Issue: 7 | Friday 15th October 2021

Message from the Head

Dear Parents,​​

I hope you and your family have a relaxing and enjoyable half term and that you get to travel a little more compared to a year ago. It has been an action packed half term with a successful ISI inspection, a record number of new families joining us and the changes that we put in place over the summer being embedded. In the newsletter below you will find a number of important dates and announcements. 

This year we are making a big deal of Movember and will be attempting to raise as much money as we can for male mental health charities. I would like to invite everyone in our community to think about how they can support us – growing a moustache, walking 60 Km (to raise awareness of the 60 men that commit suicide each hour across the world) or any other great charity event that we can use to raise awareness of such an important issue. To all the dad’s in the community we will be asking for photo’s of the best moustache, so please do get involved (I am grateful that face masks can cover slightly dodgy facial hair in important meetings!). More to come on this after the holiday.

Also after half term there will be a number of parental meetings across the school from parents evenings across primary to information evenings for Years 11 and 12 talking through options for A Levels and university. I also draw your attention to the meeting on 3 November about the proposed new structure to the school board and encourage as many of you as possible to attend the briefing by the school legal team. 

I just want to finish by saying a big thank you to all the staff for their hard work this half term. They work tirelessly to ensure that your children get a wonderful experience at school. I have told them to have a break and turn their email off, so please don’t expect a response to emails over the holiday. We are back at the normal time on Monday 1 November.

Happy half term.

Matt Williams
Head

Save the dates

Christmas Rising Stars

We are excited to invite you to the Christmas Rising Stars performance, which will take place in the Salle de Spectacle in Genthod on Thursday 2 December at 18:30.
The following children will be taking part in this performance:
  • All children in Years 3-6
  • Y3 & 4 PA Club
  • Orchestra
  • Upper and Lower School Choir
  • Street Dance
  • Ballet

Changes in the Association Statutes

As mentioned during the last Annual General Meeting of the Association, the Chair of Governors, Kate Bontekoe, will be holding an information session with the School’s lawyers on Wednesday 3 November at 20:00 via Zoom to explain the proposed changes in the Association Statutes.

You will then be asked to vote (by electronic voting system) on those proposed changes by the next General Meeting of the Association, scheduled on 6 December 2021. The papers and the voting instructions will be issued mid-November.

Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81396280180?pwd=NExqbDJUdlVmOGsvNS9Lcko0alJLQT09

Meeting ID: 813 9628 0180
Passcode: 413779

From the Sport & PE Department

Well done to all our Cross-Country runners from Primary and Secondary and especially to Mr Wootton and Mrs Ball’s tutor group and Cook House for their respective wins of the Secondary and the Primary competitions!

Here is a link to a highlight reel of the Primary competition.


As we write this, Ms Shibil must be locked in a quiet room and entering all the students’ names for our GES Escalade team!

We thank you for being so quick and flexible to register your child(ren).

If you have not ordered the new branded GES Team T-shirt (optional) yet, please note that you can do it until Monday 1 November, via MySchoolPortal, under Sport & Extra-curricular.

Health and Safety

For the safety of our pupils at the Secondary campus, please note that we have mandated a traffic patrol agent to regulate the traffic at the entrance of the Secondary building in the mornings.

What is happening after half term?

1 Nov
Term resumes 8:30
3 Nov
Primary Halloween Dress up day (optional) All day
3 Nov
Information Session on Association Statutes by Kate Bontekoe (Zoom) 20:00
4 Nov
Information session on GES French curriculum and languages (whole school) 17:00