Oakleigh Grammar, a benchmark school for the Greek Community of Oakleigh and its surrounding suburbs, celebrated its 35th year last week. The event was held in the presence of the honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria, his excellency Bishop Iakovos of Miletoupolis, several members of the state government and opposition, members of the local community, the school principal and the entirety of the school community.

Steve Dimopoulos MP, whose constituency is in Oakleigh, represented the government of Victoria, while the Shadow Minister of Public Transport, David Davis MP, represented the Opposition.

The schools’ principal, Mark Robertson and the vice-president of the community, Chris Diamantopoulos, delivered keynote speeches, both referring to the vision of the people who worked hard in the past so that today this school can be considered one of the most significant educational institutes of the area, and also spoke of the work currently done at the school. A word of gratitude was given out to those who helped create the school, notably Father Moutafis, Konstantinos Papadopoulos, Athanasios Rovolidis, Dimitrios Zafeiropoulos, Vasileios Pateras, Andreas Provataris, and Nikitas Stavrinidis.

The celebrations concluded on Saturday night, with a dance held by the Greek Community of Oakleigh and surrounding suburbs at the Vogue function room. The dance was attended by members of the community board, the school students and their parents and also representatives of community organisations and businesses.Oakleigh Grammar was founded in 1983, thanks to the efforts of the leaders of the Greek Orthodox Community and the contribution of Father Nikolaos Moutafis.

The vision of the creators of this school was to create a foundation capable of housing the educational needs of the Greek-Orthodox community that lived in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. Initially known as the Greek-Orthodox College ‘Agioi Anargyroi’, it was renamed in 2012, when it was decided that all children, regardless of cultural and religious background, would be able to attend its classes. A belief that is pushed forward until this day, as it provides the ideal circumstances and opportunities for every student to achieve their potential.