Brief History of Pinewood School

Pinewood School was founded by the Pinewood School Association as an American elementary /middle school for Kindergarten through Grade 8 in 1950. For its first three years, the school operated on the campus of Anatolia College before moving to the American Farm School in 1953. In 1962, an upper school for Grades 9-12, named Thessaloniki International High School, was founded, and over the next two years a new building large enough for all grade levels K-12 was constructed on the Anatolia campus, where the school has continued to operate ever since. In 1973, Pinewood was granted permission by the Greek government to accept students from any and all countries in the world outside of Greece. Since the 1990-91 school year, the school has also been allowed by the Greek government to enroll Greek students in Grades Pre K, K and 10-12. In the fall of 1996, a Pre-Kindergarten program for three and four-year-olds was added. Pinewood is now a full Pre K-12 program. Today, it enrolls a student body of around 210 boys and girls from approximately 35 different countries. The teaching staff, which currently numbers 32, including 24 full-time, represents several different nationalities, with the largest numbers coming from the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece.