Young students from the Greek School of Canberra dressed up in Christmas hats and elf ears to celebrate the end of term this week.
The special Christmas party was held to celebrate the students’ achievements over the past year and to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the Greek school teachers.
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All photos copyright: The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos. 
The event began with a small prayer from Father Petros Kipouros, the parish priest at St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Canberra, followed by the recital of the Greek and Australian national anthems.
President of the Greek Orthodox Community & Church of Canberra (GOCCC), John Loukadellis, then gave a small speech to the students and congratulated them on their achievements.
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Mr Loukadellis also gave an update on the Greek School, stressing how enrolments have grown to over 140 children this year. For the first time ever, there are students with one or no parents of Greek background enrolled.
One of these students, Nausica, who has part-Japanese heritage, told The Greek Herald at the party that she loves Greek School, especially the tests and learning the Greek language.
“I enjoy it [learning Greek]. At first I thought it was a hard language, but it’s pretty easy. The people in my class are nice too,” Nausica, 8, said with a small smile.
After this, Father Petros gave a small speech about the meaning of Christmas and then students were given a certificate of completion by their teachers, as well as a small gift by members of the Mytilenian Association of Canberra.
The day was concluded with pizza and candy for the kids, while the teachers were recognised for their hard work by Mr Loukadellis with a gift.
