No 2 — December 2013
St Andrew the Apostle Greek Orthodox School Newsletter
Dear Parents,
What a wonderful time we had on Friday as
It’s Official!
On the 29th November, St Andrew the Apostle Greek Orthodox
we celebrated the Official Opening of the
school with a thanksgiving service.
Our
School, was declared officially open. Our opening ceremony of
students were so proud to perform on the
thanksgiving was deliberately planned to coincide as far as possible
day and they were magnificent. We all loved
with the major feast day of St Andrew the Apostle, celebrated on the
the presentation by 7PY, the superb singing
30th November each year. His Eminence Archbishop Gregorios and
by the choir and of course the three boys
His Grace, Bishop Athanasios of Tropaeou, jointly conducted the
who sang the special hymn for St Andrew.
service dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle.
We felt honoured not only to receive His Eminence Archbishop
Gregorios and His Grace, Bishop Athanasios, but also all of our other
esteemed visitors, most notably our local MP Teresa Villiers and local
councillors Lisa Rutter and Barry Evangeli.
This week and next week we have our first
Parents’ Evenings and your child will be
bringing home an appointments sheet so
that you can arrange a time with the teachers
that you would like to see. Please make sure
that you keep to these times as staff will be
very busy.
On Wednesday this week we are privileged to
have both the Mayor of Barnet and the
Mayor of Morphou jointly visiting our school.
You should have recently received a letter
about our planned Water-sports week in
Cutting the cake – a two man job!
Students representing Plato House, and forming Miss Yiannopoulos’
tutor group, also delivered a presentation dedicated to St Andrew.
June 2014. Please make sure you send back
the reply slip as soon as possible so that we
can book the correct number of places. All
children are invited to come on this trip even
Special praise also needs to be mentioned for our students:
if they are not able to swim 25 metres. All of
Christopher Yiannitsarou, Konstantinos Shemelides and Giorgios
the activities are run by professional
Michaelides, for leading the school in a prayer of Saint Andrew, sung
instructors who make sure that safety is
in the traditional Byzantine style. Parents and all of our guests were
always the first consideration.
also very impressed with the performance of the school choir,
expertly led by the school’s Head of Music, Mr. Lasithiotakis. One of
Finally thank you for your continued support
which we really appreciate.
We shall be
the many highlights of the occasion was the unveiling of the school
sending out a letter shortly about voting for
plaque by His Eminence Archbishop Gregorios and MP Teresa Villiers.
two
This now holds pride of place in our school reception area.
Governing Body. Please read it carefully if
In This Issue
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Take Over Day
Competition Time
Number Day
Sports News
parents’
representatives
for
our
you are interested in being considered for
this important position.
Rob Ahearn, Headteacher
During the course of his speech, His
Eminence Archbishop Gregorios made
reference to the fact that in the Greek
language, one of the many words for
education was ‘morphosis’, which when
translated into English refers to ‘form’;
the essence of education therefore being
one of forming and moulding the overall
character of a student.
The school choir-expertly directed by Mr. Lasithiotakis
Take Over Day
On the afternoon of Friday 22nd November, a group of
students from St Andrew, participated in the annual
Student Take Over Day Challenge. This is an annual
event in which students in schools up and down the
country, are given the opportunity to plan and deliver
lessons as if they were teachers.
Eight of our students worked in teams of four planning
two lessons; one Maths and one English lesson, which
they then delivered to a number of year 5 and 6
students from two of our local feeder primary schools:
Monkfrith and Trent Primary.
Budding future teachers
It was indeed highly enjoyable seeing our students as
well as those from two of our feeder primaries working
so closely on problem solving challenges in Maths on
the one hand, before switching to creative writing in an
English lesson. All students who took part deserve to
be congratulated for the quality of work produced, as
well as the enthusiasm they demonstrated.
Smiles all round after a successful day
Jeanette Adak, Headteacher of Monkfrith Primary
School, commented on how impressed she was with the quality of students’ presentations as well as their
confidence in delivering the lessons. She also went on to say how this was a great opportunity to establish
closer links with primary school in the area
“I really enjoyed Takeover Day, because it made me think about what I want to do when I grow up, possibly
even teach. It was an amazing experience I will never forget and I hope others feel the same way, if the
opportunity is given to them”
Lela McLetchie 7KL
“My day as a student teacher was a thrilling experience and a lot of fun. I was truly grateful for the opportunity to
teach a fantastic English lesson to children from our local primary schools. Takeover Day was an amazing
chance to see what it’s like to be a teacher, and it is hard! One of the year 5 students said I was their favourite
teacher which put a smile on my face. Thank you for letting me do this Mrs Sampson and Mr Vassiliou”
Carlo Lucas 7PY
Goodbye old style ICT lessons – New Computing
Science Curriculum
The government is empowering teachers to deliver Computer Science and Programming as part of the new
curriculum, in collaboration with industry experts and the private sector. As a school we fully support this
initiative and can take full advantage of our superb IT facilities
The benefit will be that our students here at St Andrew the Apostle, will not only have the opportunity to use
programs and software designed by companies around the world, but also to deepen their computing
knowledge and understanding by creating similar programs themselves. These will include animations and
games.
Mr. Lasithiotakis will be leading the new computing curriculum in our school. He will use all the best practice
case studies and strategies in order to effectively prepare and implement the new Computing Science
curriculum, in time for the new academic year.
Mr. Kostas Lasithiotakis
Number Day:
On the 3rd December, St Andrew’s will be taking part in the NSPCC ‘Number Day’ event. All subjects will have a
focus on some element of numeracy on that day. Furthermore, there is also a fundraising cake sale as part of
this event. Some St Andrew’s students might want to bring in some cup - cakes which can then be sold at break
time / lunch time.
Science News from Mr. Michael
STEM club runs every Tuesday and is proving to
be one of the most popular extracurricular clubs.
Pupils have demonstrated a keen interest in the
applications of Science, Engineering, Technology
and Mathematics. The club is run by Ms.
Yiannopoulos, and Mrs. Sampson.
Pupils have participated in a number of projects
including how to make an Icosahedron, and an
Introduction to Forensics. A number of guest
speakers have been invited to further engage
our pupils and more details will be published in
forthcoming newsletters.
Sporting Life at
St Andrew’s
INTER-HOUSE SPORT
Table Tennis – A hard fought competition in which both boys and girls participated,
has led to the inter-house competition really intensifying. Aristotle took first prize
……………….
in the boys’ competition with Theo Vassiliou securing victory in a tense battle
There is a full
against Hypatia’s, Liam Togher. Theo had to fight his way 2 points clear as the
programme of sporting
match reached 10-10, but hit the winner and took maximum points with the game
activities and our teams
coming to an end at 14-12. Plato came in 3rd place and Socrates took 4th. The
will compete regularly
girls’ competition saw Lela McLetchie dominate proceedings, dropping very few
against other schools.
points in her pool matches and cruising to the final with an 11-0 victory against
Sports include: Football;
Hypatia. The final saw Lela clinch victory but she was given a real test by Aristotle’s
Basketball; Rugby;
- Stavroulla Palushi, who pushed her right to the end. Hypatia took 3rd place with
Netball; Hockey; Tennis;
Socrates again taking 4th.
Athletics; Volleyball;
The next Inter-house events:
Dance; Cross Country
and Swimming.
Leader board:
1st Socrates - 10 points
=
Hypatia - 10 points
=
Plato
- 10 points
= Aristotle- 10 points
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Mon 2nd Dec - Maths Number Day competition
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Tue 10th Dec - Christmas Master Chef
As well as the ongoing QUIZ!
GIRLS NETBALL & BOYS BASKETBALL:
Despite the cold weather, both teams are demonstrating fantastic commitment as
they remain hard at work on the training ground in preparation for the upcoming
fixtures, in both league and cup competitions. Well done to all those who regularly
attend. Mr Callender is delighted at seeing newcomers attend and enjoy the weekly
training sessions!
Competition Time – Winning Prize: £10 Book Voucher
To all our students, current as well as prospective.
Classics challenge: Looking at the mosaic at the back of the most recent St Andrew’s prospectus, in no
more than 50 words, can you tell us what is significant about this image? Clue: It is not am image or
representation of Saint Andrew.
English Challenge: Students in English are currently studying Louis Sachar’s novel ‘HOLES’, in which he
refers to a Palindrome. What is a Palindrome and can you think of any interesting ones? – Preferably
not names.
Maths Challenge: Can you design a poster which shows off how Maths can be used across the curriculum
and across a wide range of different subject areas.
Dates for your diary….
Parents’ Evening Thursday 5th December 4-6pm 7PY & 7JC
Parents’ Evening Thursday 12th December 4-6pm 7KL & 7JF
Brent Cross Carol Singing – 18th December 3.30 – 5. 00pm
Christmas Celebration Evening here at St Andrew’s – moved to Thursday 19th December 6 – 7.30pm