The Senior School celebrated the National Independence Day with a presentation of the Greek National Anthem by the Head of the Greek Department and Senior Mistress, Ms E. Panayiotopoulou. The history of the Greek Revolution, the political and cultural background of that time as well as the philosophy and the feelings of the poet were depicted through the 158 stanzas of Dionysios Solomos’ poem.

Greek Independence Day, 25th March, was celebrated with a fanfare this year in the St Lawrence Junior School. A short play was sweetly performed by the hard-working pupils of Years 5 & 6 in colourful costumes. The theme of the play was the beginning of the Greek Revolution in the Aegean islands. 

Our pupils presented scenes from everyday life of the early 19th century and showed how these islands collaborated to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. Traditional songs and folk dances were skilfully performed by Junior School pupils. The play was written by our very talented Ms Tsirigoti, and she was assisted with the organisation of the whole production by her colleague, Ms Sapountzaki. Well done to all - what a successful celebration it was!
 

Thursday, 23 March, saw a new and successful whole school initiative take place, which saw everyone on campus read in silent unison for two D.E.A.R reading sessions, signalled by a special bell. Pupils and staff constantly had their novels ready at hand but were not aware of the actual times that the reading sessions would take place. Everyone was clearly enthusiastic about stopping whatever they were doing and simply enjoying their quiet reading. The aim of this initiative is to encourage a love of reading for pleasure and was one of the main activities planned to show our school's support of World Book Day. 
 

On Tuesday, 21st March, 2017, Spring was really in the air as the children were uplifted by sunshine, warmth and the beautiful voices of the Taylor Sounds Choir from Indiana's Taylor University. A truly wonderful combination of performances that held the KS2 pupils and staff enraptured, began and ended with singing like you've never heard before. That last note - boy was it high!  

A fun, unique form of entertainment known as 'playback' was also exhibited by the performers known as Taylor Playback Theatre, much to the delight of the audience. Tracy Manning, the theatre's director, gathered short stories from our children who were all dying to share, and her players put on highly amusing, impromptu skits based on certain styles that she directed them to. So creative! So imaginative! 

We were all thoroughly entertained and are very grateful to these generous visitors for sharing with us their talent and hard work. Thanks go to Dr Rediger and her choir: Diana, Paige, Howard, Renae, Claire, Meghan, Ross, Evan, Jeff, Edric and Benj. Also a shout out to Tracy's actors: Grace, Birdley, Alexis Turner & Alexis Colon and Sean. 

Ms Maniatis' year 6 class showed us exactly how important it is to be yourself in an amazingly vibrant assembly on Friday 17th March. The children took over the stage and gave us wonderful examples of their uniqueness and some of their special skills. Avra played the violin beautifully, Costas had the younger children oohing and aahing with his keepie-uppie talents, Clio and Despina cartwheeled around the stage in tandem and Gonzalo did some cool breakdancing too. 

With a singalong to 'Can't Stop the Feeling' to round off the show, everyone loudly applauded and cheered the truly individual style of this Year 6 class. What a great way to end the week!

37 pupils will be taking part in the annual Panhellenic Forensics Tournament which, this year, is at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki. There will be over 400 participants from almost 20 schools from all over Greece. For more information see the Association’s website www.pfa.gr . You can also follow the finals on Sunday live here  

On Wednesday 15th March, Year 5 dashed off to Planet Physics, a new museum that promotes science learning in a fun, interactive format. As the children have been studying the topic of light, this trip was the finishing high point of their course of study. They witnessed use of a prism to demonstrate how white is not a colour: when white light is directed onto a prism, light is refracted into different colours. Additionally, a colour wheel (Newton’s disc) was spun very quickly and once it was spinning very fast, all that could be seen on the wheel was white. Our pupils thought it was quite impressive! Following this, coloured shadows were made and mixed using a blue, red and green laser which overlapped, producing a variety of coloured shadows. A whole range of other exhibits were available for the children to manipulate including a plasma ball and a theremin (a musical instrument which requires no physical contact). All in all a fascinating trip that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

On Tuesday 14th March, Years 5 & 6 participated in an exciting soccer tournament hosted by St Catherine's School for a number of international schools here in Athens. What a day they had! With all the skill and enthusiasm they could muster, both the boys' teams and the girls' teams took on other schools and managed to win almost all of their games! They were buzzing with excitement and pride even when they returned to school afterwards, and it's true to say they are dying for another chance to repeat their success at other venues when the opportunities arise. 
Bravo to the PE department and many thanks to St Catherine's School for creating such a fun event for the children. 

On Monday 13th March, St Lawrence College hosted an Under-sixteen's basketball tournament for girls. What a glorious day it turned out to be, as we came in a very respectable second place! The boys' tournament meanwhile, was held at ACS and couldn't have gone better for them as they won first place out of the four schools participating. Both results indicate the promise of even greater success in the future for our budding young basketball players. well done to all those who took part.

"I predict success" they said, and boy were they right! Friday 10th March was an amazingly experimental day at St Lawrence as the children of KS2 (years 3 - 6) brought their best selves to school to put on a science fair of superb quality and first rate effort. 

Having prepared their projects at home with friends and family also involved in the fun, they showcased their learning with an eye-catching array of displays all about the subjects they'd chosen to explore and exhibit. Every topic imaginable was there to see, from foaming chemical reactions, to coloured flower petals, erupting volcanoes, intoxicated plants, to studies of the brain and human reactions to certain stimuli. The Senior School science teachers who were judging the entries really had their work cut out for them in choosing winners for each year group. 

So what was the conclusion? That it was an amazing and inspiring day for all! Well done to those children who participated.

On Friday 10th March, Ms Pavlounis' Year 5 class held an assembly called Children's Rights in which we, the audience, were taught about the most important human rights for children according to the United Nations. 

The need for us to understand how lucky we are in the life we live was presented in a way that helped us all consider the differences that exist in the living standards of children between today's developed and developing world. 

Bravo to the children for showing us the need to think of others and be thankful for what we have.

On Wednesday, 8th March, a parent of a child at our school showed us just what an interesting mix of people we all are when you take a closer look at our experiences and achievements. Mr Goulson joined Year 4 to share his experience in reaching Base Camp on Mount Everest six years ago. 
As the pupils of Year 4 have been learning about the subcontinent of India with a focus on the Himalayas, it was a welcome learning opportunity to hear his story first-hand. Mr Goulson gave a fascinating Powerpoint presentation about his adventure and answered many insightful questions from his attentive audience. This visitor helped bring geography to life for the children who now see that they too can dream big and persevere to achieve their goals, whatever they may be!
Thank you for your inspiration, Mr Goulson !!!!!

Our Christmas raffle with its exciting array of donated gifts and prizes attracted a lot of attention from all members of our school community, with ticket purchases exceeding our expectations. As a result of the generosity of parents and children, we managed to raise the admirable sum of eight hundred Euros for the children's cancer charity, Floga. 

Floga is a Pan Hellenic Parents' Association for families of children with cancer. It offers invaluable practical support to thousands of families all over Greece whose children are undergoing long term cancer treatment in hospitals often far away from their homes. It has a well-established network of local representatives in a large number of cities around the country.

Our contribution will go some way towards easing the discomfort of such families going through these trying times. Thank you for your continuing support in our efforts to help charitable organisations such as these. For more information about the endeavours this charity makes you may visit its website:

floga.org.gr

On Friday 24th February 2017, the whole school rang to the tunes of the carnival celebration that is such a great occasion here in Greece. It was a day of fancy dress costumes like you've never seen before with all kinds of characters lurking about in the classrooms and the staffrooms too. From princesses to police officers and Harry Potters to hairy monsters there was no shortage of imaginative characters to be seen over the whole school.

With a spring in their step, the pupils and teachers of the Junior School took part in a parade that had everyone cheering on the smallest to the biggest children. The Senior School created their own atmosphere with all kinds of weird and wonderful outfits worn by young and old alike. Well done to all our pupils for their enthusiastic participation and our staff for their unending patience and active support.