The Greek National Holiday to commemorate 28th October 1940 was celebrated before the half term break at St Lawrence College Junior School in a socially distanced manner for the first time. The classes of Year 6, which usually head up our performances, took part in a History Quiz based on all their learning about OXI Day and the significance of the Greek resistance. Through the quiz, the pupils learned about the main events of World War II in Greece and the battle of Democracy against Fascism. Despite the masks and the absence of a parental audience, the children enjoyed the experience.  

A different kind of autumn term is well underway at St. Lawrence as we navigate our way through the end of 2020. Every day brings a new challenge to deal with. This term sees a masked school population, social distancing as the new norm in our playgrounds and classrooms, but we have come to terms with the alternative ways we are obliged to operate. This week, we held our first round of virtual parent teacher conferences successfully and realised that effective contact can be meaningfully maintained with the help of our devices. All in all, we are doing very well under the circumstances and would like to say a heartfelt thank you to our pupils, small and big, who are coping admirably, and to our teaching faculty too.

During the weekend of Saturday 3^rd and Sunday 4^th of October 2020, 13 pupils of our school, from Year 8 to Year 13, took part in a “different” online MUN Conference organised by Campion School under the guidance of Ms Kladouchou and Ms Tsirigoti.

It was their first experience of an online public speaking event and for some even their first experience of an MUN Conference. Yet, both the old and the new members of our school’s MUN Club enjoyed the experience enormously. Two of our oldest pupils were Presidents of WHO (World Health Organisation) and ICC (International Criminal Court) respectively and made themselves and the school very proud with the calm and effective guidance they provided to all delegates of their committees. Three of our younger pupils, two of whom took part for their very first time, were voted ‘Best Delegate’ or were awarded an ‘honourable mention’ for their successful preparation and impressive presence in their committees, the ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council), the WHO and the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee respectively.

We all feel very proud of them, not only because they sacrificed their whole weekend for this participation but also because they did show that extracurricular activities can be performed and enjoyed even during these unprecedented times. Well done to all participants and good luck with their preparation for the next MUN Conference, the DSAMUN!

Our pupils received very proudly their awards for the Intermediate and Junior Mathematics Challenges that took place during the academic year 2019-2020! We are very proud not only for the pupils who were awarded a certificate but for all the pupils who participated in both challenges. The results of the Junior Mathematics Challenge can be found below while the results of the Intermediate Maths challenge can be found here.   

In the meantime, our senior mathematicians have started their preparation for the Senior Mathematics Challenge that will take place online the week beginning 2nd November. It is the first time our school will be participating in the Senior Mathematics Challenge. We wish them the very best of luck and we are looking forward to seeing our younger mathematicians again at the E = mc² lunchtime club to learn and be prepared for new challenges!  

Gold Certificate Winners:  

Yifei (Fiona) Wang and Haoting Jia 

Silver Certificate Winners: 

Yanran Cao, Karim Bakri, JiaChen, Lin, Ye Yutong and Konstantinos Zafeirakis  

Bronze Certificate Winners:  

Xu (Lucy) Han, Nicholas Lembidakis, Cui Qikai and Wang Yilin (Rosemond) 

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”.

As we head towards the end of June 2020, the children of the junior school are quietly unwinding and dreaming about the summer holidays ahead. The teachers are really happy to have had these few weeks back at school to reconnect with their classes and finish off the academic year with some semblance of normality. What a rollercoaster of a year it was! But when we can take the time to sit with our children in a shady spot, read a book or discuss a topic of interest in class, we realise the importance of just being together as a group and sharing the pleasure of each other's company. That's what school is about, after all. 

This year pupils from St. Lawrence College were given the opportunity to test their Mathematics ability by participating in two competitions organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT).

In February, 47 pupils from Years 9, 10 and 11 competed against school children from across the globe in the Intermediate Mathematics Challenge. With only the top scoring 40% of all participants being awarded a Bronze, Silver or Gold Certificate, we were extremely proud to learn that 70% of our pupils had reached the required standard with 10 pupils being awarded a Gold Certificate and three of those, Xuchen Meng, Jingyue Zhai and Kristian Narsesian, scoring high enough to qualify for the Canley Olympiad. A full list of certificate winners can be found below but congratulations to everyone who took part and even though the Olympiad was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, our first year of competition at Intermediate Level can definitely be considered a success.

After much delay, the Junior Mathematics Challenge, originally scheduled for April 30^th, finally took place online on Friday 19th and was a great way to finish the year. Nineteen Year 7 and 8 pupils responded to the challenge. We wish them the best of luck with their results which will be available on July 8^th. All certificates will be presented in September but until then we wish our budding mathematicians a happy and safe summer and look forward to seeing them again next year at the E = mc²  lunchtime club to prepare for more challenges!

Gold Certificate Winners:

Xuchen Meng (Y9) (Best-in-school, Best-in-year), Jingyue Zhai (Y11 -Best-in-year), Kristian Narsesian (Y9), Emily Chen (Y9), Wilson Wang (Y10 - Best-in-year), Wenjing Jin (Jenny) (Y11), Yuqian Liao (Y10), Jiayan Ye (Y10), Lynne Huang (Y11), Ying Yikai (Y10).

Silver Certificate Winners:

Zihan Ding (Y10), Huijie Su (Y9), Dingnan Huang (Y10), Kexin Chong (Y9), Zuyi Wang (Y9), Selina Xing (Y11), Xueying Yang (Y9), Yun Li (Y9), Baoyue Zhang (Y10), Georgios Lazos (Y11).

Bronze Certificate Winners:

 Ziyue Gan (Miya) (Y9), Keying Chong (Y9), Shuqi Ren (Y10), Jingxuan Huang (Y9), Shiwen Liu (Y9), Katerina Leontakianakou (Y9), Huanyu Zhang (Y10), Jin Wenchuang (Y11), Junyao Jiang (Y9), Timothy Tay (Y10), Anna Sokolova (Y10), Ivan Cado (Y9), Stella Stojanov (Y10)

This April 2020, during school closure, our Year 4 pupils have been exploring their artistic side, but with a twist. They took on the Getty Museum Challenge in recreating famous paintings using random house objects. They did an incredible job and some even took it a step further by bringing well-known book characters to life too! 

Vermeer’s “The girl with the pearl earring,” was beautifully done by Catherine and Abigail. Dimitris did an impressive job with his portrait of Agostino Pallavicini, by Anthony Van Dyck. Constantinos recreated Old Man with a Fur cap, Alex became the French Boy with Dog, Jerom became Van Van Eyck’s Man in a Red Turban and Eleonora became a Halberdier. Charalabos transformed into Picasso, Alex was The Boy with a Book, Anthia transformed into Hermione and Mary became Roald Dahl’s Matilda.  

Alexander said, "I recreated “The Son of Man” by Magritte Rene. I really like it because blue is the ocean and white is the cloud." Andrianos did a super job of Magritte’s painting too! 

IGCSEs

These exams are organised by Cambridge International, who have issued a statement that these exams will proceed as planned in May/June 2020 in any of the schools across 160 countries conducting Cambridge IGCSEs – so long as the schools are allowed to open. If schools cannot open it is not yet clear what will happen.

AS & A-LEVELS

Our AS and A-Levels are conducted by three examining bodies – Cambridge, Edexcel Pearson International (International AS/A-Levels) and Edexcel Pearson (who conduct “British” AS/A-Levels).

Cambridge AS/A-Levels – these go ahead as planned so long as the school in question can be open to conduct examinations. If schools cannot open it is not yet clear what will happen. The AS/A-Level subjects in this category are Art & Design; Geography; and Literature.

Edexcel Pearson International – these go ahead as planned so long as the school in question can be open to operate the exams. If the school is unable to open, grades will be awarded to those who have been entered for exams. How grades will be determined is yet to be decided. The AS/A-Level subjects in this category are Mathematics; Further Mathematics; Biology; Chemistry; Physics; Economics; Greek; AS-Level French.

Edexcel Pearson (“British” AS/A-Levels) – these have been cancelled, barring any change of decision from the UK authorities. Grades will be awarded but no decision on how that will happen has yet been released. The AS/A-Level subjects in this category are History; Politics; Chinese; Russian and French (but not AS-Level French).

Advance oral exams and advance Art exams – some exam qualifications require an advance component to take place. These include languages where an oral examination is conducted, and Art & Design where an earlier exam is scheduled. These instances occur at both IGCSE and AS/A-Level. In these cases we are awaiting a definitive decision about whether time frames can be extended, or whether the advance component will occur at all.

That is where we stand currently, as of Friday 20^th March. The situation may well change rapidly and the school is in almost hourly contact with exam bodies. The exam bodies themselves are in a state of flux as they wrestle with a sudden and new scenario. Even so, they understand their responsibility to pupils and schools. We are also in touch with other British schools facing the same scenario and we are seeking guidance from COBIS – the premier organisation of British schools around the world. Furthermore, we will be investigating any possibility of the school opening exclusively for examinations if the school as a whole in its regular form is ordered to be closed at the time of examinations.

In short, we are doing all in our power to get answers to all the questions relating to examinations while planning for an array of possible scenarios as well.

Our pupils in Years 11-13 who are scheduled to take examinations are advised: 

1. Focus on your study. Let the school do all the worrying, investigation and planning around this disrupted examination (and school) period.
2. Rest assured that however the coming weeks and months unfold, and whatever happens, the interests of you, our pupils, will be safeguarded as our top and guiding priority at all times. We will demand and ensure with all our power that pupils facing public examination assessment will be treated as fairly as possible and all this disruption that you have suffered will be taken fully into account.

Dr. Chloe Paidoussis Mitchell, a chartered psychologist, has written an excellent article entitled ‘How to cope with Covid-19 stress: 9 Mental Health tips’ to share what you can do at this very stressful time to maintain and boost your mental wellbeing. Dr Paidoussis Mitchell was both a student and parent at St. Lawrence College. She will be posting regularly on her social media channels, for those who would like to sign up, free mental health advice to help us cope with anxiety, stress and the psychological impact of all this disruption on our families and ourselves.

For the full article, please click here

Due to a government imposed school closure, St Lawrence College is not currently able to physically open its doors to its student body. However, we are able to offer a comprehensive set of online alternatives under these unprecedented circumstances and have undertaken considerable efforts to cover every level of learning from FS1 right up to A' level classes.

The Early Years department is in regular contact with families to continue each pupil's development using the online Tapestry platform which is already a big part of the shared learning experience for our youngest children. In KS1, teachers are regularly distributing and receiving work via email and modifying it according to individual learners' needs. 

Right from KS2 (Year 3), to Year 13 for A' levels, the online Microsoft Teams Platform is being utilised successfully by all. It is new to some of our pupils and staff, but not all. Having said this, all pupils and faculty have adapted quickly to the whole situation and are making excellent use of the facilities the platform offers. 

Whilst nothing can replace face to face classroom interaction between teachers and learners, the features of this learning platform mean that lesson material is being delivered with live feedback, thus providing a valuable class experience for our pupils. Lesson material is provided and work handed in as it would be at school. Teachers, who log on for lesson time between 9 a.m. and the end of  the school day, give their classes real time support during lessons and tasks. The experience is proving worthwhile, thus we hold our teaching staff in high regard and thank them for the professional, dedicated effort they are making to ensure no one loses valuable learning time during our closure. 

We wish the whole St Lawrence College community the very best of luck and sincerely hope we all stay safe and healthy in these trying times. 

On Friday 21st February 2020, our youngest children in Early Years took part in a super fun day of dressing up. However, they weren't just dressing up for the fun of it, there was learning to be done too. Books came to life as the little ones shared their favourite stories and pretended to be storybook characters from them. What a fun day it was!

On Tuesday, 25th February 2020, Year 3 took an interesting trip to Planet Physics in Athens. There, they examined all kinds of interactive displays which taught them about their latest topic in science, Forces. There were experiments pertaining to gravity, magnetism, pushes and pulls, torque and inertia. Learning happens everywhere!

Both St Lawrence boys' and girls' under-16 basketball teams competed in tournaments last week.  Six international schools participated from all around Athens, putting on an impressive dispolay of skill and sportsmanship. 

Though our girls played very well, this time they did not leave with medals. The boys however qualified all the way through to the end where, after a tightly-fought game, they took a very respetable 2^nd place, losing only to ACS in the final.

Well done to everyone who took part.

On Thursday 20th February 2020, the PE department organised a huge friendly tournament here at St Lawrence College with several other international schools. Years 5 & 6 played mini basketball matches against players from Byron College, Campion School, DES Elementary and St Catherine's School. In excess of 220 children played for all their worth - their hearts were set on victory even if the scores weren't being tallied up officially. What a fun event it was!