The Art Club meets one lunchtime per week and is open to all pupils and to all levels of ability. The only thing required is enthusiasm! Much of what is created by the Art Club is exhibited around the school or at our annual, extremely popular, Art Exhibition.

Activities within the club allow its members to use of a wide range of materials and introduce pupils to a variety of artistic techniques and applications, such as mural painting, which go beyond what is taught during Art lessons. Moreover, club activities help promote pupils’ visual and historical awareness in Art and Design, while enhancing their confidence through the development of projects which require initiative. They also aim to encourage friendships and help pupils practise social skills, through working with children from different year groups. Above all, the club encourages creativity both individually and also through group projects.

When the club meets, Art teachers are always on hand to help pupils who want to further develop their natural talent as well as to those who need more guidance on improving practical skills. They build on the skills already taught during lessons and help children to improve their knowledge and understanding of the subject.

The Art Club offers A-Level Art and Design pupils an opportunity to show their appreciation of the subject through the organisation of small seminars or presentations based on a topic of their choice, which they prepare themselves. It also gives those pupils who have not chosen Art in Key Stage 4 an opportunity to continue to stay in touch with the subject and exercise their creativity in a safe and nurturing environment.

The Club is informal, fun, therapeutic and instructive in its style and content, while practically contributing to our school environment by creating and displaying work which can be enjoyed by pupils, staff and visitors alike.

The St. Lawrence College Art Club: Creativity and Fun!

The Art Club meets one lunchtime per week and is open to all pupils and to all levels of ability. The only thing required is enthusiasm! Much of what is created by the Art Club is exhibited around the school or at our annual, extremely popular, Art Exhibition.

Activities within the club allow its members to use of a wide range of materials and introduce pupils to a variety of artistic techniques and applications, such as mural painting, which go beyond what is taught during Art lessons. Moreover, club activities help promote pupils’ visual and historical awareness in Art and Design, while enhancing their confidence through the development of projects which require initiative. They also aim to encourage friendships and help pupils practise social skills, through working with children from different year groups. Above all, the club encourages creativity both individually and also through group projects.

When the club meets, Art teachers are always on hand to help pupils who want to further develop their natural talent as well as to those who need more guidance on improving practical skills. They build on the skills already taught during lessons and help children to improve their knowledge and understanding of the subject.

The Art Club offers A-Level Art and Design pupils an opportunity to show their appreciation of the subject through the organisation of small seminars or presentations based on a topic of their choice, which they prepare themselves. It also gives those pupils who have not chosen Art in Key Stage 4 an opportunity to continue to stay in touch with the subject and exercise their creativity in a safe and nurturing environment.

The Club is informal, fun, therapeutic and instructive in its style and content, while practically contributing to our school environment by creating and displaying work which can be enjoyed by pupils, staff and visitors alike.

As a school, St. Lawrence College works hard to give back, not just to the local but also to the global community, through continuous fundraising. Our school’s value statement is reinforced through positive acts of charity that foster a sense of community, respect and meaningful tolerance towards others near and far.

We support a range of national and international charities, so as to raise awareness around social issues, as well as to develop our children’s sense of empathy towards those less fortunate than themselves, and emphasise the importance of reaching out to help others in their time of need.

...always committed to making a positive contribution to other people’s lives...

From sending supplies to charities supporting refugees here in Greece to sponsoring children in Ethiopia, the St. Lawrence College community is firmly committed to making a positive contribution to other people’s lives and always eager to actively take part in all fundraising activities, extending the hand of friendship and showing how much we care.

We also focus on how to make giving a relevant and more appealing value to exhibit for our young people. We understand how vital it is to instil in them an ethos of generosity. That’s why we provide our pupils with clear information about the impact a chosen charity makes. Representatives are invited to school to speak at assemblies, or we hold our own assemblies and tell the children about their charitable work in order to explain to our young people how they are contributing to a collective effort.

Pupils are very keen to support charities and vibrant fundraising activities regularly take place to support a wide variety of causes, especially around the holidays. Non-uniform & Crazy-Hair Days, collections of urgently needed items, raffles of wonderful gifts donated by generous parents, bake sales, craft sales, sponsored walks and making and selling loom bands are just a few of the events organised by our staff and pupils to raise funds and donate to those in need.

The Red Cross, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Smile of the Child, The Salvation Army,  Save the Children and ActionAid are just a few of the charitable organisations we have supported throughout the years.

For the past 15 years, with the proceeds from the school newspaper, pupils of the junior school have sponsored two children from Ethiopia through ActionAid and have seen for themselves the difference their support has made to their lives. Through our correspondence with these children, the pupils of St. Lawrence have come to know that they have provided them with food to eat, an education and a brighter future.

Every December, pupils from our junior school choir spread the spirit of Christmas and cheer up the older residents of a local nursing home by singing Christmas carols. The residents enjoy joining in with the singing, and their appreciation warms the heart of everyone involved.

We are proud to unfold our adventurous, creative and magical journey which brought us to this impressive Koropi Campus where we celebrate our 40 years of operation

NORTHERN JOURNEY: The School did not pop up in 1980, the year of our foundation, looking as we do today. We started in Paleo Psychico, Filothei, Halandri,
occupying five different buildings that were necessary to house our constantly increasing pupil body, as our growth rate was phenomenal. To accommodate a number of non Athens resident pupils, we also ran a boarding house at Hotel Frini in Kifissia.

September 1984 finds the School in Gargitos in a purpose–built school building. We have left Paleo Psychiko and Halandri, but we still keep Filothei.

SOUTHERN JOURNEY: In September 1981, the School opened a branch in Hellinikon, naming it “L1” i.e. Lawrence One. The success was instant and in the years that followed new buildings were added, one after the other, in the area to accommodate the pupil body -three of which were built by us. Again the need to accommodate a number of boarders was covered by running a small villa in the area as a boarding house.

As time went on, the Board of Governors realized the   need to bring together the North and the South and
so the three component schools, Filothei, Gargitos, Hellinikon, merged in Hellinikon in September 1987.

A new beginning was made in Hellinikon. An impressive success story both in numbers and particularly in academic achievements follows bringing the buildings to the staggering number of eleven, “L11” i.e. Lawrence Eleven.

In the summer of 2004 the time had come to move again.

So “Farewell Hellinikon”, “Good Morning Koropi” and the gate of our impressive Koropi Campus opens in September 2004.

To sum up this building/geographical journey, we have worked out of 17 buildings, two boarding houses, in six suburbs before reaching our present beautiful home – the Koropi Campus.

Summer SCHOOL: The St. Lawrence College Summer School has been taking place as follows:

-Alexander Beach Hotel, Arachovitika, Peloponnese, 

  Summer 1982

- Tolo Camping, Nafplio, Peloponnese, Summer 1983-1989

- Hellinikon Campus, Summer 1994-2004

- Koropi Campus, Summer 2005 – Present  

Our School has come such a long way and it is in the hands of people, teachers and administrative staff, who will continue to nurture it as the safe educational oasis that it is.

At St. Lawrence College we adhere to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) standards for England.

The EYFS comprises three age/year groups:

A child may join FS1 in September from 2 years 6 months old at that time.

A child may join FS2 in September if they have turned 3 years old at that time.

Reception class children must have turned 4 years old by September to join.

We believe that all children are able to learn and succeed. We strive to provide high-quality, inclusive education to each and every one of them within a warm, secure and holistic environment, where our young pupils are encouraged and guided towards becoming self-assured, confident, autonomous learners.

We believe that all children are able to learn and succeed.

We prioritise the safety and physical well-being of our pupils and we always strive to meet their emotional needs. We are committed to a smooth continuum of learning in all areas of learning from FS1 through to reception and we take special care to ensure subtle and smooth transitions between stages. Our diverse cultural pupil body offers rich learning experiences to all children.

Our work is based on four guiding principles:

1) The Unique child
Children are encouraged to hone their skills, develop at their own rate and reach their full potential. We respect each individual’s personal learning journey and we value freedom of expression and equity, whilst providing continuing support towards reaching important milestones and gaining independence.

2) Positive relationships
We purposefully cultivate strong bonds between key persons, parents/carers and children, which lead to positive learning outcomes. Our goal is to help children develop the ability to listen and respect others, work collaboratively, and acquire tolerance, resilience, critical thinking as well as important problem solving skills.

3) Enabling environments
We maintain an 'open doors' policy and we do our best to create an inviting, safe, stimulating place of learning and discovery, where children thrive through child-focused activities, play, exploration and investigation. The setting provides a welcoming, vibrant atmosphere which clearly demonstrates the children’s abilities and accomplishments. It is a true testimony of and reflection on the children and staff who occupy and thrive within it.

4) Learning and Development
We advocate a play-based curriculum, strong on recognising personal starting points or attributes, with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities, planned and delivered across seven areas of learning (three prime areas and four specific areas) by a team of dedicated early years' practitioners.

2023 Public Exam Results Success

The anxious wait for exam results is over now as IGCSE, AS-Level and A-Level results have been released, and it is now possible to draw conclusions and assess the performance of our school’s exam candidates from the 2023 summer exam session.

Year 13 and A-Level

Ahead of these results being released there had been substantial coverage in the media that the exam bodies would be strict in their marking this year, believing that the impact of the covid pandemic is fully in the past. This may have led to anticipation of lower marks, but even so, the performance of our Year 13 cohort has been impressive. Across all A-Levels taken in the UK, 27% were A*or A grades. At our school, 45% of all A-Levels taken were awarded A* or A grade.  One in six of all the A-Levels taken were awarded an A* at St. Lawrence College, compared to only one in every thirteen A-Levels across the UK.

More than a quarter of our school’s Year 13 pupils (19 of the 72 pupils) achieved straight A*/A grades across all their subjects. One in every six A-Levels resulted in an A* while just under half were an A* or A grade. Indeed, an “A” was by far the most frequent grade awarded, being easily more common than the second most frequent, a “B” grade, with “A*” being the third most frequent grade across the Year 13 cohort.

In terms of performance within subject areas, more than half of all candidates achieved at least an A grade in Biology, Chemistry, French, Further Mathematics, Geography, Greek and Physics A-Levels. Particularly impressive were Biology and Further Mathematics where the A* rate was 47% and 27% respectively.

Many pupils did extremely well, with the following being truly outstanding: Nikolaos Synodinos (4A*), Dingnan Huang (3A*), Yuqian Liao (3A*1A), Foteini Kalamatianou (3A*) and Timothy Tay (3A*).

For our pupils now completing school, there now faces the transition to universities and colleges around the world. A very small selection of these, to give an example of the variety, includes UK universities such as Queen Mary London, Imperial College, London, Warwick, Edinburgh, Manchester, Durham, and UCL London. Also, we have pupils taking up courses at universities in the USA, Italy, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Canada, Cyprus, Austria and Spain. Just as varied as the destinations, are the degree courses our school-leavers will be starting, which include Aeronautical Engineering, Business Management, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Economics, Dentistry, Accounting & Finance, Fine Art and Law.

Year 12 and AS-Level

At AS-Level, where “A” is the highest possible grade (A* doesn’t exist at AS-Level) global assessment was once again set to pre-pandemic standards, leading to an anticipated moderation of grades among schools across the UK and around the world. At our school, our Year 12 cohort performed very admirably, matching the achievements of typical years over the pre-pandemic era.

That more than one out of every three among the 253 AS-Levels taken resulted in an A grade demonstrates this. Indeed, with “A” being by far the most common outcome, with a frequency twice that of any other individual grade, the collective AS-Level achievement can be considered impressive. 

Analysis by subject reveals that at least half of all pupils’ AS-Levels in Art, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Greek, History and Physics resulted in either an A or B grade.

Across the entire cohort, 14 of our pupils in Year 12 scored straight A grades. Among those were Dimitrios Grigoropoulos (5As), Huijie Cathy Su (5As), Kleopatra Anastassiou (4As), Yunhan Emily Chen (4As), Paris Larios (4As), Yun Zena Li (4As), Efstathios Pettas (4As), and Ziqing Tracy Qian (4As).

Year 11 and IGCSE

More than one in three pupils (34%, or 28 of the 82 pupils) scored either straight A*/A grades or had a majority of A*/A grades as their results from IGCSEs.

Analysis of specific subjects reveals that at least half of all pupils scored A* or A or B in Biology, Chemistry, Chinese, English Language, English Literature, French, History, Mathematics, Physics and Spanish; and in most of these subjects, half the candidates or more achieved at least an A grade. Overall, 42% of the 625 IGCSEs/GCSEs taken resulted in an A* or A grade, while 80% scored at least a C grade.

Pupils who achieved notable success include Konstantinos Zafeirakis (8A*,1A), Despina Salachas (8A*,1B), and Guoguo Chen (7A*,1A,1C)

Well done!

St. Lawrence College Headmaster Phil Holden commented “These results reflect the hard work of so many of our pupils and indicate that anything is possible with determination and perseverance. I also congratulate and thank our outstanding teachers and school staff, right across St. Lawrence College, for all their hard work that has led to these achievements through the last school year and throughout these pupils’ education building up to this point. Finally, I wish our school leavers every happiness and success as they embark on the next stage of their lives, whatever that is. I hope they will keep happy memories of their school days at St. Lawrence College!”

Our pupils’ 2020 public exam grades attain the highest of standards

Mid-August wouldn’t be the same without the anxious wait for the public examination grades of our eldest pupils. Although all 2020 public examinations were cancelled by the UK authorities as a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic, pupils who were working towards IGCSE, AS-Level and A-Levels had been promised grades and certificates by the exam boards. Those grades have now been awarded and released.

The qualifications have been issued by exam bodies who used a combination of data and “assessment grades” submitted by schools as well as the exam bodies’ own statistical records regarding how schools’ pupil cohorts had performed in recent years.

This year, our pupils have received, collectively, grades that represent a tremendous achievement and they have improved upon the grades of recent years at A-Level and AS-Level, while matching the standards of recent years at IGCSE. Even in a ‘normal’ year these would be outstanding results, but given the challenge of recent months, our Year 11, 12 and 13 pupils should be especially proud of themselves.

A-Level

The 38 pupils of our Year 13 have been awarded 123 A-Level grades. The statistics are very impressive:

·         26% of all grades were an A* (up from 20% in 2019 and 13% in 2018)

·         More than half – 52% - of all grades were A*/A (up from 51% in 2019 and 34% in 2018)

·         More than three quarters – 76% - of all grades were A*/A/B and 85% were at least a C grade; again higher percentages than in both 2019 and 2018.

Two of our A-Level pupils each achieved a remarkable four A* grades – congratulations Ioanna Moirasgenti and Harry Karaiossifides; while Yueyang Li managed three A*s and two A grades.

AS-Level

Perhaps even more impressive are the AS-Level grades awarded to our Year 12 pupils. A total of 147 grades have been awarded to 43 pupils and the statistics truly demonstrate the excellence of this cohort of pupils. Note that the highest possible grade at AS-Level is A; and that A* does not exist at AS-Level.

• 56% of all AS-Level grades have resulted in A; up from 41% in 2019 and 40% in 2018.
• 86% of all grades awarded were a C grade or better; up from 73% in 2019 and 59% in 2018.

Outstanding individual pupil achievements included Panagiota Paraskevopoulou (AAAAB); Yijun Chen (AAAA); Yurui Cui (AAAA); Eleni Kalendi (AAAA); Markella Papadopoulou (AAAA); Jake Paternoster (AAAA); and Kaibo Wang (AAAA). Very well done to those young men and women and all our pupils.

IGCSE

A huge number of IGCSE grades have been awarded to our Year 11 pupils – 522 in total. This is far more than in recent years; in 2019 there were 420 IGCSE entries and in 2018, 386 entries. This year’s IGCSE grades were as equally impressive as in recent years and, by some measurements, even stronger. Thus:

• 25% of all IGCSEs resulted in an A* (2019 – 23%; 2018 – 25%)
• 47% of all IGCSEs resulted in an A*-A (2019 – 47%; 2018 – 45%)
• 83% of all IGCSEs resulted in an A*-C (2019 – 79%; 2018 – 90%)

Stand out achievements included Katrina Lemane (9A*); Leda Persidi (8A*, 1A); Athanasios Kapoutsis (7A*, 2A); Zoe Raptis (7A*, 2A); Danil Tsaran (7A*, 2A) with many other pupils securing multiple A* and A grades – congratulations to them all!

Higher Education

Many of our A-Level pupils are now progressing to higher education courses. The most popular destination is, of course, the UK, with pupils leaving us to start as undergraduates at such renowned universities as UCL, King’s College London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Sussex, Queen Mary London, UEA, Lancaster, Bath and Southampton to name just a few. Other pupils are continuing their education at universities in countries such as the USA, Canada, The Netherlands; while a few will remain in Greece and attend institutions such as Deree College and BCA.

Our graduating pupils will study a fascinating diversity of degree courses including (but not limited to!) Medicine, Mathematics, Marine Technology & Engineering, Theoretical Physics, Chemical Physics, Aeronautics & Astronautics, Design Innovation & Creative Engineering, Neuroscience, International Relations, International Business Management, Classical Studies, Animation, and Environmental Geoscience.

Headmaster Phil Holden commented “I am delighted with the collective achievement of our pupils in this most difficult of years. These remarkable grades reflect the outstanding work our pupils have invested into their IGCSE, AS-Level and A-Level courses and I am very happy, and somewhat relieved, that their efforts have been recognised by the exam bodies of the UK. I congratulate all our pupils and I especially wish to thank all our school staff who have also supported our pupils with such consistency and dedication. This includes teachers of these pupils from earlier years in each child’s education. I know that so many of our pupils worked very, very hard through a stressful period and were well supported by the school and parents and so I am not surprised at how well they have done – their success was richly deserved and we can all take pride in their accomplishment”.