VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3 MARCH 2019

NEWSLETTER Byron College World Scholar’s Cup Champions

Byron College Volume 2, Issue 3 — March 2019

APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

OXFORD GLOBAL SUMMIT FOR YOUNG LEADERS 2019 at Byron College 1-5th July Byron College has taken the initiative to bring to a core group of world class Oxford University post-doctoral research fellows and professors to create a unique educational opportunity for ambitious pupils aged 15-18. The Oxford Global Summit for Young Leaders is aimed at teaching the skills, and providing the mentors and guidance, to challenge and teach design thinking for creative and practical real-world problem solving. OGSYL summer summit will bring together some of the brightest young minds in Greece, and from around the globe, to participate in a challenging life-changing experience. Participants will be assigned to one of four ‘colleges’ intended to represent the college system at the itself. During the summit, students will collaborate and compete on projects and activities that complement seminars and lectures. All course material is original material that has been created for the Summit. Pupils will be inspired and motivated to become the leaders of tomorrow through their interactions with some of the greatest mentors of today. Throughout the summit pupils will be applying their intellect to the most salient issues in our society resulting in the transformation from a group of bright, talented individuals into a team of critical thinking analytical problem-solvers.

The Eureka Moment: Can we create it on purpose?

The Experience • Group work to identify solutions to a major global challenge that society faces today.

• Participation in interactive classes and seminars that will enable participants to tackle these challenges.

• Lectures by university professors on relevant topics such as Al, big data, social enterprise and innovation.

• Networking with ambitious and high-achieving peers from across the globe.

• Attainment of certificates of completion of their courses.

• Mentorship from leaders with a variety of backgrounds, including doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, business executives, and University of Oxford professors.

Continued support and mentorship • All participants will be offered free mentoring for a full academic year after the summit by an Oxford research fellow or current student in a related field;

• The 10% of students will be offered a recommendation letter from an Oxford University research fellow for their university application, as well as further mentoring on a promising project initiated at the summit;

• High achieving students showing exceptional skills will be invited to Oxford the following year to take further seminars with Oxford Global and engage with an even network of mentors and professors. Applications are open now www.byroncollege.gr/oxfordglobal

Byron College 2 Volume 2, Issue 2—December 2018

Years 9-13 History Trip to Krakow, Poland

‘The camp had a very eerie atmosphere and it was an eye opener on how cruel and inhumane people can be. It made me feel awful ‘ Baran M, Year 9

The History trip to Poland was a real eye opener for both pupils and teachers. One of the highlights of our trip was our meeting with a Jewish I was horrified by the idea that so much survivor, whose capacity for money was invested just to kill or torture remembering was inexhaustible, her people. I felt really bad that ordinary humanity intoxicating and her people like us were transformed into test willingness to see the good in the subjects. We shouldn’t forget moments world unshakeable. like this and we should always respect everyone! George A, Year 10 Our visit to Schindler's factory was a reminder for us all of those who have responded to the most unthinkable hatred with an The visit to the camp unwavering love of life. was inordinately As for Auschwitz, it felt like walking informative and truly through a death path which seemed provided an unreal and made us feel uncomfortable and upset. Our minds understanding of the filled with a million thoughts and atrocities of the Nazis questions that will never find a rational Ikra R. Year 12 answer. Overall, pictures hardly do justice to the beauty of Kraków. From magnificent salt mines to majestic castles and dreadful dragons - all of which lie at the foot of Wawel Hill on the bank of the Vistula River- Krakow I loved the Museum and the camp has it all and has certainly made our but I was devastated by all the experience an unforgettable one! things we saw and heard. Dinos K, Year 9

The Museum was very informative but the emotions were so intense that I didn’t say a word throughout the tour and just tried to comprehend what the Nazis did. Aris T, Year 9

After learning about the history of Nazi occupation it was very touching to see it in reality. The museums were so realistic that I felt emotional. Rabbil A, Year 12

Byron College Volume 2, Issue 3 — March 2019 3

Lord Byron Unveiling Ceremony

A bust of Lord Byron now graces the entrance to Byron College. This was a very generous donation by the Papas family and the unveiling ceremony took place on 22nd January, the anniversary of Lord Byron’s birthday. The ceremony attended by the Board, pupil leaders, representatives of the Parents Association, school leaders and teachers began with Hussein’s biography of Lord Byron.

During the ceremony Al Hussein Ammar (Year 11) gave a short speech on the life of Lord Byron:

“They never fail who die in a great cause.”

These were the words of one of the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics and poets, Lord Byron. He was a freethinker and a romantic paradox. He led his era’s poetic revolution and dedicated his money, time, and energy to liberty and finally his own life in the Greek war of independence.

Ladies and gentlemen, today, the 22nd of January, marks the birthday of George Gordon Byron, who captivated the west with his wit and heroic lines. He was born in 1788, and he was the son of Catherine Gordon of Gight and Captain Jack. In the summer of 1789, he moved with his mother to Aberdeen. Due to his Presbyterian nurse, Byron was fascinated by the idea of predestination and fell in love with the bible.

When he went to school, he was extremely interested in reading and developed a great passion for history and art, which in return influenced many of his works. Subsequently, Byron attended Trinity College, Cambridge from October 1805 until July 1808, where he received an M.A. degree. During those times he published his first poetry book fugitive pieces and there he showed interest in politics.

One of Lord Byron’s greatest dreams was to sail and travel abroad. On the 2nd of July, 1809 he was able to achieve this dream by traveling to Lisbon. From Lisbon, he travelled to Spain during the partisan’s resistance to the French invasion. Directly after that, he came to Greece. Byron began an autobiographical poem in Ioannina on 31st October 1809, wherein he recorded the adventures and reflections of Childe Burun. Byron completed the first canto in at the end of the year. When the Elgin marbles were seized from the Parthenon and other ruins of Greece’s golden age Byron filled with sorrow, while the plundering of the country’s treasures and its people’s enslavement by the Turks fueled his anger. He spoke about these scenes in one of his famous poems “The isles of Greece”.

In March 1821, Lord Byron devoted himself to the Greek War of independence from the Turks. He helped collect a considerable amount of money and medical supplies for the Greeks, and packed uniforms and heroic helmets for their landing on Greek shores. When Lord Byron reached the island of Kephalonia, he waited until there were signs of unity in the Greek effort. In November, Byron agreed to loan four thousand pounds to the Greek fleet for its activation.

In January the next year, he joined the moderate leader Alexander Mavrokordatos in Messolonghi. Enthusiastically welcomed, Lord Byron was received with cheers and salutes. On the eve of his birthday, he turned once more to poetry (after a long break) to express his feelings regarding his life and the principles of freedom. He wrote the poem “On this day I complete my thirty sixth year”.

On the 9th of April, having been soaked by a heavy rain while out riding, Byron suffered fever and rheumatic pains. By the twelfth he was seriously ill. On Easter Sunday, he entered a comatose state. At six o’clock on the evening of Easter Monday, 19 April 1824, during a violent storm, Lord Byron passed away.

Lord Byron’s birthday is celebrated in Greece due to his brave intervention in the Greek resistance against the Turks and his deep beliefs to democratic values. I would like to finalise my speech with a last quote.

"If I am a poet," he mused, "... the air of Greece has made me one”.

Byron College 4 Volume 2, Issue 2—December 2018

Winning Teams at the World Scholar’s Cup 2019 After their exceptional performance at the World Scholar’s Cup this weekend all four of our participating teams have made it through to the Global Rounds! Returning to school with nine cups and numerous medals, we are so proud of their hard work, dedication and outstanding achievements. The WSC, organized by , tests team work and individual performances in three events; debating, writing and general knowledge (Science, History, Social sciences, Music, Art and Literature) over two strenuous days of competition. In the Senior category Byron College pupils won first place in the Debate and first place in the team collaborative writing event and second place in the overall competition based on all three events. The cup for the Best Overall Scholar of the tournament was won by Pollyanna Greene Wright who also won the Best Individual Writer cup. Baran Mohammadi won the cup for the Best Individual Debater. Our junior teams won third and fourth place in the World Scholars Cup based on their fantastic performance in all three events. CONGRATULATIONS!

Moraitis’ Debate Cup Pupils from Year 6-11 participated in the Moraitis School Cup Debate Tournament in January.

Cambridge Schools International The International Competition for Debate Tournament Young Debaters Three teams representing Byron College The Greek round of the International Competition for Young participated in the Greek Round hosted by St. Lawrence. Debaters 2019 saw a Byron College team reach the semi finals for the first time in ICYD.

Byron College Volume 2, Issue 3 — March 2019 5

CELEBRATING READING AT BYRON COLLEGE

Byron College 6 Volume 2, Issue 2—December 2018 WORLD BOOK DAY

The challenge was to decorate classroom and form room doors with favourite book covers. The competition was won by “Ouch” R. Scamell and Terry (Nursery), “George’s Marvellous Medicine” Roald Dahl (Year 3A) & “A Series of Unfortunate Events” Lemon Snicket (Year 9B)

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Year 5 went to Theatre Ivi to watch the play In February Year 1 children visited Planet Physics "The Craziest Weekend". Children really enjoyed the centre where they took part in an interactive experience and had a chance to practice their Greek educational programme which promoted self- language skills. We took a picture with the protagonist investigation through various experiments. at the end. YEAR 5 ATYEARTHEATRE IVI 5 YEAR 1 ATYEARPLANET 1 PHYSICS

YEAR 5 AT LEONARDO DA VINCI EXHIBITION Year 5 visited Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. We had the chance to see some of his machine inventions, a selection of codices and drawings, as well as animations about the famous Vitruvian Man, Last Supper and Mona Lisa. Pupils left the exhibition inspired and with a deeper appreciation of the genius of Leonardo da Vinci.

Trip to E-Future ‘Programming and Robotics Course’ Pupils from Year 3 had the opportunity to enhance their learning during an educational programme called ‘Programming and Robotics Course’’. They learned more about the history and the evolution of robots, saw a wide range of moving robots, used educational robot kits such as MouseBots, BeeBots, Lego WeDo. Used Lego Mindstorms to create their own mini-robot and programmed it with support.

Enrichment Activity for Secondary School Ski Trip to Kalavrita

Going to the ski trip was an invaluable experience! Most of us never had ski ed before. We had the chance to try out this fascinating and fun sport, spend time on the mountain, get a breath of fresh air and explore the beautiful village of Kalavrita. Emilia L. Year 13

An extremely intriguing and unconventionally presented mock lecture by a very charismatic professional who managed to capture the attention of he even the most resisting member of the audience. Mr. Holt opened up the vastness of the world of psychology before our eyes, motivating young aspiring psychologists to the max! Dora P. Year 13 Nigel Holt

Byron College 8 Volume 2, Issue 2—December 2018

Textile waste Through the process of our global perspectives lessons we were introduced to the staggering problem of textile waste. We first met the culprit in a group walk where we were asked to notice blatant mishaps and problems throughout the community. As a class we were able to identify the significant problem of litter in our streets. Once we observed and understood the magnitude of the bigger picture, we were able to delve deeper and locate a significant problem hidden from the lights of the mainstream media; textile waste. Textile waste is a material that is deemed unusable for its original purpose by the owner. Textile waste can include fashion and tex- tile industry waste, created during fibre, textile and clothing production, and consumer waste, created during consumer use and disposal. At first glance, we were completely oblivious to the glaring issue however, upon further investigation we were at once taken aback by the substantial problem. Essentially, the striking problem of textile waste is woven together by two different complications; the wasteful process of creation and the vast amounts of fabric being wasted. The hidden process of the shirt you are wearing right now creates immense amounts of pollution. Firstly, the sheer amounts of greenhouse gases emitted is more than the aviation and shipping industries combined. To put that into perspective, if the aviation industry was considered a country, it would rank in the top 10 emitters, not taking into account the deleterious shipping industry. Additionally, the water pollution is unheard of with rivers in China changing colour due to the use of dye in clothes. Moreover, due to the blooming of such industries, organisations are not reluctant to expand with estimates believing that the fashion industry will in the future demand 35% more land and 50% more water. This obscene increase is due to the rapidly growing rise in consumption, with consumers taking in almost 62 million tonnes of clothes in 2015. Furthermore, estimates lead us to believe that this will almost double by 2030 with it increasing to approximately 102 million tonnes. This is significant to textile waste as with the amount of devastation this procedure creates major amounts are tossed away with no second thought, with more than 900,000 tonnes of fabric being thrown away in U.S alone, which is not the biggest manufacturer in the world. However, in an effort to combat this problem we have decided to begin recycling and re-using products in an environmentally friendly manner. We have been able to collect large amounts of unneeded fabric. And with this we split into groups and started little passion projects, such as making a flag, classroom cushions and reusable grocery bags, purely using the waste we have gathered. We do this with the aim of understanding and experiencing the incredible amounts of waste being created as you read this. In conclusion we as a class were able to learn about the concealed issue of textile waste and experience it in depth with our own eyes. Fadi Moamar Year 9

Year 10 Geography IGCSE fieldtrip The pupils went on a fieldtrip on Tuesday 5th February to five areas of Athens to test the Hoyt Urban Land Use model and the Information and Familiarisation Urban Heat Island Model. The pupils took temperature and with Disabilities humidity readings at Syntagma, As part of their Global Perspectives subjects the year 8 Dafni, Kerameikos, Eleonas and pupils worked on a project to raise awareness of people Kifissia. The students now have with physical disabilities in our community. They created 7 to submit a 2,000 word report to videos focusing on different aspects of the topic. On the external exam board which Wednesday 27 February, they got the chance to attend contributes to their final geography grade. an interactive presentation by S.K.E.P. as part of their educational program “Information and Familiarisation with Disabilities” called “Learning how to see the human”. The guest speaker answered all of the pupils’ questions and congratulated them on their work so far. One pupil said “I thought that disabled people were unhappy, until I met Mr. Pitsiniaggas” and another pupil said “We are the ones that disable them, not their physical disability”.

Byron College Volume 2, Issue 3 — March 2019 9

COBIS COMPETITION ENTRIES 2019

This year’s Cobis art competition 2019 theme is “Introduce yourself”. I have responded to this by creating a self-portrait, and in the background, I drew images that represent the two countries that I come from, which are Portugal and Greece. I drew an olive tree to represent Greece because it is famous for its olives and olive oil. For Portugal, I drew the sardines which also represent Portugal, the Porto wine which is well known for its sweetness, the old Portuguese tiles which come from the Muslim religion, the colorful rooster of Barcelos, Portugal’s national football team and the tower of Belen, which was used to control who entered Portugal from the river Tejo. For Greece I also drew the Ionic column representing the ancient Greek culture which is filled of statues and columns and I also drew the classical Greek churches which are found in plenty of Greek islands, like Sifnos. Finally, I drew myself wearing the school uniform because it is also very important to represent Byron school. Frangisko Lago da Silva Sourtaggias, Year 7

KS1 COBIS ART COMPETITION ENTRIES

Leda Flora M.—YR2 John P.—YR2 Themis C. —YR2 COBIS Art Competition "Introduce Yourself": An inspiring title which lends itself to children of all ages being able to express anything and everything about themselves.

The KS1 children, who took part, were very excited to use a variety of materials to compose an A3 picture in mixed media. From collage to line drawings, every piece showed individuality and creativity. Being a competition, we wish them good luck, but, as always, it is the learning journey is that counts!

COBIS YOUNG FILM COMPETITION

Four pupils from year seven got together to make a short film for the COBIS Young Scientist Film Awards. There was a pumpkin left over from Halloween and it seemed like a great idea to make a time lapse film of it decaying. The girls also wanted to included a few other things in the film to make it more interesting such as a dish of lentils which sprouted and grew. The filming took two months and after it was completed the girls came together in their lunch breaks and used Windows Movie Maker to bring everything together into a film which explained what they had done and presented the time lapse film. Follow the link to see the long version of the film https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DVDDDJfIYEKzdYTX7mAe4Gm5m5al1EdD/view? usp=sharing Enrichment Activities Update

 FRENCH LESSONS AFTER SCHOOL Ms. Kafetzi is proud to announce that pupils in the after school French lessons sat the A1 Exam and passed with the following grades: John Roy Amurao: 84%, Baran Mohammadi: 89%, Noha El Hajj: 93%

 DRAMA Drama lessons after school have successfully started and pupils are enthusiastic with these new sessions  CROSS STICH Photos of lovely creations! Pupils working on various projects!

Byron College 10 Volume 2, Issue 2—December 2018

CHINESE NEW YEARS’ EVE CELEBRATION!

Byron's College very first Chinese New Year celebrations brought the whole community together. From delicious traditional food made by the PA, to a stunning lantern display that set the whole school in the mood of the festivities. Pupils could also participate in a workshop on paper cutting of auspicious Chinese characters. Last but not least, the EYFS and KS1 created a fierce and magnificent dragon to wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year. A special thank you to all our Chinese community for making this day come alive.

Byron College Volume 2, Issue 3 — March 2019 11

Y7-8 Basketball Tournament at Campion

Year 5 and Year 6 Boys & Girls Basketball Tournament at St. Lawrence

On February 1st our Year 7-8 Boys Team participated in a basketball tournament at Campion. It was a really great opportunity for our young basketball players to show their talents and skills, and also to have a great time.

Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament On Friday 8th February a group of Year 5 & Year 6 Boys and Girls participated in a 3x3 Mini Basketball at ACS Tournament hosted by St. Lawrence school. They had the opportunity to play several games, compete with other teams and gain valuable experience. They all won a medal for their participation. It was a full day and they really enjoyed it! Well done to everyone!

Junior Varsity Basketball Tournament at St. Lawrence

On February 11th a Basketball Tournament was held at ACS, with the participation of our varsity boys team. As expected, there were many highly competitive games during this year’s tournament. Our pupils displayed an attitude of respect toward all representatives of opposing teams and showed their amazing competitive spirit. Well done boys!

Our pupils were invited to the annual junior varsity basketball tournament held March 5, at St. Lawrence. It was an exciting event from which they gained sports experience. They successfully represented our school by demonstrating cooperation, self-control and fair play. Congratulations to them all!

We are very proud of our Year 7 pupil, Andreas Spanos who came first in the National Go cart Championship, which took place Sunday 24th February. Congratulations! We wish him good luck in future events.

Byron College 12 Volume 2, Issue 2—December 2018

SAVE the DATE 

 UPCOMING EVENTS

  SPORT ’S DAY April 12  CULTURE DAY May 11  GRADUATION & AWARDS CEREMONY June 14

Parents’ Association pita cutting; the lucky coin was won by Mrs. Kampanis!

Parents Association served Chinese food for all our pupils and organised a lantern quiz around the school playground to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Next PA Meeting

The next scheduled PA meeting is on Wednesday, 3rd April in the Library at 08:30am

Byron College Volume 2, Issue 3 — March 2019 13

Byron College 14 Volume 2, Issue 2—December 2018