Please click on the attached flyer for more details.

Festival of Sacred Music

life.dailymirror.lk/article/5000/drama

Tickets are available in the following prices:

Balcony – 500

Downstairs-650 , 750 , 900

There will be an audience voting, we need your support to win this competition.

Dear Member

The Metho OGA Members Day is planned for Saturday 11th May 2013. We have
attached a flyer with all the details.

Details on how to update your member information is also attached,

Please encourage your class mates and friends to join the OGA.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the 11th of May.

Regards

Sonali Jayasekera
Registrar
Methodist College Old Girls Association

*Please note our new email address.

Click this link to view the Metho OGA members day flyer.

Metho OGA members day flyer-FINAL

Click this link to view the membership form.

metho oga membership form

Click this link to view the registration details.

Metho OGA How to Register (1)

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I welcome you all to our annual Prize-Giving where we commend the achievements of our students in different fields, and review and reflect on the year past, in order to move forward.

I thank Rev. Duleep Fernando for presiding at this function, as the President of the Methodist church, Dr A.W. Jebanesan is out of the island.

It is indeed a pleasure for us to welcome Prof. Amal Kumarage, Senior Professor in Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa as our Chief Guest. Having graduated from the same university, he obtained his PhD from the Uni of Calgary, Canada and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport London. He has won Excellence in Research Awards from the University & the Chartered Institute of Transport, consistently; has been consultant to many projects funded by the ADB, World Bank & UNDP, including Maldives; has held the positions of Chairman, National Transport Commission & Chairman Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics.He has presented papers at many international conferences and published 2 books.He holds the patent for UNIROAD,Traffic Signal system with computer interface which is operational in Sri Lanka since 1997.

Prof. Kumarage is the Vice President of the Baptist Sangamaya in Sri Lanka: together with his wife, Premila Kumarage,they are very involved in their local church and wider society.Mrs. Kumarage, nee Weerasooriya,an Old Girl and past Prefect of the school,holds a Physical Science degree from the University of Colombo and a Post Graduate Diploma in Library Science.As former parents of the school,Prof. Kumarage served on the Board of Governors for a number of years,during both Mrs. Priyani Fernando’s and my terms of office.His input was constructive and professional and was always valued.

Despite all his impressive achievements and input,one of the key reasons for us to invite him as Chief Guest today,is because of his involvement in matters of public interest,and his willingness to speak out against short term measures and plans in his field of expertise.In a series of hard hitting and very informative articles on various aspects of the transport sector in the Sunday Times last year,a great impact was made in educating the general public about the status quo,which we would have otherwise been impressed by.I want to tell all students here, especially prize-winners, that it is no longer about you getting ahead in your life or career,but about contributing to uplift of society,which may include critiquing the status quo.We can see, sadly, that because professionalism with integrity is lacking in our land, that we are in the current morass.

I thank the former Principal,Mrs. Priyani Fernando, for her continued interest in the school and her valued support to me personally.

The Members of the Governing Board are always willing to give their time and expertise when called upon to do so and I thank them for it.

Mrs. Mano Fernando,nee Gunwardene,a former Games Captain and classmate of Mrs. Kumarage,will propose the Vote of Thanks on behalf of the OGA.

Staff:The school has 102 permanent members of staff, 13 office staff, 10 support staff, 10 part-time staff and coaches for the different sports.I thank the staff for their continued involvement in the life of the school and in the lives of the students they teach.The performance of our students at the two main pubic examinations is improving every year,which is an indication of the level of their commitment and dedication.

Mrs. Nelum Perera the Vice Principal continues to be a support to me and sees to the general administration of the school.Mrs. Mala Mendis, the headmistress,now in her 39thyear of service to the school,continues to be as refreshing and energetic as the young students in her care,in the Primary section. The Sectional Heads continue to take on more and more duties and last May, we appointed Mrs. S. Vasanthan as Sectional Head of the Tamil medium, on the early retirement of Mrs. Suganthi Maheswaran.

During the course of the year, the following left the staff: Mrs. V. Bastiampilla, Mrs. S. Maheswaran, Mrs. Yapa and Mrs. Concy Cooray retired; and Ms. L. Premathilake, Ms. M. Gamage, Ms. J. Ram and Ms. S. Ameen for migration.

The following joined the staff: Mrs. G. de Alwis, Ms. P. Vamalosjana, Mrs. O. Forbes, Ms. E. Aloysius, Mrs. R. Kulasekera, Ms. Z. Mubarak, Mr. P. Koralagama, Ms. H. Mazahim, Mrs. M. de Silva, & Ms. M. Setunge.

Of the support staff members Ms. P. G. Nandaseeli, Ms. P.Peiris and Muniamma who retired, special mention must be made of Muniamma, who served the school for 34 years and welcomed generations of students to the Primary school. Her care of the children, dedication to the school & work ethic, is irreplaceable in the present day workforce.

We congratulate Mrs. K. Sivakumar who passed her Post Graduate Diploma in Education conducted by the Open University of Sri Lanka.

The school family had two untimely deaths in the past year- last May, Shavindrini Somanayake, a Grade 11 student died tragically, and last month, a member of staff Mrs. Anoma Kulatunge passed away very suddenly after 20 years service to the school. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families.

School: The number on roll is 1825. The school committee led by Rashmi Dias, sees to the routine duties and discipline of the school.

The hostel has 28 boarders currently and 55 children in the Day Care program, not including the 43 children in Grades 1 & 2 who stay on till 1.30p.m.At the end of March last year,Mrs. Hazel Corteling,the Hostel Warden left after 5 years of dedicated and efficient service and we were lucky to get the services of Ms.Ruklanthi Chandradasa from July last year.Together with some new hostel staff, she has been able to provide the love and care needed for the hostellers.

At the G.C.E.Ordinary Level examination of 2011, 15 students obtained Distinctions in all 9 subjects and 42% of all those who sat obtained 5 A’s or more.

At the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination 2012, 20 students obtained 3 A’s and one student, Sajini Fernando was placed 2^nd in the island in the Arts Stream. 5 others students were ranked amongst the first 50 in the Colombo District in the Arts Stream.The school was ranked amongst the top 25 schools island-wide,being placed 23rdin the Commerce & Arts stream,& 16^th in the Science streams in the schools performance index of the G.C.E.Advanced Level 2011 examination results analysis.

The lists of the activities and achievements of the various associations are printed in the Prize Report so I will only highlight a few.

All grades went on an Educational Excursion last year and had an enjoyable day.The Grade 14′s had their customary overnight stay where issues relating to the wider world were discussed by guest speakers.The Grade 14 Science students had their overnight trip to Sinharaja forest.Students learning Sinhala as their 1^st language were taken to watch performances of some of the stories in their syllabus.

The Primary school conducted their Sports Meet,exhibition and concert on the theme ‘Countries of the world’.It was a lot of hard work by parents,teachers and students to study the country assigned to them and present interesting facts and trivia about them.

I thank Tamara Handy,our Old Girl special needs assistant for her weekly visits,the preparation of individual educational plans for these children and instructions and guidance to teachers.We now also have an Old Girl- Punya Jayatissa who is a graduate in speech therapy,coming in twice a week to help some children.

The 3 Little Friends packs meet weekly for their activities.8 students obtained Wings.The 1^st Colombo Guide company had their camp in Kadawatha and Shalini Jayaweera obtained her President’s Award.I thank Mrs.Shiromi Rodrigo and Ms. Miriam Fernando for coming in every Tuesday to help out with Guiding and Senior Guides.

The Senior Guides have been very active under the guidance of Mrs. Gayani Samarasekera .They hosted a trip to Colombo for the students of Thalahitiyagoda parakrama Maha Vidyalaya, Dickwella,whom they had visited before,taking them to the Zoo and bringing them to school for lunch and an after school interactive program.

The Debaters under the guidance of coach Mrs. Suzi Beling continue to do well. At the Malaysian Star Asia schools debating competition in May, Raaliya Hussain was placed ahead out of the Sri Lankan contingent of school teams that competed. She also won the Best Speaker award at the 2012 DC League competition, where the school A team was unfortunate to lose out at the Semi Finals on speaker points. At the recent Law Faculty’s Moot Court and Debating Championships, Michelle Handy and Miriam Alphonsus was jointly ranked 13th in the Best speaker points.

The Buddhist Association conducted an avurudhu program at the Children’s Ward of the Maharagama Cancer institute last year, which gained the support of all students and brought much joy to both parties.

Members of the Sri Lanka Unites Club helped to build up the library facilities of a less privileged school, Gnaneshwaran Vidyalaya, in Willorawatte, Moratuwa.

As is customary, World Children’s Day was celebrated by several students going out to conduct special programs in many underprivileged schools, Day Care Centres and Special Needs centres in and around Colombo.

I am very pleased to be awarding, for the first time, the Stella Swamidas Award for the most empowering individual project by an A’Level student, donated by a grateful former Guide, Jilska de Silva Chandrasena. The recipient Sarangani Yoganandamoorthy of Grade 13 Sc C, helped a poor school, Sri Kajamugah Tamil Vidyalayam in Muttur, to obtain pipe borne water supply, and to get the existing well, long disused and contaminated, cleaned up and usable. Previously, senior students of the school had to go to neighbouring houses to collect water for the school, disrupting their classes frequently. Merely by visiting the Zonal Director in person and pursuing their hitherto unsuccessful request, she was able to get this facility to the school in 6 months. It shows that we don’t need to be adults, or have positions of influence in our society, to reach out and help those less privileged, and I hope more students will emulate her example.

The students continue to read up and prepare all by themselves for the Colombo Model United Nations and Sri Lanka Model United Nations which is an excellent opportunity I feel for students to read up on other countries and know about international, and specifically UN models of reporting.We congratulate Miriam Alphonsus on being selected as the Best Novice Delegate at the Colombo Model United Nations conference in March 2013.

The Commerce Association has been taking part in the various Marketing and management type competitions conducted by external institutions, greatly enhancing their learning. At the Inter-School Business Cup 2012, conducted by the Marketing Management Department of the University of Kelaniya, they were 1^st Runners Up.

Sports:

The list of those getting Merit awards, Colours and being re awarded Colours is an indication of the progress in sports in the school. There is always room for improvement, particularly greater interest in sport by both parents and students. If parents see involvement in any sport as a key learning experience for their child, I know that there will be a much greater participation and commitment to sports in the school.

We were the Divisional Champions for the 3^rd year in succession. Noteworthy performances during the year were by Kamani Jayasinghe who created a new Meet record for 400m Hurdles Under 17 at the Western Province School Games and Amasha Gunewardene who won Western Province School Colours for her performance in Putt shot.

Dilekha Goonewardene, our star swimmer, has been selected to the training pool for the South Asian Federation Games.

Our Table Tennis players also did well as the list of girls obtaining Colours in the Prize List indicates. Basketball, which was the newest sport introduced in the school in September 2010, got a boost when our girls came up to Quarter final level at the annual Under 17 Tournament for 2012.

The school choir has reached great heights thanks to the hard work and commitment of our Choir Director, Sanjeev Jayaratnam . Their public concert ‘Canto Vivace’ in June last year was very well acclaimed by all those who came. In November they went to Guangzhou, China where they competed in the 1^st Xinghai Prize Choir competition and won a platinum award, the highest ever won by a Sri Lankan choir. They also performed this year at ‘Hearts in Concert’ to raise funds for a tissue bank to perform vital children’s heart surgery in Sri Lanka. At the latest World Choir rankings released last week, the school choir was ranked 18^th in the Children & Youth choirs category, and 67^th in the Open rankings.

Christian Activities.

We thank the Kollupitiya Methodist church that we can begin our day with worship and teaching in the beautiful church.

The Junior Christian Association and the Senior Christian Movement continue to nurture spiritual growth through regular teaching and meeting. The annual SCM camp in August has over 120 students attending and is a good place to take stock of one’s life and commit to a deeper walk with God.

The school counsellors Mrs. Dileeni Abraham & Mrs. Mohini Abeyratne continue to help students who come to them as a sounding board. The PTA had two seminars for Primary & Upper school parents separately with some follow up for those interested. It is our firm belief that more than children, it is us parents & teachers who need guidance in bringing our children in a world that is totally different in every way imaginable,to the way and world we were brought up in.

There are many others, whose names I have not mentioned, whose support to me and the school, in both concrete and intangible ways, is immeasurable.

I thank God for His presence in our school, for His abundant mercies and blessings over the past year and all the years before. It is incredible that the spirit of Christian humility, service and love that brought a maiden British missionary Ms. Catherine Scott to this island, to educate the girl child in 1866, still pervades the ethos of the school despite such vast changes in the world of technology & communication, and in social and cultural practices.

Current fears regarding the disruptions to both the state University education and the secondary public examination process must have an impact on all of us as parents and educators. For most of us in urban centres, with some financial assets, other options may be quicker and easier. And yet I feel our university systems are very good, and we need to ensure that sufficient students of high potential enter, both to benefit through that system and also to be exposed to a very wide cross section of the Sri Lankan polity.

Though the world we live in is more violent and unjust, when the nuclear family unit is breaking down in such numbers, I think as parents and adults, we now want to shield our children more, even from emotions like frustration and uncertainty; we want to fight their battles in the playing field, in the classroom and perhaps, even with school administration! I think that children, now more than ever, need to learn how to cope in a world where fairness cannot be assumed; and the only way to do that is to let them fight their own battles; let them develop internal coping mechanisms; let them learn to relate to an external world where people who are so different have to work together towards a common goal. These soft skills cannot be taught by any of us, neither parent, nor teacher, but can be developed only by them, if they are left to fend for themselves. There are no prizes for these skills, but I would encourage parents to make sure your daughters are developing them.

I want to challenge all of us as adults, to think about resisting the pressure that we face as parents in educating our children in the quickest possible way and method. I believe that since education is about knowledge and the maturity to handle that knowledge, that the philosophy of the ‘earlier the better’, is not relevant. I want you to think of our ancient cultural art forms- whether kandyan dance or drumming, or bharatha natyam . A wise guru would make you wait, not only till you master the technique, but till yourattitude to the art form also matures, before allowing you to have your ves ceremony or your arangetram. With all the options around us, especially in urban cities with foreign degree awarding private institutions, it takes a wise parent to value the traditional school system of 13 years of education, including leadership experiences.

Finally I must also mention the further breakdown in our society with religious intolerance now creeping in, and victimization of one particular race or religion which has already caused such turmoil in our land. Schools like ours, with a tradition of 147 years of co existing across racial, religious and economic backgrounds should speak out and stand against such focused hate campaigns. I pray that all of us, parents, teachers and students alike would think it our bounden duty to prevent such discrimination in our interactions.

How then should we live? I would like to end leaving you with these words from 1 Peter, chapter 3 Vs 10 to 12:

¹⁰ For, whoever would love life and see good days,

Must keep his tongue from evil

And his lips from deceitful speech.

¹¹ He must turn from evil and do good;

He must seek peace and pursue it.

^12a For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous

And his ears are attentive to their prayer;