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! 

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!

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!

Last weekend, 6 of our Senior School pupils took part in the 2020 First Lego League Competition held in Athens. It was the first time St Lawrence College has entered a team and proved to be a great learning experience. The competition tasks participants with designing a robot to navigate a course and completing challenges in a set times, well as devising a solution to a real world problem. St Lawrence students gained points for their robotic design as well as impressing the judges with their presentation skills. The team had an excellent time and gained some valuable experience and skills which they can't wait to put to use in next year's competition.

On the 28th of January 2020, we were lucky enough to be treated to a visit by the English Theatre Company who performed three different shows for all our children. The Early Years children were very happy to meet Snow White and were very excited on being asked to join the cast up on the stage. Having the chance to take pictures with a real life princess was something that really made the children's day!

Pupils from KS1 and KS2 were also highly amused by further riveting performances that kept everyone laughing and smiling all day!

On Sunday 8 December, debaters from all over Greece came to St. Lawrence to take part in the Athens round of the Cambridge University Schools Debate Competition. After 4 rounds of high level competition, 3 teams qualified for the finals, which will take place in Cambridge in March. Unfortunately, none of the qualifiers were from St. Lawrence this year (one of our teams came 4th). We wish the qualifiers from I.M. Panagiotopoulos, Moraitis and Pierce College all the best at the finals.

The photo shows some of the debaters preparing for round 3.

As part of the Greek curriculum, the Greek department organised an educational trip for all Year 7 pupils to watch the play “Odyssey”. Pupils were very enthusiastic about the plot and adventures of Ulysses. They realised the importance of having a goal in their life and working hard to make it happen. They also understood the danger of arrogance and the fact that it is not the destination that matters but the experiences one gains during the journey of life.

Well done to Y7 pupils!
 

On Wednesday 27th November 2019, some of our year 6 pupils attended a fascinating pottery workshop in the northern suburbs where they got to experience the use of a potter's wheel and feel the texture of real, wet clay as it oozed between their fingers. Their studies of everyday life in Ancient Greece had led them to appreciate that pottery was not just art, but a way of life for the Ancient Greeks. However, as it is so unfamiliar to our modern hands which are more used to holding a smartphone than a raw material like malleable clay, it was all very exciting! History in real life is very engaging!

On Friday 22nd November, 2019, Years 4, 5 and 6 headed back to school for an evening of fun at the annual autumn disco party. And what a lot of fun they had! The children danced, shimmied on down under the limbo pole, vied to be chosen to wear a 'Hat' in the dance off, and shared pizzas and drinks too. All round, they had a super time with their friends. Who needs to be a grown up, eh?

On Wednesday 20th November 2019, Year 5 English History students had a fun-filled, fascinating day out at the Archaeological Museum in Athens where they enriched their knowledge of Ancient Egypt. They had the chance to see various Egyptian tools and treasures, but the highlight was definitely an authentic sarcophagus, complete with a real mummy inside!

In commemoration of the Greek national holiday on 28th October, St Lawrence College junior school put on a terrific performance with acting, singing and dancing. The pupils of year 6 re-enacted scenes set in Epirus at the beginning of the Greek-Italian war when soldiers went off to fight in the mountains of Pindos. There were newspaper boys who shared the news, villagers preparing clothes and blankets for the war effort and the glorious return of victorious soldiers. What a marvellous performance that our talented Ms Tsirigoti, Ms Giannakou and the Greek department put on. 

We are only 2 months in and already our school has participated in several sports tournaments. 

On 24^th October it was the turn of the over 16 boys volleyball and girls football teams at ACS, with 6 international schools participating. We came a respectable 4^th in volleyball and 3^rd in girls football.

On 5^th November, we took 1^st place in girls over 16 volleyball tournament, which took place at ISA school, with 6 international schools participating.

November 6^th saw us hosting the under 16 boys volleyball tournament, with 6 school participating. Our boys narrowly missed out on the win coming 2^nd place overall.

On the same day ( November 6^th) our girls under 16 football team, although the youngest team of all with 5 year 7 pupils in the roster, came an impressive second.

Congratulations to all involved!

Year 6 pupils at St. Lawrence College have been using their artistic skills and understanding of the style of artist, Georgia O Keefe, to decorate the school in preparation for Remembrance Sunday and then Armistice Day, held on 11th November to commemorate the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France to end World War I. This took effect on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918.  

The debate season has already begun and SLC has its first success of the year already. Over 50 teams took part in the 10th St Catherine's Debate Cup on Saturday 21 September and not only did our less experienced debaters do well, with Anna Sokolova and Elene Lomtatidze placing amongst the top ten novices, but we also won the main competition. Penny Haratza and Markella Papadopoulou performed superbly in the final arguing against the motion that we should remove soldiers' ability to feel fear.