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Similar to Webinar: Study in Switzerland (Oct 2013)
Webinar: Study in Switzerland (Oct 2013)
- 2. Welcome to awebinar by Brillantmont International School, Lausanne, Switzerland, October 2013 • Meet some key people • Get to know Lausanne • Learn about our location • Learn about Middle School & High School • Find out what happens after class • Learn about our summer course • Questions and answers
- 3. Sarah Frei Head ofMarketing marketing@brillantmont.ch
- 4. Mr Philippe Pasche Director MsGeraldine Boland Deputy Director (in charge of all things academic, including Admissions)
- 5.
- 6. Switzerland– a dynamic,beautiful, safe country
- 7. Lausanne – adynamic, beautiful, safe city
- 8. Lausanne – overlookingthe Alps and the lake
- 9. Lausanne – history,charm but also…..
- 10. top –ranking educationestablishments
- 19. •max class sizeof 15 •lots of teacher attention •EAL support available Middle School Grades 6-8 11-14 year olds
- 20. Middle School Grades 6-8 11-14year olds
- 21. High School Grades 9-12 14-18year olds • courses leading to internationally recognised examinations • IGCSE, A Level, PSAT, SAT 1, SAT 2, Advanced Placement
- 22. High School Grades 9-12 14-18year olds average class size of 9
- 23. •maximum teacher attentionthanks to small class sizes keeps students focused on objectives daily grade books accessible to parents in the private website zone
- 24. After 10th Gradea student at Brillantmont can Follow the programmes offered at Brillantmont AS and A Level (British Courses) SAT 1, SAT 2, Advanced Placement US High School Graduation Diploma Or follow a tailor-made combination of the two or Follow an IB Diploma programme (not offered at Brillantmont) UNIVERSITY
- 25. entrance to top-rankinguniversities all over the world
- 26. •outstanding boarding accommodation, basedon age and gender •single, twin or triple rooms, many overlooking the Alps and the lake . accommodation
- 27.
- 28. resident, experienced boardingstaff and house parents .
- 30. varied, exciting sportsprogramme with inter-school competitions
- 31. a brand newsports hall and cultural centre
- 32. providing lots ofopportunities for the students
- 40.
- 41. summer course inJuly and August to learn French or English for 10-16 year olds stay of 2-6 weeks summer fun
- 42. afternoon sports, activities andexcursions summer fun
- 43. afternoon sports, activities andexcursions summer fun
- 44.
- 45. Brillantmont International School,Switzerland – the right choice
- 46. Beijing, China Sunday 27thOctober & Tuesday 29th October Shanghai, China Wednesday 30th October - Sunday 3rd November Bankgok, Thailand Monday 4th November & Tuesday 5th November Monday 18th November & Tuesday 19th November Tokyo, Japan Wednesday 30th October - Saturday 9th November Seoul, Korea Sunday 10th November- Monday 11th November Hanoi, Vietnam Tuesday 12th November - Wednesday 13th November Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Thursday 14th November- Sunday 17th November & on Facebook you can see our travel plans to: Romania, Spain, Dubai, Germany, Poland, Colombia, Brazil, Turkey
- 47. Brillantmont International School,Switzerland – the right choice
- 48. Contact us on: BrillantmontInternational School Avenue Secrétan 16 1005 Lausanne Switzerland T: + 41 21 310 0400 www.brillantmont.ch info@brillantmont.ch marketing@brillantmont.ch Thank you for listening.
Editor's Notes
- #3 Hello everyone. I’d like to welcome you to this webinar hosted by Brillantmont International School, Lausanne. I’m really happy to have you with us today, wherever you are in the world. Before we start, I would like to give some points of housekeeping and organisation which will explain how this webinar is going to work. In the webinar, I will be showing you images of the school and giving you information so that you can find meet some key people, get to know Lausanne, learn about our location and programmes, find out what happens after class. Then I’ll talk about our summer course and afterwards, you’ll have the chance to ask questions. How do you do this? Let me explain. There’s a chat window on the right-hand side of your screen where you can enter questions. Once we have got through the presentation I will answer the questions. So, let’s begin!
- #4 Firstly, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Sarah Frei and I am the Head of Marketing here at Brillantmont. I have been here for 20 years and started life as a teacher before moving into the marketing side of things. Brillantmont travels across the world, joining different education events and meeting with families. Sometimes, I might be the person travelling but it could be anyone from the Brillantmont team. Let’s meet some more people.
- #5 Ms Boland is the Deputy Director and her job is to run the academic side of the school. She has been at Brillantmont for nearly 25 years and used to be a teacher. She makes the final Admissions decision as to whether or not we can accept a student. Mr Pasche is our Director and has been at Brillantmont for 35 years. He looks after the whole organisation of the school, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and safely.
- #6 Brillantmont travels a lot all over the world and we love to meet new families along with former students. Sometimes it is me who travels, sometimes it’s Mr Pasche or Ms Boland and quite often it is Walter Loser, our representative.
- #7 So, where exactly is Brillantmont? It is in Lausanne, in the French speaking part of Switzerland, just 40 minutes from Geneva International Airport. .
- #8 Lausanne is on the shores of Lake Leman, which many people call Lake Geneva. It has around 160,000 inhabitants and is home to the Olympic Committee. It has great shops, several cinemas and theatres, fantastic sports facilities and has good transport connections.
- #9 Paris and Milan are 3 and a half hours away. France is opposite, across the lake, so we are really in the heart of Europe.
- #10 Here is a picture of the old town of Lausanne.
- #11 And Lausanne has top-ranking universities – the EPFL, the University of Lausanne, the number one hotel school in the world and IMD, for postgraduate studies.
- #12 Brillantmont is in the centre of Lausanne. It was founded in 1882 and is 131 years old. Throughout all these years the school has always belonged to the same family.
- #13 These are the school owners, the Frei family. It is unusual for a school to still be owned by the founding family. Nowadays in Switzerland, many boarding schools belong to educational groups which see schools purely as businesses. At Brillantmont, we see the school as a big family. We are proud to be family owned and we are proud that every student feels part of the big Brillantmont family.
- #14 This is the Brillantmont campus. The campus is safe. We have security codes are on the doors and the school gates are locked at night. Many of the buildings are over a hundred years old and are very beautiful. But we keep our buildings modernised and up to date and underneath the sports court that you can see here we have a new sports hall, opened in July last year. It gives us great sports facilities, a 100m stage area and extra classroom space.
- #15 This is a view above the campus.
- #16 and another view here.
- #17 And this is from another angle
- #18 At Brillantmont there are 100 boarding students and around 65 day students from aged 11-18. The students come from over 35 different nationalities. We are very careful to keep a mix of nationalities by not accepting too many students from one country. We do stick to these language quotas because we want our students to make friends with others from all over the world. Our students come from as far afield as China, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Germany, New Zealand. Brillantmont is very much an international school and we celebrate cultural diversity in the school.
- #19 You may know that there are many boarding schools across the world including in Switzerland. Being in a small school, with 160 students is definitely an advantage. Why? Because in a small school it is easier to make friends with others and the quicker you make friends means that the quicker you gain in confidence. We all – you, your teachers, your parents – want students to become confident and articulate young people. In a small school, because you feel comfortable with others around you, you become more confident more quickly. In a small school like Brillantmont, there is a strong sense of belonging. We have a house system and students meet in their houses once a week to do team-building activities and inter-house competitions. This creates a strong sense of community. Everyone is part of the big Brillantmont family. In a small school there are more opportunities for leadership. Everyone can have a shot at being a leader, whether it be being captain of a sports team, being an MUN delegate or being an elected leader of a student- run house – it’s easier to get noticed in a small school. And finally, being in a small school means that we can adapt your academic programme to develop your strengths. Maybe you’re a 9th Grader who’s incredible in Maths – we will ensure your maths class challenges you so you’re not sitting at the back of the class, bored. We won’t hold you back. Because of our small size, we can be flexible in the way we plan your schedule. A larger school couldn’t do this – it would be far too complicated.
- #20 Middle School is from Grade 6 to the end of Grade 8. There are small classes with 15 students per class maximum. If a student is a beginner in English, that’s no problem. We will give extra English classes until the student gets to the right level.
- #21 Middle School students who don’t need extra English support will learn French, the local language and also have the chance to learn another language. The Middle School programme often takes students out on field trips, to put learning into context. Two years ago, students went to Venice and last year they went to Scotland for an outdoors activity week.
- #22 After Middle School, students enter High School. High School is 9th -12th Grade. At different times during the high school years, students can take internationally recognised external examinations. Some students might choose to take British examinations – IGCSE, AS and A Level , offered by Cambridge Board in the UK. Others might choose to take American examinations – SAT 1, SAT 2, Advanced Placement. Some students may choose to take a combination of British and American examinations. The choice depends on what they would like to do after Brillantmont, which university they would like to attend. We help the students decide which is the best programme for them and every single one is guided in their subject choices. At Brillantmont we want to give our students choice. We want a Brillantmont education to open as many doors as possible.
- #23 Our teachers are all fully qualified. Many come from the UK, but also from other countries such as Canada, the USA and Switzerland. The language teachers come from the country of the language they teach. Our teachers have close contact with the students because the average class size is 9 students. At Brillantmont there’s no hiding at the back of the class; our teachers expect the students to be engaged, motivated and dynamic classroom learners. We encourage students to learn a language. French is the local language but we offer a wide range, which can include Chinese, Japanese, Arabic if requested. We encourage students to continue with their native tongue. Some students might join Brillantmont in 6th Grade and go all the way through to 12th Grade, whereas others might come just for one year, as part of a special year abroad. Most of our students begin in September, however, we also accept students for entry in January and in April. Sometimes we accept students for short stays of a minimum of 1 term, depending on the places available.
- #24 Our students come from all over the world, but we want to keep mum and dad involved and up to date, even though they might be a long way away. That’s why, thanks to a password, parents and students can access a private, personalised intranet area of our website and see the grades, term reports, absences and also the daily homework It’s important for everyone to work together.
- #25 At Brillantmont, we do not offer the International Baccalaureat examinatio or the IB as it is called. This is because the examinations that we offer are recognised by universities all over the world, just as the IB is. However, a student who studies at Brillantmont is very well prepared to take any examination, including the IB. It may be that we have a day student who comes to us aged 13 and stays for three years but then the family are transferred elsewhere and in the new school, they offer the IB Diploma. Thanks to the courses and examinations that student has taken at Brillantmont, she or he will do very well in their new school. British A Levels will take you to any university in the world, providing you get the right grades. They will even give you credit in US universities. With A Levels students can stay in Switzerland and attend one of the top ranking universities or hotel schools. Advanced Placement is also a challenging American examination offered by Brillantmont in certain subjects and good AP scores will help a student get into top US colleges and universities.
- #26 Here are some of the universities into which our students were accepted in the last few years.
- #27 Now I want to tell you about school life outside the classroom. You’re probably wondering what it’s like to be a boarding student at Brillantmont? In most of our buildings we have classrooms downstairs and accommodation upstairs. The accommodation is organised by age and gender with different rules for different ages. We always put students with a room-mate from another nationality so they get to learn about a new culture. Most students share rooms but a limited number of single rooms are available. These are the same price! In summer in some of the rooms, we may put three students.
- #28 The rooms are very large and many have views over the lake and the Alps. They are warm and cosy and students can of course decorate them by putting up pictures. Students share a bathroom with two to three others. In each house there is a relaxation area and a kitchen area. Obviously, there are school rules, which I won’t got into now. These rules are clearly explained to everyone at the start of the school year. However, at Brillantmont we all encourage the students to become responsible as they grow older and mature.
- #29 Living away from home isn’t always easy and students may feel homesick or just need someone to talk to. That’s why we have excellent staff working in the boarding school, who are there not just to supervise the students but to really be there for them, to listen to them and to help them feel happy and at home. The boarding staff also organise and join in after school activities and weekend and holiday trips. All the boarding staff are experienced, university educated many were themselves at boarding school, so they know first-hand the concerns that a boarding student may have. Fully qualified nursing staff are on hand 24 hours a day.
- #30 Wouldn’t life be boring without any fun? At Brillantmont, we feel strongly that our students should work hard and play hard. Sports are compulsory for every student and in the sports classes the teachers make sure that a variety of sports are played. Some sports like trampoline, volleyball, hockey, badminton, basketball, football, gymnastics and circuit training take place in our new sports hall, which was opened in summer 2012. But we also get out and about in Lausanne.
- #31 The swimming pool is just 2 minutes away; we can go down to the lake to play beach volleyball, to do watersports or cross country. We can go up into the woods above Lausanne to do cross country skiing and cycling. Or we can head to the local ice rink. Every student can join a school sports team and play competitive matches against other international schools in the area. Brillantmont might be a small school, but we the trophies in the hall show how good our sports teams are!
- #32 Here we can see our brand new sports hall.
- #33 And some more here.
- #34 Classes usually finish around 4pm. After this there are lots of clubs on offer for all interests. I’m not going to tell you all about every club now, but I will mention a few.
- #35 Music is very popular and students can learn an instrument. Or they may wish to sing in our Vocal Club the Brillantmont rock band – check them out on Youtube,
- #36 Some students look for opportunities for leadership. Model United Nations is a great way to develop this. The students represent a country and each one is given a certain position – for example, you have one student who is the Minister for Agriculture, another who is the minister for Education. They prepare their arguments and defend their country’s position in debates with thousands of students from other international schools. Brillantmont is the only school from Switzerland which participates in the MUN conference in Singapore in November and we also participate in the main MUN conference in the Hague in January. MUN is a great way to develop leadership skills and public speaking skills. Some students are keen to get involved in humanitarian work and for the past five years Brillantmont has been involved in Habitat for Humanity. Year-long fundraising activities culminate in a trip abroad to help build a house for a family in need. In previous years, they have gone to Portugal, Romania, Botswana and Cambodia. It is an experience which has a tremendous impact on all involved. There are many more different clubs and we encourage all our students to take advantage of everything on offer.
- #37 Brillantmont is home. It’s where our students live and as I said before, we want them not just to work hard but also to play hard and to have fun with their friends. We want them to get to know Switzerland. That’s why we organise activities in the evenings and at weekends that we know they’ll like.
- #38 Maybe we’ll go and visit a famous Swiss city like Berne or Zurich. Maybe we’ll do something more active, like paintball, climbing or karting. Maybe we’ll go to visit and exhibition. In the evening, we might go to see a ballet or an opera or go to the cinema. Or maybe bowling.
- #39 We often go further afield, to France, Germany and Italy. Right now, many of our students are spending the half term holiday week in Barcelona.
- #40 From January to April, we go skiing every weekend. We can get to a ski resort in less than an hour and we try to go somewhere different each week. We organise ski weekends and a popular ski week in February too, with qualified ski teachers giving lessons for ski and snowboard. Of course, all these trips are accompanied by our boarding staff and the students are well cared for at all times.
- #41 Now, I’m going to tell you about our summer course For over 30 years Brillantmont has organised a summer course in July and August. This is for boys and girls aged 10-16. The great thing is that students choose the length of their stay, instead of doing fixed blocks. So, students can come for two to six weeks. We welcome around 100 students per week and they come from over 25 different countries.
- #42 The students have a placement test when they arrive so we know which language class they will go into. They learn French or English and we have classes at all levels. If someone is a complete beginner in English or French it’s not a problem. We have a class for them and we are used to dealing with complete beginners! The language class starts at 9h00 and finishes at 12h15 with a break in between. Usually the first period focuses more on the structure of the language and the grammar whereas the second period focuses on the communication and actually using the language. Our teachers use interactive methods and in their classes, learning can be fun!
- #43 On Wednesday afternoons class field trips take place. We may visit a chocolate factory, a cheese factory, or a famous Swiss castle for example. The students have a private guided visit or a workshop as we want them to really understand the place they are visiting. After this, everyone meets up by the lakefor a barbecue and we play games and sports on the lakeside.
- #44 Four afternoons a week, the students have sports activities. They are in groups by age and gender and we rotate the activities so they get to try as many different sports as possible. The school has a boat and if the conditions are suitable we go on the lake where we can do paddle or windsurfing too. But we also do a lot of other sports such as tennis, volleyball, zumba, basketball, frisbee, trampolining and many more. If the weather is nice, after sports class, the students usually head to the local open air swimming pool for an hour or so.
- #45 Saturday is arrival and departure day. If a student is not leaving, we organise an excursion. This might be to the Swiss capital, Berne or to Geneva or even up a glacier. On Sundays, the whole school goes out together, accompanied by the chef. Maybe they go mountain karting or tree climbing or maybe they go for a hike, or glacier walking. Generally, the excursions are outdoors and we always want them to get to discover as much of Switzerland as possible. The summer course is great value as everything is included. All students need is a bit of pocket money. The transfer to and from Geneva airport is included. Lots of our summer course students return year after year!
- #46 I’ve told you lots of information about the school. You can find lots more information on our website www.brillantmont.ch and also on our Facebook and Youtube pages.
- #47 We travel a lot and on Facebook you will always find news about where we’ll be next so we’d be really happy to meet with you.
- #48 If you want to contact us, I’m giving you the contact details here. Now, I’m handing things over to you and will try to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your time and joining this webinar today.