At the end of the first half term, 31 pupils from years 12 and 13 travelled to Poland to visit Warsaw and Krakow. The trip began with a walk along the Vistula and visit to the Royal Castle and the Warsaw Uprising museum in Warsaw before continuing on to Krakow. The pupils spent an emotional and unforgettable day visiting the Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau. They saw the fascinating Rynek underground museum, before finishing with a visit to the stunning, iconic Wieliczka Salt Mine. 
 

The Debate season began at the annual St Catherine's School tournament just before the half term break. We sent 3 teams of relatively inexperienced debaters who acquitted themselves admirably as always. We are looking forward to the rest of the season.

Congratulations to our IA Bronze pupils on successfully completing their first training expedition to Parnitha last weekend! They hiked for two days and spent a memorable night at the Flambouri refuge, sharing meals and stories around the fireplace with friends.
The pupils had a fantastic experience, with highlights including navigation lessons during their hikes and stunning views of the landscape. Each group rotated leaders, allowing more pupils the opportunity to step into leadership roles and test their newly acquired navigation skills.
Well done to everyone! This is a wonderful start to their IA programme!
 

During the weekend, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th of October sixteen pupils participated in the Campion School MUN, representing our school, and making us very proud for their dedication and impeccable behaviour. This time we had two pupils serving as Chairs of Committees, Konstantinos Zafeirakis in the GA3 Committee (Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Committee) and Penny Farmakidi in the WHO Committee (World Health Organisation) but also many pupils of Year 7 who very bravely took part in what was a very long weekend for them, a real achievement for pupils so young!

And they are all excited and ready for the upcoming participations in the Costeas-Geitonas School CGSMUN and the St Catherine’s SCMUN! No doubt these will be as successful and rewarding experiences as the first one of this academic year was. Well done to all participants!

On Thursday 10th of October 70 pupils from year 7,8 and 9 took part in a cross-country tournament hosted by ACS in Sygrou Park.
Hundreds of pupils from various international school’s took part in a cross country running tournament with plenty of healthy competition occurring between schools. Our year 8-9 pupils ran 3km and our year 7 pupils ran 2km all of whom received big cheers as they approached the finish line.
Some notable placements are Miran Kourounlian and Noah Sturmel who finished in 10th and 11th place respectively in JV boys’ division. Julia Michaelidis and Penny Karakosta who finished in 6th and 8th position in the JV girl’s division. Whereas in the 2km race Serafym Maievskyi and Yingzhi Lou finished first out of pupils in our school.
Congratulations to all those who came and took part in the event, you truly gave it your all and as a school we are very proud of how you represented us!

On Monday 7th October, we were privileged to have the renowned educator Mr Will Ord here at school. Will Ord is an international teacher trainer, keynote speaker, and education consultant based in the UK and he was invited to talk with both parents and teachers in a series of enlightening sessions through the day.

All parents want their children to have 'successful lives', but what does that really mean? What are the key elements of a successful life in the 21st century, and what does the research say? The parents’ session explored these fundamental questions and delved into the areas of confidence, resilience, and Growth Mindsets.

Teachers worked with him to learn how to maximise the efficacy of metacognition in the classroom, recognised as the most strategically advantageous approach to developing children's learning skills. P4C was explored as staff refreshed their training in this wonderful part of the curriculum. 

Truly inspirational!

 Will Ord - Thinking Education 

On 26th September, our years 5&6 pupils celebrated the European Day of Languages which is an event aimed at promoting the interests of pupils in learning a foreign language. It acknowledges the richness of Europe linguistically speaking, as there are over 200 languages spoken across the continent. 

Here at St Lawrence College, many pupils speak other languages, and they are always very happy to share them. On Thursday in their MFL lessons, they listened to songs from different European countries in various languages and teams of pupils competed to guess the language they were hearing.  The children sang, danced, and experienced a range of new languages. How interesting!

The pupils of St Lawrence are showing just how happy they are to be back at school with their friends and teachers. Playtimes are the best times for our children as they have the chance to enjoy the sunshine and our wonderful outdoor environment. 

The games they play, the laughs they have and the friendships they build are grounded in security as they are always under the watchful eye of our staff. 

Ready! Respectful! Safe! These rules guide our school through every part of every day.

Welcome back to school everyone!

Back in May and June 2024 just under 250 pupils sat public examinations at our school and this week has seen the results of these IGCSEs, AS-Levels and A-Levels released. A record-breaking 1,176 separate qualifications were sat for by our pupils, and although 64 pupils will need to hang on until later in August for their GCSE Greek results, the vast majority of grades are now known, making it possible to celebrate the achievements of our pupils.

IGCSEs

Exactly 100 pupils sat for 731 GCSE/IGCSE qualifications. Of those, 29% resulted in an A* (“A-star”) and 49%, resulted in an A* or A grade. These percentages are well up on last year’s 20% and 42% respectively. Pupils whose performances stood out included Mainta Kourounlian who attained an A* in every subject, scoring 9A* in total; Leonidas Drongitis, Alexandra Mavromichali, Petra Todd and Jiayu Zhu who each achieved 8A* among their exams, while Mohamed Abdel Fattah, Sofia Tzagkaraki-Kaseta, Nga Sim Kimberly Wang and Xuefei Zhang each attained 7A*s among the IGCSEs they sat for. 

AS-Levels

Year 12 pupils sat their AS-Levels, where the highest possible grade is A (there is no A*) and where the AS-Levels are, essentially, the first half of what will become a full A-Level following Year 13. A grand total of 273 AS-Level qualifications were sat, with 44% resulting in an A grade, and 77% achieving in at least a C grade. This is up from last year’s 36% and 71% respectively. Pupils who achieved exceptional grades included Despoina Salachas (5A), Nicholas Lempidakis (4A1B) and Penelope Farmakidi, Theodora Farmakidi, Gerasimos Kazianis, Jiachin Lin, Andres Van Meek, Yifei Wang Konstantinos Zafeirakis and Marita Katsouridis all of whom achieved 4A.

A-Levels and Universities

At A-Level, where 202 qualifications were sat for in total, grades are vitally important as many pupils’ acceptance into their chosen university was dependant on the outcome of their A-Levels. The proportion of A-Level grades that were A* was 22% this year. This is up from last year’s 16% and is, in fact, the equal highest in our school’s history, barring the COVID years when exams were cancelled, and grades were awarded by school assessment. The proportion of A-Levels awarded A* or A was 41%, down from last year’s 45%, and the proportion in the A*-C range was 77%, slightly down on last year’s 81%. 

Individual stories of excellence from some of our pupils include Dimitris Grigoropoulos, Yun Li, and Ziqing Qian who each scored 4A*, Paris Larios and Yuhan Chen who each scored 3A*1A, Sofya Semenova (3A*) and Kristian Nersesian (3A*). Most remarkable of all was Huijie Su, who secured an amazing 5A*s, and who scored 100% on nearly all her exams this year. 

The UK remains the most popular destination for higher education among our school leavers, and this year we see our graduates starting degree courses at UK universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, King’s College London, University College London (UCL), City, Warwick, Lancaster, Southampton, Leeds, Exeter and Bath. 

Beyond the UK we have school leavers beginning degree courses at such institutions as diverse and widespread as Rhode Island School of Design, USA; Milan University for Modern Languages, Italy; EU Business School, Barcelona, Spain; Utrecht University, The Netherlands, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA; and The Moscow Institute of International Relations in Russia. 

School reaction

Headmaster Phil Holden commented “These wonderful results, and the fact that so many excellent young people are leaving our school to begin the next chapter of their education in such a variety of locations, is a testament to the hard work of pupils and staff at St. Lawrence College. I congratulate our school leavers and thank the teachers throughout the school, the staff of St. Lawrence College, and the parents of our pupils for a collective achievement which we can all be proud of”.  

On Friday 21st June, St Lawrence College marked the ending of its 44th year with a magnificent evening of recognition for a wide range of accomplishments throughout the school. The guest of honour was the renowned academic, Sir Roderick Beaton, who as well as being an accomplished author of many publications including “The Greeks: A Global History”, held the Koraes chair at Kings College, London until 2018. The delightful Sir Roderick stood amicably with us and congratulated all our outstanding pupils as they took to the stage. 

From years 3 to 6, individually selected pupils in every class were rewarded for the attainment, effort and progress as well as citizenship and other notable performances in particular subjects. From year 7 upwards, pupils were rewarded for their various achievements, culminating in our graduating class of 2024, the year 13 school leavers. Furthermore, recognition was given to several award winners amongst last year's graduating class by our A level exam board, Pearson Edexcel: students now in university who had achieved the highest marks last year in Greece, in Europe and indeed in the world! Huge congratulations for such outstanding achievements; we are very proud of them. 

As always, we look at all our wonderful pupils with great fondness and look forward to the coming year ahead with anticipation. But for now, it's time to sit back and enjoy the summer holiday!

In celebration of children’s successful Junior Duke achievements,  we held a wonderful picnic party on Monday 17th of June for Junior Duke award winners and their parents. The pupils aged from five years old in Reception class right up to 11 year old in year 6, thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to play fun games and have a picnic and an ice cream. The Junior Duke programme is a scheme in which pupils complete a journal filled with challenges that are done at home with families or independently. The tasks range from domestic challenges to cookery to learning about countries related to them. Fostering independence is a very important part of school life and we are thoroughly looking forward to next year’s round of Micro Duke, Mini Duke and Junior Duke prizes.

On 20th June, the junior school drama club put on an outstanding performance of J.M. Barrie's famous tale of lost childhood, Peter Pan. Our drama club pupils from years 2 to 6 worked tirelessly with our director Ms Kiriou, to create a wonderful evening of entertainment. The children acted as Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Wendy and the Darling family, the lost boys, fairies and pirates with some super choreography involved too. The St Lawrence choir accompanied the production under the musical direction of Mr Terzakis and added an atmosphere of sweetness and dramatic appeal to the whole event. 

Congratulations to all our amazing pupils for a delightful performance!

Without a doubt, connecting science to day-to-day life is essential in promoting a deeper understanding of the world, as well as enabling pupils to become critical citizens. This year, year 8 pupils worked on controversial social and environmental issues relevant to the science curriculum. They did so by carrying out projects on topics of their own choice, in which they constructed mind maps; solved ethical dilemmas; engaged in secondary and primary research. Finally, they utilised knowledge gained to carry out actions with the aim of contributing to the raising of awareness. An example of this is a leaflet on fast food and a leaflet on smoking/vaping, which can be accessed using the highlighted links. The action materials were presented in class and attracted an audience of fellow pupils who came to engage with the presentations. 

Congratulations to everyone!

Between the 3rd and 17th June, junior school pupils from Years 1 to 6 took part in their annual swimming days and swimming galas.
Our pupils in years 1 and 2 showed off their hard work and improved swimming techniques to their friends and families in attendance . They were all excited to receive medals of participation for their valiant efforts. Older pupils in Years 3 to 6 enjoyed the excitement of competitive galas. They competed against one another in freestyle, backstroke and breast-stroke races to gather points for their respective houses: Attica, Epirus and Macedonia. We had an incredible three new school records this year due to their outstanding efforts!
Well done to all those who took part and competed. And a special thank you to all those who were in attendance.

Last weekend, our International Award Silver team successfully completed a rigorous three-day hike in the Taygetus mountain. Setting off from Athens early on Friday morning, they began their first hike at noon upon arriving at the Magganiari Spring, their starting point. Spirits were high as the team embarked on their journey, despite the challenging uphill trek that lay ahead. By early evening, they reached their campsite near the Taygetus refuge, where they promptly set up their tents and prepared a hearty meal.
On the second day, they faced the longest hike of the weekend. Navigating the rugged terrain like real explorers, they put into practice the extensive skills they have honed over the past two years in the IA program. As the sun set, they enjoyed a well-deserved hot meal at the campsite, sharing stories of the day's adventures and the breathtaking views they had encountered.
On the final day, Monday, they embarked on an early morning hike. Determined to make the most of their last day in the mountains, they set off with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Impressively, they managed to beat the clock and complete the hike earlier than expected, a testament to their growing proficiency and endurance.
Congratulations to the entire team on their outstanding achievement! Well done to all of them!