Successful Meeting with Alphington Grammar

Committee member Christina Despoteris, Secretary Jim Claven, Principal Dr Vivianne Nikou and President Lee Tarlamis MP

Today members of the Committee had the great pleasure to meet with and make a presentation to the Principal of Melbourne's Alphington Grammar School, Dr Vivianne Nikou.
We took the opportunity to explain the work of our Committee, the link between Lemnos and Gallipoli and the coming Centenary of Anzac in 2015. We explained our various projects and activities, on Lemnos and in Australia, including our proposed memorial commemorative sculpture. We took the opportunity to present Dr Nikou with copies of our various documents and media stories recounting the the Lemnos Gallipoli story.
One of the important proposals raised was the possibility of involving school students in raising awareness of the Lemnos link to Australia's Anzac story, including linking school students on Lemnos and in Victoria. We explained how some of the secondary schools on Lemnos have already started researching the story and are interested in linking with students in Australia.
As part of existing Anzac-related studies, students could use the opportunity to focus on retelling the Lemnos story, for example through the stories of the Anzacs buried on the Island, those who spent time on the Island preparing for Gallipoli, resting or recuperating, those nurses who served on the Island in 1915 and the Lemnians who meet these visitors from so far away. We discussed the range of resources that are readily available to students. Re-counting the story in words, in music or in art are all possibilities.
We also mentioned the additional Anzac links in Greece, in Thessaloniki in WW1 and throughout the rest of Greece in WW2.
Dr Nikou expressed interest in our Committee's proposals and we agreed to meet again to discuss them further.
You can read the School Newsletter reporting on our meeting here.
Thanks to Dr Nikou for meeting with us and to Christina Despoteris for organising this important meeting.



Alphington Grammar
Alphington Grammar is an independent, co-educational secondary school situated on 3 hectares of attractive parkland abutting Darebin Creek, just 7 kilometres from Melbourne's CBD, and has been designed from its inception to be academically strong, non-denominational and to embrace teaching excellence and cultural diversity.It was established by the Greek Orthodox Community in 1989 and was designed to reflect the cultural diversity of Melbourne and is non-denominational with students from 30 ethnic and religious backgrounds. For more information on Alphington Grammar click here.