In remembrance: Simon Lawrence (1967-2017)

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the recent sudden death of Simon Lawrence, who worked at St Andrews for twelve years until he left at the end of last term. While we said goodbye to him as a community at the end of last year, at Graduation and in the End of Year Assembly, we never imagined that we would not be seeing him again.

During his many years at St Andrews, Simon made a huge impact on hundreds of students and teachers, both through his work as Head of High School, IB Coordinator and as an English teacher and, above all, his much beloved personality.

Simon literally wrote the school’s Mission Statement, ten years ago as part of the school’s initial IB Diploma Programme Accreditation, and he has played a major role over the years in making St Andrews the inclusive, happy and supportive school that it is.

We are in contact with both Simon’s partner and his family in the UK, and have both expressed our love for Simon and sent them our sincerest sympathies. We will continue to work with them in future weeks to discuss both the ways in which we can support them and how we can best celebrate Simon’s life and commemorate his impact on our school community.

Simon’s many contributions over the years have been vital in building our "warm and loving school community", both of those students, parents and teachers still at the school and of ex-teachers, ex-students and their parents, and it is this that will help us all to live through this together:

"That is how we deal with grief best; by talking and laughing about the person we've lost, by celebrating their life and how much they meant to us and keeping their spirit alive in our collective consciousness. In doing this it not only helps us to put our troubles in perspective but it reminds us how fortunate we are and how important it is to belong to a warm and loving school community."*

​*Tom Sherrington (2012) Dealing with grief: how schools can offer sanctuary, normality and support. Available online here.