worked together to build little shelters for some of the tiny animals and creatures that might call our forest home. Lots of teamwork, creativity and outdoor fun!
First ADISR Tournament
Our Year 5 and 6 Boys attended their first official ADISR tournament this week, competing in 7-a-side football matches against many schools from the Geneva region. Their play developed well all throughout the tournament, gaining a win and a draw along the way. Well done to every member of the team, who came back with great experiences to learn from for the next tournament of the season.
A Slobbery Science Session
It has been a slimy week over in Science Club as our Year 6 scientists took part in a session that revolved around the world of slime, its uses and its appearance in nature. They especially enjoyed the practical part of Science Club, as they made all kinds of colourful slimy substances using glue and oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid made of cornflour and water which acts like a solid when you push it and like a liquid when it rests.
Community News
News from our Violin Virtuosa
We are immensely proud of our Year 3 student Elena, who just received a high Distinction in her Pre-Grade Introductory violin exam with the Music Teachers Board.
Well done, Elena!
A simple reminder that could make a difference: CoppaFeel! is a UK charity helping people become more aware of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Their website offers straightforward, accessible information about getting to know your own body, checking your chest and recognising changes that may be unusual for you. Their key message is to “know your normal” so that if something changes, you feel confident about seeking medical advice rather than ignoring it. This is useful information for adults of all ages and is particularly relevant for helping young people develop positive habits around looking after their health.
CoppaFeel! also hosts online webinars for adults to make conversations about breast health less daunting and to give people the knowledge and confidence to take action if they notice something that doesn’t feel right. Parents may find the website a useful starting point for learning more about body awareness and health.
Roadworks in the Genthod-Bellevue Area
Important information for residents or commuters of the Route des Romelles, the Chemin des Tuileries and the Bellevue-Vengeron section of the Route de Lausanne.
A new phase of roadworks will commence on Monday 21 September and continue until around mid-November, which will require a temporary change to traffic arrangements in the Tuileries area: to allow work to be carried out at the Romelles roundabout, certain traffic movements will be temporarily suspended. Access to the Tuileries neighbourhood will, however, remain possible throughout the duration of the works.
Specific signage will be installed to guide road users and diversion routes will be signposted from the main junctions in the area, notably via the Chemin des Tuileries.
While we understand that new roadworks invariably impact traffic, we kindly ask that you bear these new access conditions when planning your commute to school so as to ensure your children arrive in time for the start of their lessons.
