Still, cultural harmony is not always possible, whether in the school or the wider community. At the height of worldwide rioting over the Danish newspaper cartoons in 2006, 10 people perished when a mob rampaged through Benghazi, burning down the Italian consulate.

The school remained open and untargeted in what, Mandolios says, is testament to its strong Greek community roots. “This is a community school, it’s not an embassy construct,” said the member of the Board of Trustees whose construction company gave a Greek temple-like facade to the school’s new premises. “It’s about harmonious coexistence.”

Aside from imparting knowledge, teachers must mix the children and encourage them to see their commonalities rather than fixating on cultural differences. In what is a deeply conservative and almost exclusively Sunni Muslim country, the school is a rare multicultural lake.

“Religious education is not offered in the school, except that religious matters will come up in the normal course of the History curriculum,” said Anthony McQuiggan, the headmaster.

What cannot be achieved in the classroom is often resolved with extra-curricular activities that reinforce in the pupils’ minds the shared Mediterranean culture of the country they inhabit. There are school trips to Libya’s splendid Roman sites of Leptis Magna and Ptolemais, and an excursion to the Greek island of Crete.

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