Message from Ms Matillon, Director General
Dear Parents,
This week, we welcomed an inspector from the Département de l’instruction publique (DIP), the Geneva canton’s education authority, who came to review our “secondaire II” provision, that is, Years 11 to 13. Her visit completed our audit for this period, as all lower year groups had been inspected in December. I am very pleased to share that she was glowing in her feedback, praising all aspects of our Secondary school and confirming that she had no negative comments or recommendations for improvement to make. We will await the formal report from the DIP, but I already know that our next inspection will not take place until four years from now, which is the maximum time between visits – a privilege earned only by top performing schools.
A very big thank you goes to the parents who came to our gym on Wednesday evening to attend the whole-school Parents’ Associations’ Annual General Meeting. Our outstanding PA plays a critical and far-reaching role in the smooth running of events and activities at GES, as well as in facilitating communication between school and families across our community. Minutes of the AGM will be circulated once finalised but, for now, my gratitude goes to our four devoted champions of the PA for having accepted their reelection to key roles, as well as to two new members who have come forward to contribute their time and skills to leadership roles. They are:
- Fiona Henderson-Ross – President
- Zita Sheikh – Treasurer
- Sarah Wainwright – Secretary
- Susie Leslie – member (Primary)
- Caitlin “Jelly” Spahr – member (Secondary)
- Zory Zaharieva – member (Primary) and Shadow Treasurer
This month, representatives of the PA, led by Zita, Susie and Andrea Ajan, along with an enthusiastic contingent of student helpers, are busy preparing donations for the Gift Box Appeal. We at GES are happy and proud to take part in this initiative, and I wholeheartedly share our parent volunteers’ hope that our contribution to this very worthwhile cause will be even greater than last year’s!
We have officially begun the process of feeding back to parents on how children are settling into this new school year, unfortunately with a rocky start for yesterday evening’s Year 11 Parent-Teacher meetings. I regret that the platform we are using failed, surely causing quite some frustration for parents and teachers, alike. Our provider has apologised for the 5-minute time-lag issue which, they assured us, is “not one (they) had seen in the almost six years (they)’ve been providing video meetings”, and they are making every effort to ensure the problem does not reoccur. I appreciate Year 11 parents’ patience – and sense of humour; information regarding a new date for Year 11 meetings will be communicated very shortly.
Next week, we will host Book Looks for all of Key Stage 3, as well as Year 13 Parent-Teacher meetings. Keeping our Secondary school busy, we will also hold the Senior Maths Challenge for our Sixth Form Maths students, a Year 9 Duke of Edinburgh camping trip in the Valais, and an A Level Art excursion to the Musée de l’art brut in Lausanne.
In closing, and as I think about our Year 5 and 6 footballers on their way back to school from a tournament, as well as our Year 12 hikers enjoying a glorious day walking above the cloud line (and eating fondue at the Buvette de Jaman), I am reminded of this morning’s assembly in Primary on the topic of Mental Health. Nurse Polly’s message to us all was to look after ourselves by eating and sleeping well, getting enough exercise and maintaining positive, enriching friendships. I can think of nothing better to wish everyone for the weekend!
All the best,
Christina Matillon
Secondary PSHE Day
Yesterday marked our first Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Day of the school year, centred around two key developmental competencies: Independence and Aspiration. Students took part in a range of lessons and workshops designed to explore relevant, age-appropriate topics through discussion, debate and interactive classroom activities.
The day aimed to provide a space where students could express themselves, ask important questions and deepen their understanding of the world around them.
Topics explored included mental health, budgeting, artificial intelligence, online safety, leadership, study techniques, and university applications. We were proud to see our students fully engaged and participating thoughtfully throughout the day.
We look forward to continuing these valuable conversations during our next PSHE Day on 17 November.
This week in class
Year 1 absolutely loved hearing the beautiful, interactive French story, Oui, TOI ! Aide le petit pingouin ! this week in story time. They had fun exploring new French verbs such as “cacher“, “rouler“, “frotter“, and “souffler” to help Mummy Penguin find her missing egg. Well done, Year 1!
Our Year 2 scientists took advantage of the fair weather to have their Science lesson in their outdoor classroom this week. They conducted their an investigation in French to uncover micro habitats. Using a magnifying glass (or “loupe“), they found and named the many insects they spotted: les vers de terre, les abeilles, les fourmis et les araignées.
In Maths, Year 3 have been using their knowledge of bonds to 10 to answer calculations ten times bigger! Demonstrating great confidence in their skills, they were challenged to say their bonds to 10 in French. Most of them asked if they could write the french numbers in full, and student Giorgio then helped his peers mark their own work by reading his calculations out. Well done, everybody !
Our Year 3 and 4 students thoroughly enjoyed practising French grammar through movement activities this week! Focusing on identifying the gender of nouns linked to “le matériel scolaire” and on making sure colour adjectives agree with the masculine or feminine noun, students were tasked with selecting an image with a noun and running to find the matching adjective card. To support differentiation, some cards included a determinant to help with identifying the gender, while others required learners to rely on their prior knowledge with no determinant. For our more advanced learners, there were additional cards with random nouns beyond the theme of “le matériel scolaire“.
Our students particularly enjoyed reflecting on why a match was correct or not, and loved taking part in a lively “guess and run” reading comprehension, racing to find the matching image for the answer on the other side of the gym.
This exercise was a wonderful mix of learning and movement, with students not only consolidating their grammar skills but also spending some of that extra energy along the way!
Year 4 P.E. lessons were a great moment of teamwork this week! Our Running Club members were eager to share the skills they have learned with their coach, Kerry Baker. They asked to lead the session’s cool down, which involved a range of movements and stretches. Our young runners explained which muscles were working and why cooling down is so important.
Our Secondary scientists have been hard at work!
In Year 8, students helped each other to build a Periodic Table jigsaw puzzle using all the knowledge of the elements that they have gained so far.
Continuing their efforts to clean lake water, Year 9 students used the filtered water from last week to heat and evaporate it so as to remove as many dissolved solids as possible. What will the end result be ?
Our senior chemists in Year 13 tested the purity of the aspirin they had made earlier by testing the melting point of their sample and comparing it to the known value of a standard sample of aspirin.
Beyond the Classroom
Tutti Frutti Shopping for Pre-schoolers
Pre-school had a fantastic visit to Migros on Monday! In the morning, they read “Handa’s Surprise,” a story involving the collection of delicious fruits that are sneakily stolen by some animals. Inspired by the tale, they wrote a shopping list to help them remember the seven fruits they needed to buy at the shop.
Hopping onto the school bus, they drove to Migros, full of excitement, where they eagerly began their search for the fruits. Our youngest learners were brilliant at spotting the different colours and varieties on display.
After finding everything on their list, they carefully weighed the fruit and collected stickers so they could scan them at the checkout. The children behaved impeccably throughout the visit, showing great curiosity and enthusiasm.
Back at school, they engaged in a fun discussion on the different fruit they bought, and then thoroughly enjoyed tucking into it the very next day!
World Mental Health Day Assembly
Ahead of our school’s celebrations of World Mental Health Day next week, our very own Nurse Polly led an assembly at Primary about the importance of mental health and its impacts on physical well-being.
Linking the topic with Sustainable Development Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-Being, Nurse Polly reminded students of all the things they can do to safeguard their mental well-being and that of others. These included healthy eating and sleeping habits, including others in games and activities, spending time with family and loved ones, being kind and respectful, and maintaining a healthy balance between work, play and relaxation.
Art Workshops with John Hutcheson
Our Secondary students were delighted to welcome John Hutcheson this week for a series of workshops on sequential and comic art.
For students in Years 7 to 9, the focus was on basic shapes as the foundation of all drawing. Practising with simple cubes, spheres, cones and the like, they were able to combine them to build real objects. When asked, some of the students said how fascinating it was to realise that everything around them is made of these basic shapes. This workshop was a great opportunity for transdisciplinary learning as students applied the principles of geometry to the creative arts.
With our GCSE and A Level Art students, John helped them understand how the layout of a page and of a panel forms the basis of story-telling. Exploring composition in comics and considering how it can also be applied to photography, theatre and filmmaking, our artists learned to control their fear of not being able to draw perfectly straight away by starting their drawing exercises on small thumbnails of just 2cm x 2cm.
Celebrating International Translation Day
How many languages exist in the world? What is the difference between a language and a dialect? What is the difference between a translator and an interpreter?
To mark International Translation Day, our Secondary students took part in a series of assemblies to consider what language is, what it brings to people and the role languages play in international communication.
In exploring a passage from Act 1, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, our linguists reflected on how they would cope with translating the text, not only into modern English but also into other languages, while maintaining its meter, rhyme and any metaphorical sub-meanings.
To conclude, they engaged in a debate on the impact AI is having on translation and interpretation professionals, and whether languages are still needed in light of the technological upheaval it is bringing about.
An Artistic Tour of the Old Town
Year 11 Art GCSE students toured a number of art galleries in Geneva’s Old Town on Monday, a rare occasion to visit these usually very exclusive, private art hubs.
Ranging from Flemish Old Masters to early 20th century Post-Impressionist landscapes of St Tropez and the French Riviera, it was a contemporary show at Galerie Artium, which for them, stole the show. With a collection of stunning drawings by artist Marie Christine Autin Graz and sculpture by Emanuele De Reggi, the exhibition titled ‘Auprès de Mon Arbre’ contained 10 pastel and pencil renderings of trees that captured not only the seasons but their movement and atmosphere. They were complemented by the quirky, highly textural, figurative sculptures by De Reggi.
As their course covers not only art but also craft and design, students took the opportunity to visit a few of the ‘Frip’ shops in the Old Town, which provided a museum standard curation of vintage Hermès bags and footwear as well as items by Bottega Veneta and Stella McCartney.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Cricket Club Comes to the Crease
Key Stage 2 Cricket Club made the most of the glorious weather this week!
Learning about fielding in space, hitting to gaps and running hard between the wickets, our athletes thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Cricket is a very traditional sport and is being reintroduced to the 2028 Olympics that will be held in the United States after a 128 year absence! Maybe we will find the next superstar cricketer amongst our batters and bowlers?
A Great Start to the Netball Season
A fantastic start to the season!
Our Minimes and Junior Netball teams took part in their first tournament of the year on Saturday. From the very first whistle, the girls gave it their all. With every game, they grew in confidence, working hard on their positioning, defending strongly and improving their shooting.
The energy and team spirit were brilliant to see! The Minimes finished in 4th place, while the Juniors came 5th. A real highlight was in the Juniors’ final game when they scored right on the last whistle, such a great moment that showed their determination right to the end.
We’re really proud of our girls’ resilience and sportsmanship and look forward to building on these skills in training and enjoying more tournaments, more goals and plenty of fun together on court!
SGIS Category C Boys Football Tournament
Our Year 7-9 footballers took part in the SGIS Category C Boys Football tournament at Stade du Blanché last Friday!
Coming in 7th place, our boys played really well, losing only one match on goal difference and penalties in the knockout phase.
Undaunted, they continued to show tremendous team spirit all throughout the day, encouraging each other to persevere and work hard on their skills.
We are very proud of each of them and are confident they will continue to make progress all throughout the season.
Curious Creatures at Zoology Club
Our Zoology Club participants have started delivering presentations about the species of their choice. Diego launched the day’s events with an introduction on Leopard geckos, a species that is native to the rocky dry grasslands of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal, and which, unlike many of its cousins, does not have adhesive lamellae on its toes, so cannot climb smooth vertical walls.
Well done, Diego, for your excellent presentation and thank you for bringing in and introducing your very own pet gecko to the other members of the Club!
Community News
Reminder | Course de l'Escalade
Only a few short weeks before registration closes for the Course de l’Escalade that will take place on the weekend of 6-7 December!
With 71 runners currently signed up as part of Team GES, we are aiming to break the 100 sign-ups for the third year in a row. Help us reach our target by dusting off your running shoes and signing up for this hugely popular event!
Joining the GES Team:
When you register your child/ren – and we hope you will do so! – please sign them up as part of the GES group via this link (i.e. not as an individual runner).
- The cost for participating children 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 (2024 races filled up quickly).
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 7 December. Children/teenagers aged 6 or older (born between 2008-2019) 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.
- Child-Parent races: Children born in 2020 or 2021 have the opportunity to run with one of their parents. 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, too.
- 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. We do invite you to get in touch with us should you wish to wear GES colours during your race.
We look forward to seeing many GES families participate in this wonderful community event!
New Book Publication
We are delighted to share the news of the publication of Baku: The Not So Angry Dragon, a book written by one of our Reception class parents!
Following Baku on his second day of school, this book tells a beautiful story about family, community and how to overcome one’s fears and be resilient.
We are proud to count a published author amongst our school community!
October Reading Challenge
Get ready for a Foody Fall this October with our new monthly reading challenge!
Students are invited to read, follow and prepare a sweet or savoury recipe in English or French that includes a popular autumn food. Photos and videos of the final dish should be sent to Ms Houghton by email to [email protected].
Our readers are invited to look for inspiration in the “Challenge Basket” in the library.
