St Charalambos Greek Community School
Luton

 

A Typical day at Greek school

One parents' experience

Hi, I should start by saying that I am not Greek; but I am married to one, a lovely man whose family come from the island of Kefalonia. We had been looking for a class to teach our two young daughters Greek language and about Greece. Luckily my husband mentioned this to a colleague of his, who recommended St Charalambos Greek School in Luton.

A typical term time Saturday now goes a bit like this:

Get up, get the girls dressed and breakfasted. Wait for my husband to be ready to go. Wait a bit more. Start getting cross because after 10 years of marriage I am still not used to running on Greek time.

Get to the school, with about 3 minutes to spare. Listen to my husband tell me there was plenty of time - why was I rushing? Go into the school and say hello to everyone. Make my first of many cups of tea- but don't finish drinking it straight away as there isn't time.

Go through with the children to the main hall for assembly. Listen to the notices and announcements (in English); try to join in with the Lord's Prayer (in Greek!). Take my girls (aged 5 and 3) to the preschool class room. Leave them happily settling down with Sam, and go back to the staff room to finish my tea.

The next important thing to be done is to catch up with the other parents, about what's going on in their lives, perhaps something to do with a forthcoming school event, or maybe just to chat about nothing in particular. When we first went to the school, I was sure that my husband would be the one taking the girls every week, and that I wouldn't enjoy going. I was concerned that all the 'Greek parents' wouldn't want to be concerned with me - I'm not Greek, I don't live in Luton, I am a working mum …. apart from having brown hair and dark skin, I couldn't really be less Greek if I tried.

From our first visit, I found out that I was very wrong. I couldn't get over how friendly everyone is, and the community spirit hit me from when I arrived. I was also wrong in my assumption about the other parents - some, like me aren't Greek, some are Cypriot, some are Greek or Cypriot by descent, but have never lived outside the UK, some are Greek or Cypriot raised, but have moved to England. There are mums and dads, single parents, working parents, stay at home parents; a real mix. Amazingly everyone mixes together and gets on well (although being able to drink a lot of tea or coffee is a skill that you would do well to acquire).

What I do next depends on what sort of a week I have had; sit and do nothing (apart from the chatting of course), knit, read or get my laptop out and do some work. Some parents pop into town to do some shopping, and I have even seen one lady have her hair done in the staff room.

At break time, I generally go into the hall with my girls for a little while, and watch the children playing. It is a great opportunity for the different age ranges to mix, and while I wouldn't claim that they are all angels, the older children to watch out for the younger ones and they play together, something which my girls don't experience at regular school or preschool.

I am hoping to join the adult classes soon and improve my very poor Greek (Yia Sas), which will mean that I won't get to do this as often. After break, the time seems to go very quickly, and very soon there is washing up and tidying up to be done (although I never seem to do much washing up) and then the girls rush into the room, telling me about a story that they have been talking about in class, or maybe a song, and proudly showing me their artwork.

After that, it is time to go home, with much waving and goodbyes.