Last Monday all the pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 spent an afternoon with Ms. Ioanna-Maria Gertsou and Mei, her guide dog, from the Lara Guide Dog School. Our incredible guest was able to tell the pupils of her own experiences living as a blind person in Athens with great clarity, emotion and sincerity. She showed them how she trains these dedicated working dogs by doing a demonstration with Mei. All the pupils were in awe of Ms. Ioanna-Maria’s great resilience, her passion for animals and her strong determination to make the most of every opportunity in life; they had so many interesting questions to ask her! This visit really gave our pupils an insight into the huge role that working dogs can play in the lives of people with disabilities. Pupils were also pleased to donate 420 euros, that they had fundraised through a bake-sale, to the Lara Guide Dog School. This donation will be used to purchase a guide dog puppy that will hopefully pass the training to be able to give another blind person in Greece a more independent life. If you would like to read more about the role of this worthwhile organisation or may even like to be a guide dog puppy walker please find out more at http://www.laraguidedogs.gr/en/index.php.       

On Friday 2nd February, both Reception classes visited Keratea's Cultural Park with its special exhibition in its Dinosaur Park. The children played the part of real palaeontologists as they explored the environment with its models of these fearsome creatures of times gone by. Guides taught them fascinating snippets of information about the "terrible lizards", as they dug for fossils in the soft earth. Then it was time to hop onto the little train which took them to the cosy museum on site where they saw many more relevant exhibits. 

What an enjoyable day it was!

Women today, even in developed countries, often suffer discrimination, harassment and, in some cases, violence. The motive may be robbery, racism, sexual violence, etc. It is, therefore extremely important that women are able to protect themselves in difficult situations by staying calm, knowing when to move away and if necessary informing the authorities. 

This is why the school organised a self-defence seminar on Friday 02/02/2018. The seminar, organized by Krav Maga Global instructors: Pavlos Gyparis and Philippos Salapatas, offered an introduction to women's self-defence techniques that can help a woman be more in control if she finds herself in a threatening situation. We hope that it also helped  the girls of Years 11, 12 and 13 who took part and are preparing to leave home to go to university, acquire a useful skill that will stimulate their self-confidence. 

On Thursday February 1^st St Lawrence College hosted the over 16 boys basketball tournament. Six international schools participated and we managed a respectable 3^rd, missing out on the final by an extremely close 37-39 with St. Catherine’s school.

Well done to everyone involved!

The robotics club, which began in October, has been a great success for all those involved. In pairs the children started with building their first robot, Milo, which only took two weeks. 

Since then, they have built race cars which they had enormous fun with as they raced them through the corridors! In addition, they have constructed trucks and programmed them to lift things too! Not only did they build flowers, bees and dolphins but also fans to cool themselves down when the weather gets warmer!

"It's very exciting to build and then program our robots!" shared Nicholas with a smile. we're glad to hear that! What will you have them create next, Ms Dova? 

On Wednesday, 31st January 2018, St Lawrence College successfully hosted an inter-schools mini-basketball tournament. Almost 200 children from St Lawrence, St Catherine's, Campion, Byron and ΔΕΣ, participated in an exciting 'friendly' session that gave them a unique opportunity to play against pupils of other schools.

The games were fast-paced and competitive enough for real matches - but who's keeping score? There were smiles and screams, shouts and scuffles over the ball, proving that all of these children were dying to prove themselves as worthy opponents to their rivals.

Following on from the success of this day, St Lawrence College and St Catherine's have each planned to host more events before the end of this term. More fun to come then! We look forward to it!

The Senior Drama Club presents:
An adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s   ‘A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS’.

The Athens Round of the World Scholar’s Cup will be held at Costeas- Geitonas School.
A team of pupils will be going along to compete in this multidisciplinary competition.  
This year’s topic: An Entangled World.

Business Studies trip for Years 10 and 11 to the FRESH LINE organisation at Kifissia.

Interschool Basketball Tournament for Year 7 & 8 girls, hosted at St. Catherine's School

Interschool Basketball Tournament for Year 7 & 8 boys, hosted at Campion School

Interschool Basketball Tournament for boys over 16, hosted at SLC

Mini Basketball Interschool Tournament Years 5 & 6, boys and girls, hosted at SLC

On the last day of the term, on Thursday 21st December 2017, most classes held their Christmas parties at school. Year 6 teachers and children though  held their end-of-year celebration at Blanos Bowling in Glyfada. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves with a day's fun which included bowling, roller-blading and trampolining. The party atmosphere was accentuated by the chance the children had to share food, drinks and treats around with their friends. 

When it was time to leave, the children didn't want to of course! Well that's the sign of a successful outing by anyone's measure, isn't it!

Christmas is the time of giving and sharing! What better time could there be to show our care for people less fortunate than us than this time of the year! Once again the spirit of Christmas shone in our school and the pupils and teachers of the Services Society are very happy to thank all of their classmates and all of the parents who helped with the collection of basic toiletries, clothes and school supplies for the Saronicos Young Volunteers Group. Our school has a long tradition of assisting the Soup Kitchen in Anavyssos which is part of this group, especially at Christmas time, and our donations and contributions are always appreciated. The young girls and boys of Anavyssos showed their appreciation by a nice message of gratitude and by offering to us a special “box of gratitude” made by them inside which our pupils can collect little notes of things they are grateful for and this information can later be exchanged between them. What a lovely idea to remember from time to time that there is always something to be grateful for! And what better way of finishing the year but by the giving of practical things for everyday needs and, above all, giving of love and showing of care. Well done and a big thank you to parents, pupils and teachers!