We start them young at St Lawrence College with their love of nature and all things in the countryside! On Friday 16th November 2018, FS1 and FS2, our two and three year olds that is, visited the Cultural Park in Keratea. Since it's olive harvest season all over Greece right now, the children experienced picking olives using different kinds of equipment like mini rakes, scoops and more. They loved learning about how olive oil is made and they even had a hand in making olive bread. What a lovely time was had by all! 

Another debate season began with success for St. Lawrence on Saturday as 16 of our pupils took part in the annual St. Catherine’s School debate tournament. After 4 tough rounds against many of Greece’s top debaters, Bella Kontogiannis and Harry Karaiossifides were the top ranking team and although they were knocked out in the semi-final, Bella was named the top individual speaker of the competition. Next in the debate calendar is the Athens round of the Cambridge Union Schools Competition which we will host on the 1^st of December.

On Sunday 11th November pupils, parents and staff from St. Lawrence College joined other school communities, representatives from countries all over the world and members of the public to honour those servicemen and women who have died defending freedom and protecting their country over the last 100 years. Remembrance Day is marked every year since 1919. This year’s Remembrance Day was extra poignant given it is exactly 100 years since the armistice that ended The First World War.  

This year’s service of remembrance in Athens was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Alimos. The service was directed by the British Military Attaché, Captain Tim Ferns and led by the Anglican vicar in Athens, the Reverend Canon Leonard Doolan. Pupils from Byron College provided readings, singing and music. This follows St. Catherine’s school pupils doing so in 2017 and St. Lawrence College pupils in 2016. 

Following the laying of wreaths by the ambassadors and representatives of countries such as the UK, Ireland, the USA, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Canada, Romania, Australia, New Zealand and India among others, there followed the laying of wreaths by pupils of schools. Two of our Year 6 pupils, Max Stephenson and Leo Droggitis, both house captains in St. Lawrence College, laid a wreath on behalf of all pupils, parents and staff of our school.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn” (lines from ‘For The Fallen’, by Laurence Binyon)  

On Monday 5th November, St Lawrence College hosted the inter-school, over 16 girls volleyball tournament. All international schools of Athens took part in what was an exciting and hard-fought competition. In the end St Lawrence College managed an amazing 1st place, beating  ACS in the final 2-0. Our team made it to the last match after beating both St. Catherine’s and Byron College 2-0 in the qualification round. We are incredibly proud of our amazing team and congratulations to everyone involved!

The Archaeology Club started its third year with a new project: the study of the island of Delos. Drawing on the experience of adopting an ancient theatre in the previous two years, the members of the Club will study the theatre as well as other remains of the site. The Delos Project offers a unique opportunity for our pupils to experience and appreciate the function of a whole ancient settlement, as Delos is an uninhabited island, an island which is an archaeological site by itself. To start this project, the Archaeology Club travelled to Mykonos and visited the island of Delos on the 26th of October 2018. The pupils experienced a walk through the ruins of the ancient sanctuary, the foreign temples, the theatre and the residences as well as the cave with the altar of Hercules. They are now ready to start their research and study of the site.

On Friday 19th October 2018, all and sundry gathered at St. Lawrence College for a celebration of all things autumnal. There were the usual collection of fancy dress ghosts, ghouls, witches and zombies as well as what must surely be the biggest and best display of carved Jack O Lanterns Athens has ever seen! It's amazing how the families of the Junior School, whose classes have this annual pumpkin competition, become more and more creative with every passing year. The time and effort that goes into putting together our amazing pumpkin display is astounding, so our sincere thanks go to all who contributed to it again this year.

As well as the Halloween flavour in the air, there was plenty of entertainment for young and old with a DJ to get everyone dancing, stalls of goodies and gifts and those where you could buy drinks soups, mouth-watering hot dogs and souvlaki to indulge in too! The pupils of the Senior School Council organised games and activities to amuse all kinds of willing participants so all in all everyone was kept quite busy! Here's to next year!

The Junior School commemorative event for Greece’s Οχι Day was a wonderful affair held for pupils, staff, friends and family over 2 days so that all could make the most of it. Our Years 5 and 6 pupils put on a marvellous performance under the watchful eye of Ms Tsirigoti and the Greek department. They took a different look at the events of the second world war through the eyes of civilians who were affected, re-enacting their testimonies and tributes. 

The musical elements of the production were beautifully added by the Greek choir which sang several of the most iconic war songs, bringing a tear to many an eye of the parents and grandparents who’d joined us for the day. Well done to all who participated with such vigour and talent in this very memorable event!

On Saturday 7^th October our school participated in the 10^th ‘Race for the Cure’ in the centre of Athens. The ‘Race’ is organised every year in many big cities around the world and Athens is one of them with the participation exceeding in numbers many of the corresponding events abroad. The aim of the occasion is to raise awareness to the fact that breast cancer can be cured if diagnosed early and therefore prevention through medical tests is now a possibility that can no longer be ignored. As we have for the past ten years, our school once again took part in the run and the walk with the pupils, parents and teachers of our school all being there in Zappeio on what was a sunny Sunday morning to declare our desire for a world with less pain and more hope.

Historic Newspapers is a huge archive of mostly UK based newspapers from the 18th century until today. At St. Lawrence we use newspaper archives to help bring history alive and help pupils understand the difficulties of working with primary source material.

All year 1 and 2 pupils participate.

Swimming Gala for years 3-6 at St. Lawrence. Pupils qualify through tryouts.

Swimming Gala for years 7-10 at St. Lawrence

The year 4, 5, 6 pupils that qualified take part in this event.

All year 1, 2, 3 pupils take part.

Tennis tournament for boys and girls in years 5 & 6. Games start at 9.30, all international schools participate.