Message from Ms Matillon, Director General
Dear Parents,
Each year on 2nd February, we celebrate “La Chandeleur”, the Feast of Candles, a festival that honours light in all its forms. In French households, and at GES Primary school, crêpes are prepared – during French lessons, for us – and eaten with a variety of toppings. Alice and I had a visit to the school office that morning from Caren and Alexandra in Year 3 who, very politely, asked us in well-practised French how we might like our crêpes, then quickly came back with “sucre et citron” for Alice and “miel” for me. It was such a lovely treat, it is a shame this is only an annual event!
Still on the topic of annual events, our Secondary school students marked World Cancer Day with assemblies led by Mr Crabtree. A Biologist by training, he explained this complex disease in a very simple manner that made many of us, including me, understand and see it in a way we had not before. Whilst so many of us have been touched by the illness of people close to us, it was good to be reminded that we are never alone and that there is basic information and a support system available in school, from a scientific and a pastoral perspective, should we need it.
Our integration into the Inspired group of schools is moving forward at full throttle as we have increasing contact with their dynamic and proactive regional team. GES leadership is now in close and regular touch with our designated counterparts in the Inspired network, including, as appropriate, in our sister schools. It is exciting and inspiring – pun definitely intended – to learn about the vast knowledge and experience, and extensive resources, now at our disposal as we plan for the coming months, next academic year and beyond.
All the best,
Christina Matillon
Secondary Students Hit the Slopes
Secondary students had a fantastic day on the slopes yesterday at the Portes du Soleil in Morgins.
Giving the day a definite 10 out of 10, both instructors and students said it was the best day of the season! The sun was shining, the snow was perfect, and everyone worked on their technique while having fun with their friends.
A big thank you goes to Ms Bugeja and the team of accompanying teachers for leading a fun and safe trip.
This week in class
Over the last three weeks in Pre-school, our budding mathematicians have been exploring numbers 1 to 5. Students have been practising number recognition, subitising, writing numbers, and simple number composition through fun, hands-on activities. By exploring mathematics through play, our young learners are able to discuss their observations, thus reinforcing their understanding of abstract concepts.
Over the next few weeks in Reception, our students will be reading different traditional tales. Ahead of this, they learned that some of these are very old stories and that they usually begin with “Once upon a time”, and end with “happily ever after”, with the middle of the story often featuring a problem that needs solving.
After reading Hansel and Gretel, our students couldn’t wait to make their own gingerbread houses. Listening carefully to Mrs Mackenzie’s recipe instructions to put together all the different ingredients, they could barely contain their excitement while waiting for their concoctions to bake! Once they were out of the oven, our students decorated them with all kinds of toppings. The children did brilliantly at sequencing the story, and they also played a game to name all characters and objects from the story in both English and French.
Their next story was The Elves and the Shoemaker, which had students take to their own needles to thread out and sew the first initial of their names onto a piece of material. Well done, everybody!
Year 1 had a fantastic session with Nurse Polly this week, learning all about the people who help us in an emergency. Nurse Polly explained the different emergency services available in Switzerland, what each of them is responsible for and the kinds of situations they respond to.
Students were very proud to be trusted with learning the important emergency number, 112, and listened carefully to a real emergency call made by a brave girl called Lola, who contacted the emergency services to help her mum. They even enjoyed a sneak peek of the inside an ambulance!
Thank you, Nurse Polly, for such an informative and engaging session.
“What a delightful art lesson” were Mrs Marceau’s words about this week’s Year 5 and 6 creative workshop. Our artists rose to the art challenges set with energy and creativity. Using the medium of watercolour, they explored all the techniques they have been honing over the last few weeks to produce some beautiful landscape artwork.
Well done to our Year 8 students for demonstrating excellent presentation skills as part of their research into the birth of cinema and the silent movie era in Drama. In addition to exploring cinematographic giants like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, our learners also covered cinema highlights such as the films The Kid and Metropolis.
It has been another busy week for our Secondary scientists!
As part of their study of penguins and how these incredible creatures have adapted to live in extreme conditions, our Year 8 have had a series of hands-on lab sessions as they begin the construction stage of their penguin shelters. Turning their lab into a builder’s workshop, they have applied all their scientific knowledge of insulation and heat conservation to design shelters that can regulate temperature both to protect unhatched eggs and avoid overheating animals.
Year 9 have stepped into the shoes of geologists, looking closely at the tremendous diversity of rocks present on Earth and how these form, change and erode under the influence of the global processes that affect our planet.
For Year 11 chemists, chromatography was the name of the game this week as students practised their ability to use this technique for the separation of mixtures.
In Year 12 Chemistry, students have been investigating how the rate of a reaction is affected by temperature by carrying out the disappearing cross experiment. By reacting sodium thiosulfate with hydrochloric acid, our scientists observed as a milky, insoluble sulfur precipitate forms and progressively clouds out the cross placed underneath the beaker.
Beyond the Classroom
Pancake Day at Primary
What better way to start the week than with a delicious crêpe making session?
For students in Primary, Monday was the perfect occasion to learn all about the local celebration of “La Chandeleur” and practise French cooking vocabulary while preparing some scrumptious pancakes topped with sugar, strawberry jam, lemon or honey!
La Chandeleur also provided an excellent opportunity to work on Maths fluency, as students were challenged to solve pancake-themed mathematical problems in French. Inspired by the set tasks, our hungry learners took it upon themselves to write their answers out in full French sentences. Bravo, les enfants !
Celebrating Women in Science
Ahead of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, our Year 9 students welcomed Laura Lambert from the MEDICIS Operations at CERN this week. Laura presented her fascinating work at CERN and the pioneering breakthroughs being made in medicine and other fields. Laura’s explanations prompted some fantastic questions from her listeners, including:
· Do the detectors work 24 hours a day?
· What are the protective suits made from that you and other scientists wear?
·Why is the CERN going to shutdown for a year?
· Could CERN explode?
· How did CERN manage to build such a large machine underground?
· How long is a working day at CERN?
· Are you pro nuclear power?
· How is CERN funded?
· How much did you have to study to work in CERN?
· At what speed do the molecules collide inside the collider?
· What type of radiation do you work with?
· Countries contribute to CERN’s budget, but what do countries get in return?
· Do some people not have permanent positions at CERN?
· Have you ever worked with nuclear fission or fusion?
In addition to presenting the incredible feats of engineering and science that CERN represents, Laura also took some time to explain her own academic and professional journey. Noting that women continue to be underrepresented in scientific research, Laura urged our female students who are passionate about the sciences not to feel daunted by a career in science, to persevere in their interests, to follow their dreams and thereby help close the gender gap.
The Biology of Cancer
Our Secondary students marked World Cancer Day this week in two assemblies led by our Head of Senior School, Mr Crabtree.
Examining what cancer is from a scientific perspective, students learned about how mutations in normal cells can lead to the uncontrolled cell division and the formation of tumours, while considering how the recent progress in diagnosing and treating the disease has led to radically improved outcomes for patients.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Farming Fun in Play-Dog Club
Reception and Year 1 students had a fantastic time at Play-Doh Club this week! Working together as a team, they used a range of modelling skills to create their very own Play-Doh farms.
Our club-goers displayed wonderful creativity as they decided what their animals might need on the farm, using skills such as rolling, twisting, squishing and kneading, along with a variety of Play-Doh tools, to make their creations as realistic as possible.
Well done to everyone in Play-Doh Club for their teamwork and imagination!
Community News
Ruth Miskin Comprehension Scheme
On Tuesday, Year 2 parents were invited to a presentation about the Ruth Miskin Comprehension scheme led by Shelley Vavrecka, Head of Phonics and Reading, that she leads in Year 2. Children who have completed the phonics programme and are reading with good fluency and understanding move into the Comprehension group to further develop their fluency and dig deeper into their comprehension of longer texts.
Through a series of increasingly complex texts that include higher level vocabulary, children are guided to read for meaning and purpose. They gradually acquire analytical skills to make sense of a text and to read between the lines.
First Edition of Language Story Time
We had the first session of our Language Story Time this week at Primary, with a story by Artémis in French!
Led by our Primary Language Ambassadors, this initiative aims to celebrate the incredible diversity of languages represented in our school. Students are invited to volunteer their time to read to their peers in their home language to foster curiosity and broaden the linguistic horizons of students.
Year 9 Take Steps Towards Choosing GCSEs
Two very important presentations happened this week for our Year 9 cohort of students and their parents.
Our Head of Middle School, Ms Newbury, led sessions explaining the GCSE programme at GES, a curriculum which is both academically rigorous and stimulating.
Students and parents learned about the list of core and optional subjects studied at GCSE level, as well as the non-examined lessons in PSHE and P.E., that form part of the two-year programme. In the coming weeks, students will submit their top four optional subject preferences. Ms Newbury and subject teachers remain available to advise students and parents further, should they need it.
Year 10 Book Look
We were delighted to have many Year 10 parents join us this Wednesday for the much-awaited Book Look!
Students presented all the work they have been doing this year as part of their first year of the GCSE programme, and how their understanding of increasingly complex topics has been shaped all these months. Parents were also able to exchange with their children’s teachers to understand the progress being made and where any extra efforts might be required.
