On Friday 20^th October, the St Lawrence community gathered together on a very mild evening to celebrate the changing season with an outdoor family fun-filled party at school. There were pumpkins galore as our junior school families did not disappoint with a range of creatively carved and painted pumpkins to add to the Hallowe’en atmosphere.

There was food and drink to enjoy and this year we were especially proud of our fund-raising endeavours too. The junior school Charity Ninjas along with the senior school staff and PE department organised many fun games and a photo booth to raise money for the animal victims of the floods in central Greece some weeks ago. “Play for Thessaly” was a great success with almost two and a half thousand euros earned on the night and subsequently contributed to this worthy cause. Thank you to all our families for the continued support!

School life is off to a super start with pupils from all over the world gathering once again in our very special school community. The children and staff at St Lawrence are making the most of their time together here, ensuring that every day is filled with learning as well as laughter. Playtimes are all about fun and games, and the sun is shining brightly over our playgrounds. Let’s all do our best to make 2023-2024 the best year yet!

What a night was had! The pupils of Year 6 along with their happy teachers and other members of staff in St Lawrence College junior school trotted along to the Efilena Estate for our official graduation event – the Year 6 Formal Dance. The children were treated to an evening of fun and dancing with a super graduation photo booth to make memorable moments that last. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming with the DJ playing tunes that kept the kids on their feet right up till the end!

Again this year, St Lawrence pupils in Years 5 & 6 have the opportunity to participate in the UK Mathematical Trust's Junior Mathematical Challenge competition. The Junior Mathematical Challenge is a 60-minute multiple-choice competition for children aged 9-12, which encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency in using mathematical techniques to solve problems.

The competition will take place on Wednesday the 26th of April so the children excitedly attended a meeting in the staff room this week with Ms Tsabanakis, the Junior School Maths Lead. They enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies as they listened to the expectations on them for successful participation in this prestigious event. Good luck to all our candidates!

After two years of online Forensics tournaments, the competition was live again this year, bringing back the real feeling of Forensics to all participants.

The SLC Team participated with great enthusiasm as always. With 2 finalists and 1 honourable mention, we ranked 5^th out of 21 schools!

Our two finalists were: Zoe Courts, Year 10,(Oral Interpretation Comic) and Lydia Stephenson, Year 12, (Impromptu Speaking). Our Honourable Mention was the team president, Myrto Denediou, Year 13, (Oral Interpretation Comic).

Congratulations to all who participated, and many thanks to the teachers who were involved supporting the team, coaching them, judging and generally being part of this great, annual event: Ms Stafford, Mr Courts, Mr Strzemiecki, Ms Kladouchou, Ms Iliadou, Ms Torres.

On Friday 24^th March, the community of St. Lawrence College took great pride in celebrating Greek Independence Day with a wonderful show in the gym. Staff, pupils and their families revelled in the warm, sincere atmosphere as the children from Years 5 & 6 acted, sang and danced their way through an hour of entertainment in honour of the heroes of 1821. They were joined on stage by dancers from the senior school who showed their skills traditionally dancing to some rousing tunes that had the pulse racing and the heart soaring.

A thoroughly enjoyable and much appreciated event signifying a welcome return to normality after years of restrictions in recent times. Bravo to all who contributed to this excellent occasion.

On Friday 24^th February, the pupils and staff at SLC revelled in a carnival atmosphere with music, dancing and lots of fancy dress. There were all kinds of hilarious outfits on show and the school came to life with a wide range of characters from TV, movies and real life too. The Junior School parade was enjoyed by all those who took part as they high-fived their friends while showing off their outfits. What a lot of fun!

On Friday 20th January, a group of twenty Year 12 and Year 13 pupils accompanied by three members of staff travelled to Geneva, Switzerland on a trip organised by the Physics department in order to visit the research facilities at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, CERN).

The visit to CERN took place on 21^st January where, after a short introduction to particle accelerators and the research that takes place there, our tour guide walked us through two research sites; the Antimatter Factory where researchers study if antimatter behaves the same way as ordinary matter and the Data Centre, where we found out how the insurmountable amount of data produced by CERN is filtered, stored, and then distributed to researchers. Our pupils asked a plethora of probing questions demonstrating their prior knowledge in Particle Physics and their genuine interest; in our tour guide’s own words, we were ‘quite the group’!

We did not, however, miss out on the opportunity to explore more than the wonders of Physics taking place in Geneva. On Sunday 22^nd January, we went on a guided tour of the city, visiting iconic locations such as the Alley of Flags and the Broken Chair, the La Grange Park, and St Peter’s Cathedral, all while learning about the city’s history.

On this first international St Lawrence College trip since the COVID pandemic, our pupils gained an insight on the research to uncover what the universe is made of and how it works, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves outside the school setting.

On the last day of term, 20th December, Year 6 pupils and staff headed off to Glyfada to go on their annual Fun Day! On the list of fun things to do were bowling, rollerblading and footie in the soft-play area. The claw-grab machine was practically emptied as the children competed with it to win all kinds of goodies. And then the children returned to school full of tales of impossibly fabulous bowling scores, “Miss, I got 8 strik Final es!” “Well, I got 9 strikes and a spare!” they beamed and told anyone who would listen. What a great day they had before heading off for the holidays. 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

It’s that time of the year again – and no, I don’t mean Christmas - I’m talking about something far more dear to the English department’s hearts: The Annual Senior School Book Exhibition. Such a reader’s dream come true! The books on offer were not only all the ones on our Extensive Reading Lists, but they also included a wide and eclectic selection of other tomes appealing to everyone ranging from Year 7 right through to A-Level and beyond.  

Yesterday, as the corridors of the C-Block were lined with colourful, enticing paperbacks and hardbacks, the books were flying off the shelves. All the many voracious readers of St Lawrence - both staff and pupils alike – enthusiastically scoured the bookshelves and were not left disappointed. The pleasure and excitement on people’s faces as they browsed, enquired and purchased was truly a joy to behold. Many thanks to everyone involved especially to Ms Xilas and her professional and personable team.

A splendid time was had by all. 

Friday 7^th October saw the inauguration of the English Department's new mini-libraries. These precious resources were recently installed in each English classroom and feature the entire catalogue of novels in our Extended Reading Lists. The lists are designed to encourage pupils of all abilities to read widely and voraciously for pleasure and include a vast range of both classic and contemporary fiction - everything from Dickens and Austen to Michael Morpurgo and Suzanne Collins. 

The English team proudly celebrated the completion of the mini-libraries with a ceremony featuring a beautiful opening number sung by the talented Anna Argyrou (winner of Greece's 'The Voice' 2021), followed by a staff-led dramatic sketch which was accompanied by a range of superb dramatic readings from some of the featured novels, all expertly delivered by our pupils (please see names below). The ceremony was attended by key St Lawrence College stakeholders and was enjoyed by all.

The English Department would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all involved.

Pupils involved:

Olivia Sorlid (Year 7), reading from 'The Land of Stories' by Chris Colfer.

Georgina Kotsatou and Artemis Marrero (Year 8), reading from 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen.

Melina Anastasopoulou and Cilia Konti (Year 9), reading from 'One' by Sarah Crossan.

Alexandra Mavromichalis, Eugenia Mitropoulou and Sofia Tzagkaraki-Kaseta (Year 10), reading from 'The Great Gatsby' by F.S. Fitzgerald.

Theodora Farmakidi, Alexandra Kefallonitis and Despoina Salacha (Year 11), reading from 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett.

Lydia Stephenson (Year 12), reading from 'Small Island' by Andrea Levy.

Eleni Lomtatidze (Year 13), reading from 'A Streetcar Named Desire' by Tennessee Williams.

On the pleasantly warm evening of Friday 17^th June 2022, we held our 42^nd Annual Awards Ceremony for pupils of the junior and senior schools. Our Guest of Honour was Mr Matthew Lodge, the British Ambassador to Greece since August 2021, who spoke of the importance of savouring every moment of the journey towards reaching life goals – a valid point for these challenging times that we live in.

The pupils proudly received their awards for academic excellence, for effort, progress, sportsmanship, and overall contributions to school life, in front of their families, friends and staff. Our graduating pupils in Year 13 were in high spirits as their prospective paths in life were announced by our Headmaster, Mr Holden. The mood was uplifting and there were smiles all around as everyone of us appreciated being able once more to participate in this special event on such a grand scale after a hiatus of several years through the pandemic. A fine reception with delicious foods and drinks was enjoyed by guests afterwards.

To the graduating class of 2022, we wish you every success in your future endeavours!

Green fingers everywhere have helped to create an impressive little collection of plants in our junior school. The children in our lunchtime gardening club have worked with some enthusiastic members of staff to plant, water and harvest a modest range of vegetables. The flowers too, that have blossomed this springtime have really brightened the entrance to our school with colour and beauty.  

The next crop we are waiting to pull up is the pumpkins. Let's see how they do! Pumpkin soup orders at the ready! 

With the reopening of schools anticipated for Monday 31^st January, pupils and parents should be aware of covid self-testing requirements for the coming week.

Pupils will need to bring evidence of a negative covid self-test on Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings. This means pupils should take a self-test on the afternoon/evening of Sunday, Monday and Thursday. School staff are following the same schedule of self-testing.

Congratulations to our pupils who participated with great success once again in the Panhellenic Forensics Tournament which, for the first time, was held online on 1 – 4 April.

St Lawrence participated in many events: Oral Interpretation, Monologue, Impromptu, Group Discussion and of course Debate. We had two finalists: Harry Courts (Comic Oral interpretation) and Dimitris Thodis (Impromptu Speaking), both Year 12. We also had three Honourable Mentions: Charlotte Galatis (Dramatic Oral Interpretation), Jason Spanoudis (Comic Monologue) and Lenora Kirkland (Comic Monologue), all Year 12 pupils. 15 schools and around 400 pupils from many parts of Greece were involved, making it a very successful tournament.

Many thanks to our teachers who helped by coaching and/or judging, Ms Stephanie Stafford (Head Coach and Judge), Mr Russell Courts (Debate Coach and Judge), Ms Argyri Kladouchou (Coach and Judge), Ms Peggy Iliadou (Coach and Judge), Ms Rania Kouvari (Judge) but also to SLC alumni who came back to help coach and judge: Stefanos Strzemiecki (Coach and Judge), Rosie Vorri (Coach), Achilleas Papadimitriou (Coach), Melina Spanoudi (Judge) and Arietta Valmas (Judge).