The little ones in Early Years are learning about ‘people who help us’ so took a close-up look at firefighters. The teachers took them around the school to look for fire extinguishers and identify school’s safety features. Following this, the children painted their own fire-red pictures with their hands and finally relaxed with a garden picnic in the shade. This third term since our return to school has been packed with fun! 

Here are the energetic youngsters from 2B re-enacting the story of The Quest. It’s a story about a child who goes on an exciting quest and faces the evil Grimlock in order to save the crystal bell of Ulm, achieving wonders with the help of his friend, a unicorn and a gnome. The pupils enthusiastically showed us how to role play the various characters! 

During the week of 8th March, St Lawrence College Junior School held a science poster competition in conjunction with British Science Week 2021. The children were tasked with creating a poster that exhibited an innovative device of their own design. The results were quite impressive, leaving us in no doubt as to the scientific potential these young minds are ready to unleash on the world. Although the judges were faced with an abundance of excellent entries, they managed to choose these winners. Congratulations to all who entered!

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). 

For the past few weeks, our Year 9 pupils have put their brains and hearts into creating their own science projects which we are delighted to be sharing with you.

The pupils chose the topics, all of which link to our Year 9 science curriculum. They examined their topic thoroughly, often devoting much of their personal time as this went beyond their normal science work.

First, the children engaged in pupil-directed secondary research, which entails learning from relevant articles. Then they designed their own primary research to learn more about their chosen issue by distributing online surveys to other pupils in the senior and junior school of St. Lawrence College. Their final step was to think of a way they could use those findings to counter each problem by informing members of the public and influence them to bring about change. Three of the projects aim to inform through the creation of videos and one in the form of an article and a petition.

Through their actions, the children illustrate valuable skills such as critical thinking, care, responsibility and courage. At a time when meaningful communication has become more difficult, these pupils managed to express themselves and take a vital step towards becoming active citizens. Throughout the duration of these projects, they demonstrated resilience, overcame obstacles and collaborated despite the challenging circumstances.

Below you can find the results of all this hard work:

• a video on sound pollution, by Fang Fei Liu, Han Xu, Zihan Zhang and Yuxuan Sun - Click here
• a video on skin cosmetics, by Arthur Bastos Ferreira and Stefanos Peralta Galanopoulos - Click here
• a video on artificial ultraviolet tanning by Harry Tsanis - Click here
• an article on energy drinks, by Dorothea Svistunova - Click here

Congratulations to all of them!

On Friday March 12th, the Senior School Physics department took part in the British Physics Olympiad’s Intermediate Physics Challenge for Year 11; a UK national competition. In this competition, high achieving students of Physics are encouraged to participate with the key aim of trying out questions that make them think more deeply. Unlike previous years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s competition consisted of two multiple choice question papers and took place entirely online.

Despite the short notice and the great deal of pressure they are under, 14 of our Year 11 pupils embraced the challenge and made a huge success out of it, winning 6 Gold awards, 7 Silvers and 1 Bronze. It is worth pointing out that Gold was awarded to only 865 out of a total of 4,710 pupils (18.4%) amongst 204 schools who participated in the competition.

Our pupils filled us with pride and we wish to share with you and celebrate their success!

On Thursday 4th March 2021, World Book Day brought fun and games to online learning. Despite not being face to face at school, the teachers and children enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book characters for all to see. There were some wonderful costumes and interesting interpretations of some well-known characters created by authors of the past and present. Everyone from Mulan to the Cat in the Hat, from Artemis Fowl to Gangsta Granny and even the Mad-Hatter as well as the Queen of Hearts made our lessons come to life today!

February saw the St Lawrence College Interhouse Games take place with the usual displays of sportsmanship, determination and team work. Year 7s battled it out in several different sports and the results were as follows:

Year 7 boys and girls basketball:

Attica 70 points

Epirus 40 points

Macedonia  60 points

Year 7 boys and girls football:

Attica 70 points

Epirus 60 points

Macedonia 40 points

Which left us with final totals of:

Attica 140 points

Epirus 100 points

Macedonia 100 points

Congratulations to all involved. Some extremely impressive work!

It is with immense sadness that we inform our school community of the sudden passing of our ex-pupil Despina Karvouni, aged 24.

Despina, who graduated from St. Lawrence College in 2014, contributed enormously to our school community while also sustaining an extraordinary standard of dedication and consistency towards her own learning. Her record of achievement is unsurpassed. In addition to being a leading debater for our school, Despina was the captain of our debate team, an active member for our school’s Model United Nations delegation and a fine performer in our Forensics group. Despina approached all such activities with wholehearted commitment and an infectious enthusiasm, and was always keen to support other, younger pupils she was participating alongside.

Her achievements in debate, for school and country, were outstanding. While in Year 9 Despina was a finalist at the 2010 International Competition for Young Debaters and her team finished among the top 15 teams in the world. In the 2014 Panhellenic debate tournament, with over thirty schools represented and hundreds of young men and women taking part, she was ranked the number one best speaker at the entire event. Despina represented Greece as a member of the Greek national debate team in the World Schools Debating Championship in 2013, and then again in 2014, this time as captain of the Greek team.

Academically, Despina was brilliant and a role model for all pupils. Her stunning results of ten IGCSEs (9A*1A), five AS-Levels (AAAAA) and four A-Levels (A*AAA) were the consequence of her unwavering dedication to study, as much as her raw intelligence. It was richly deserved that she should be the winner of the History Prize, the Mathematics Prize, and the Headmaster’s Prize for Academic Excellence at her graduating Annual Award Ceremony in June 2014. Above all, Despina was a modest, polite, caring young woman with a wonderful smile, a love for her school community and a desire to support others. She was a natural choice for school prefect and she was an excellent Head Girl in her final school year.

After leaving our school Despina studied Law at Durham University in the UK, where she was awarded a first class degree. After further training and a specialism in Corporate Law, Despina had recently qualified as a solicitor, ready to practise in the UK legal system.

Despina’s sudden passing has brought terrible and profound shock and grief to all who knew her. At this time we remember her wonderful contribution to so many aspects of our school life and the example she set. We think of her many friends from her class of 2014, still a very connected and close-knit group. And, most of all, we give our thoughts, support and deep condolences to Despina’s family and closest friends who are suffering overwhelming grief and bewildering loss at this very difficult time.

In the past month, St. Lawrence debaters have taken part in two online competitions. Two weeks ago, some of our senior debaters pitted their wits against the best in Greece at the Cambridge University Athens Schools Competition, and last weekend, 12 of our younger orators entered the International Competition for Young Debaters (ICYD), which was also organised this year by Cambridge University. All of them performed well in tough debates and received some valuable feedback from some experienced judges. Special mention to Kristian Narcessian who finished amongst the top 10 individual speakers in the ICYD competition. Also, many thanks to the teachers and ex-pupils who gave up time on the weekends to help judge.

Year 6 at St Lawrence College has been feeling very creative in recent weeks with a definite theme going on - Harry Potter no less! During the Spring term, Year 6 studies the world of Harry Potter, learning so much about writing, story telling, plot and character. Of course, you cannot keep creativity out of it when talking about Hogwarts adventures, so it's only natural the children were asked to redesign book covers for the most well-known of the novels - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Look at what a wonderful job our children did at home in online lessons. Marvellous, don't you think?

On Friday 29th January, 'Book Character Day' was held here in our Early Years section of the Junior School. Our littlest pupils looked their cutest as they dressed up in some imaginative costumes for a fun Friday at school! They chose a range of their favourite story characters to represent including Little Red Riding Hood and even the Big bad Wolf! By bringing their favourite story to school, they were able to share the enjoyment with their classmates and teachers. What a lovely day!

In St Lawrence College Junior School we are currently supporting the Make a Wish charity with our very own tree of wishes hanging for all to see and appreciate. A donation of €2 contributes to a wonderful cause that brings joy to children in need. Our families are always more than willing to lend a helping hand to a worthy cause and our children learn about the benefit of giving to those less fortunate. 

The Make a Wish charity began in Greece in 1997 and is a renowned organisation which supports children in serious health crises. They say:

'Together, we create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
It’s more than a wish. It is about empowering the impact.
It is about the strength, the hope, the joy and the believing in life again.
Help us grant wishes to empower children with critical illnesses.'

https://makeawish.gr/

Despite this year's changes, selection of the 2020-2021 the St Lawrence College House Captains is complete and we're delighted to have some extremely hardworking, determined and mature young people representing the PE department. Being a House Captain is an extremely important role in our community and once again our pupils will be working diligently to organise events, support charities and take part in some of our extremely succesful sports teams. Take a look at the pictures below to meet our new House Captains, find out what they'll be up to, and see what you'll need to take on the role in the future. 

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.