The Mutuelle d'Études Secondaires (M.E.S.) was founded in 1976 in Geneva, in the movement of alternative schools. M.E.S. prepares students for the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma and is a member of AGEP.

Now recognized as a public utility by the city of Geneva, the school continues to promote an alternative vision of learning. As Jean-Jacques Le Testu, pedagogical director, points out, "our mission is to reintegrate young people in problematic relationships with traditional educational systems". La Mutuelle d'Études Secondaires has obtained School Impulse certification.

Secondary Studies Mutual's pedagogy

The Mutuelle d'Études Secondaires is characterized by its pedagogy, which engages students' autonomy by making them actors in responsible reflective learning. M.E.S. has welcomed many young sportsmen and women, some of them at Olympic level. Indeed, the school supports each student in his or her academic project by adapting study time to his or her commitments, be they sporting, militant or artistic.

The M.E.S. upholds five ethical values: humanism, social mixing, secularism, gender plurality and solidarity.

Manifesto of the Mutuelle d'Études Secondaires

"Humanism, Civic-mindedness, the creative Development of the person are the foundations of an education which, to be sustainable, participates our indi- vidual and collective cultures, which gives meaning to our relationship to the world, our search for coherence... And to our need for solidarity"

Options under the sign of creativity

The Mutuelle d'Études Secondaires offers novel options, such as Création Littéraire where students compose prose poems and try their hand at haiku. For Michel Dubret, French teacher and writer, "Création Littéraire is a place of expression and freedom that prepares students for the Bachelor of Writing".

For students wishing to pursue artistic studies, the Preparing for Art School Competitive Examinations option takes place in the vast N.A.B.A.B. (Notre Atelier Beaux Arts des Bains) studio. The workshop has a clay room, a drawing room, a wood room and a press. So many tools that enable the exploration of sculpture, observational drawing, but also the practice of linography and monotype.

Activities and school trips

The Mutuelle d'Études Secondaires offers many activities: a weekly chess class, visits to museums and exhibitions, participation in an interactid tutorial in math classes, biology practical work taking place in nature (sampling and analyzing pollution from a stream). 

As part of the Art course, students take part in a variety of workshops, such as an introduction to the practice of Land Art in the middle of the forest, or handmade paper following a recycling principle.

Every year, the Mutuelle d'Études Secondaires goes on a school trip. Cycling through Copenhagen, climbing up to Edinburgh Castle, wandering through the narrow streets of Lisbon... For over ten years, the school has been visiting the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art with its 1st year class, a great opportunity to forge links while opening up to the world.