Message from Ms Matillon, Director General
Dear Parents,
We had a wonderful, merveilleux, wunderbar, maravilloso start to the day today at our Primary school as we celebrated the European Day of Languages – or, as we do it here, the Day of Languages of all Members of the GES Community! A very big thank you goes to the many parents who spent time reading to our children in more than a dozen languages, and to Madame Durey for having organised the event. I enjoyed watching the children’s faces as they took in the sounds and explanations they received from visiting mums and dads, and I was intrigued to learn how certain words in Hindi can be pronounced “from the nose”.
Next week, we will have a lot going on in school, starting with the final stage of our inspection by the Département de l’instruction publique (DIP), the Geneva canton’s education authority. Families who were with us last year may remember that our Pre-school to Year 10 programmes were inspected in December and that we earned a glowing review. We will now welcome an inspector who will audit our Years 11-13, that is, the years termed “secondaire II” in the Geneva state school system.
On Wednesday evening, our Parents’ Association will hold their Annual General Meeting on our Primary campus. I hope to see a large turnout amongst our longstanding GES families, but also those parents who are new to the school and whom I encourage to come learn about the excellent and important work done by our Parents’ Association in facilitating communication between families and school, and in championing such projects as our brilliant new climbing frame – already the highlight of the playground! Our staff and I are sincerely grateful for the dedication and enthusiasm demonstrated by Class Parent Representatives and the PA as a whole for their significant contribution to our school.
An important part of the English National Curriculum we teach here at GES is our Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education programme which spans all year groups. In our Secondary school, as has been the case in previous years, we will dedicate five days over the course of the academic year to PSHE topics, starting with Thursday 2 October. The structure of these five days has been designed according to a competency-based approach emphasising the development of students’ essential life skills. The curriculum is organised around three key competencies: Independence and Aspirations; Autonomy and Advocacy; and Choices and Influences. The fourth and fifth PSHE days of the year will be dedicated to Student Voice and Careers, respectively – both relevant and timely issues for our more senior students.
In closing, I commend our Years 7-9 footballers for having persevered through the rain at today’s 9-a-side tournament, and I look forward to learning their results. I hope they have had a lot of fun, and I wish the same to our netballers, the Years 5-6 Minimes and the Years 7-8 Juniors, in their tournament at LGB tomorrow.
All the best,
Christina Matillon
Celebrating the European Day of Languages
Our Primary School marked the European Day of Languages today!
Choosing to extend celebrations to languages from across the world, our students were delighted to welcome many parents into their classrooms for story time in German, Russian, Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin, Dutch, Alsatian, Hebrew, French, Turkish and Bulgarian!
Meeting some fascinating characters in each story and learning about the many different alphabets and scripts that exist to write language, our students discovered the incredible linguistic and cultural diversity that so defines their school, coming out with a renewed appreciation of the value of language learning as a bridge to the future.
Reflecting on the wealth of languages in his school, our Year 3 student, Yuvaan, noticed that the word “languaGES” contains “GES” in it and that this must also lie at the heart of why our students are so proficient in a multitude of tongues.
During Assembly, our learners excitedly shared their thoughts about what the European Day of Languages means to them and what they learned during their morning exchanges with parents, and our older Primary students were invited to take part in an international poetry competition, an opportunity to showcase their resilience, courage and excellence in languages.
Thank you to all the parents who joined us today for these celebrations and who volunteered their time to read stories from home to all our students.
This week in class
Year 2 have fully embraced their first English unit, using Pie Corbett’s Talk 4 Writing techniques to learn a simplified version of a story by heart. Using symbols on their text maps to help remind them of what comes next, they excitedly worked on developing their memory skills, which they will use in their own story writing soon.
Would you rather have 879 or 897 sweets?
Our very own Nikki Sawyer, Year 3 class teacher, has come up with a new, exciting set of slides to make Maths lessons even more fun! Using photos of students on the Maths teaching materials, our learners get really excited to see themselves or their friends on the screen, making Maths concepts come to life every day!
Year 3 have been exploring how to make their writing more exciting by using expanded noun phrases. This week, they used their senses to describe the eruption of Mount Vesuvius as it happened in their book Escape from Pompeii, by Christina Balit. Working in teams and using word mats, they found the most powerful adjectives they could.
In Year 4, students took part in a problem-solving hour where they worked in groups to crack a set of secret numbers between 0 and 1000. They were given 20 different clues which, on their own, didn’t make much sense — but by combining them, testing ideas, and ruling out possibilities, the groups gradually uncovered each secret number.
To succeed in this task, students drew on their knowledge of hundreds, tens and ones, recognising multiples, and comparing numbers. Alongside this, they practised key problem-solving skills such as working systematically, spotting patterns, and explaining their reasoning clearly.
After practising their skills in English, each student was able to use a French support sheet with phrases that would be useful for their continued discussion.
There has been a whirlwind of activity in our Science labs this week as each year group has carried out some fascinating experiments.
As part of their topic on diffusion, Year 7 enjoyed a cup of tea, investigating how the time taken for tea to brew changes depending on the temperature of the water.
Year 8 dove head-first into investigating different elements, their uses, their interesting facts and when and where they were discovered. They took their exploration further by carrying out an experiment to make some rather smelly iron sulfide. By first mixing iron and sulphur, they understood that these two elements can still be separated using a simple magnet. When heated however, the elements combined into a compound, from which iron and sulphur could no longer by separated.
Our Year 9 students turned botanists for the day to dissect flowers and understand the functions of each part in the reproduction process of flowering plants. Later in the week, they learned about different separation techniques. Tasked with making dirty water clean, they carried out an experiment involving filtration.
For Year 11 chemists, their electrolysis experiment opened up new areas of investigation as they learned how electricity can break down electrolytes to form elements.
In Year 12 Chemistry, students carried out their first A Level practical experiment, which involved making a standard solution of sodium hydrogen sulfate, an acid salt used in metal finishing, cleaning products, to lower the pH of water for effective chlorination in swimming pools and hot tubs, and as a food additive to leaven cake mixes.
Beyond the Classroom
Secondary House News
Our newly-elected Secondary House Captains led registration this week, picking teams for the first quiz of the year! Competition was really close all throughout, with Rhône and Jura tying for first place!
The House netball competition has also been going on, with current standings as follows:
- Rhône: 6
- Léman: 4
- Dôle: 3
- Jura: 1
Celebrating the International Day of Peace
In celebration of last Sunday’s International Day of Peace, our Year 10 and 11 students took part in an Assembly led by Ms Roisin Kelleher. Reflecting on the global turbulence, growing inequalities and climate chaos that the world is facing in 2025, students considered how they can act for a more peaceful world by applying at school the UN recommendations to speak out, embrace diversity and choose non-violence.
They pledged to promote a kind and welcoming school for all students, to celebrate diversity by taking the time to learn about each other, and to reflect on the language and words they use to communicate with each other. They also took the time to think about how they can make an impact outside of school, including through volunteering, reporting discrimination and engaging in sustainable consumption.
Flashback to the Geography Fieldtrip to Chamonix
As part of the fieldwork component of their Geography A Level course, our Year 12 and 13 students travelled to the Mer de Glace glacier in Chamonix last week for a hands-on experience involving geological observations and data collection.
Reporting on the trip, Year 13 student, Antonio, said that “Our geography trip to Chamonix, led by Mr. Shreeve and Ms. Noble, was super enjoyable. We visited the Mer de Glace glacier, where we studied glacial features and gained a better understanding of glacial environments. As part of our fieldwork, we measured lichen sizes to investigate growth and the glacial timeline around the valley. The weather was sunny, which made the experience even more memorable. One highlight was the hike down from the glacier, although it turned out to be much longer than expected (thanks, Mr. Shreeve!). It was a great opportunity to enjoy the scenery and bond as a group. Overall, the trip was a great mix of learning and fun.”
The expedition was no less interesting for our Year 12 geographers. Emily P. reports: “During the trip to the Mer de Glace, we did a lot of fun and interesting data collection; in between hiking down the mountain and admiring the view offered by the Alps, we measured lichen growth on the mountainside, allowing us to determine the size of the glacier during the last Ice Age. Furthermore, we measured erratics, boulders carried by the glacier, to give us an idea of how far the glacier would have reached down the valley. The trip also gave us the opportunity to visit the ice cave, which I would consider to be the highlight of the day! Not only was the ice thousands of years old, its vibrant blue colour was a breathtaking sight! We are all extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to visit the glacier and see all its geological processes and landforms right in front of us, and we are thankful to Mr Shreeve for organising the trip as well as Ms Noble for accompanying us!”
Click here to discover the trip through the eyes of our students, thanks to the excellent filmmaking skills of our budding videographer Gavin in Year 12!
Year 12 and 13 Economics Trip to the WEF
Our A Level Economics students visited the World Economic Forum on Thursday to hear from experts on trade facilitation, equitable environmental transition and efficient manufacturing techniques. This outing adds to their studies, giving them specific examples of how countries can make efficient use of comparative advantage, simultaneously combat wealth inequality and negative externalities, and how firms can increase dynamic efficiency.
Shout out to our Year 12 student Elijah, for his incisive questions which really challenged the speakers!
Extra-Curricular Activities
Art Club Creations
Year 3 and 4 Art Club has had a lot of fun exploring with various materials and layering techniques to make unique name posters.
They then designed and created mosaics with lasagne! First, our artists selected their acrylic paints and carefully painted the lasagne sheets. Then, they designed their mosaic tile on paper, before carefully pasting their mosaic onto sticky back plastic using the brightly coloured lasagne tesserae.
SGIS Category F. Football Tournament
Our Year 3 and 4 footballers shone like the sun this week at the Stade du Blanché, competing against no fewer than 18 other teams. While always showing great fair play, they played some fantastic matches and demonstrated tremendous team spirit and sportsmanship by cheering each other on from the sidelines and on the pitch and high-fiving each other.
Our girls improved with every game and finished with a brilliant bronze medal, while the boys fought hard against some tough opponents, finishing 7th. We saw fantastic goals and saves from every single player.
A particular shout-out goes to those for whom it was their very first match! We look forward to many more tournaments and seeing our other footballers who did not get a chance to play this time show the skills they are developing during their trainings.
A Slimy Session for Science Club
Year 6 Science Club was a slimy affair this week as our young scientists experimented with different techniques to produce goo of different colours.
Testing various concentrations of water in their concoctions, our Club-goers considered how this impacts the polymer molecules in the solution to make it more or less liquid.
This experiment was a perfect introduction to learning about the curious hagfish, an eel-shaped, jawless fish and the only known living animal that has a skull but no vertebral column. Having evolved between 310 and 100 million years ago, hagfish defend themselves from predators by releasing copious amount of slime from mucous glands in their skin. When released into seawater, this slime can expand to 10’000 times its original size in just 0.4 seconds!
GES Football Team Brings Home the Player of the Tournament Trophy
The GES Category A (Year 11-13) boys football team attended the SGIS invitational tournament this week.
The strong squad played some terrific fast tactical football, putting fear into other teams’ defences.
Missing out on the chance to win the tournament by just one goal, GES played hard and fought to finish in 6th place out of 16 teams.
A well deserved trophy was awarded to Hugo as player of the tournament, unanimously voted by the referees and organisers.
Community News
Inauguration of the New Climbing Frame at Primary
Our Primary campus was buzzing with excitement as the new climbing frame, generously sponsored by our wonderful Parents’ Association, was inaugurated this week.
Our students are thoroughly enjoying this new addition to their playground and enthusiastically sharing it among year groups.
A big thank you to the Parents’ Association for raising funds to make our campus a wonderful place to learn and play.
