Elizabeth Moir School has a progressive international curriculum that blends new and innovative approaches to learning with a traditional focus on basic skills such as grammar and arithmetic. We recognise the central importance of students learning key skills they will need later in life but also that school should still involve learning facts, and aim to retain the best of both conventional and modern practice. The curriculum is regularly updated to stimulate students' interest by exposure to the latest cutting-edge developments in each subject, from Artificial Intelligence in ICT to Climate Change in Geography.

• Junior School
• Senior School
• Forms 1-3
• Forms 4 & 5
• 6th Form

The Curriculum is just the starting-point of our students' education, not a limit to their ambitions. We encourage all students to pursue their interests further through independent reading and research, and provide a wealth of reference material in both Junior and Senior School Libraries, including international newspapers and periodicals.

Students' interest in current events and the world around them is aroused from their first years in the Junior School by the weekly "Junior Whizz" questions for children in KG2 and above. By the time they reach Junior 5, students have weekly Current Affairs quizzes. There is also an annual written General Knowledge quiz.

At the Senior School, a different class presents a summary of the latest news to the rest of the school in a Current Affairs Assembly each week. There are also Theme Weeks each term that focus on important topical issues, the latest developments in the subjects students study or cross-curricular topics. Themes have included Nanotechnology, Genetic Engineering, Sustainable Development, Nuclear Proliferation and The Renaissance. Students also have the opportunity to listen to internationally recognised experts in their fields speak in our Life Studies programme.

The annual Inter House Quiz is always a much anticipated event as the use of lockout buzzers creates considerable tension and excitement. There is also an annual School Quiz taken by every student in the school, allowing the Form 1 students to compete against the Upper 6th

The Senior School also has an active Coding and Robotics Club. Given the major role that technology plays in our lives and the fact that employers are increasingly looking for employees who have coding and computational skills, these clubs provide students with the appropriate stimuli and tools required to develop their skills.

Throughout History, Sri Lanka has been admired for its natural beauty and for containing so much variety within a small area - from beaches to rainforests, from the Cultural Triangle to the Hill Country. Every year we take students on educational trips around the whole island to take advantage of all these wonderful opportunities

Students learn far more by seeing a site for themselves and doing their own fieldwork than they ever can in a classroom. We aim, therefore, to take students on trips as often as we can, whether it is an overnight trip to a remote area or a simple walk down to the canal that runs next to the Senior School to study its flora and fauna.

The Early Learners annual visit to Dehiwala Zoo is a real highlight of the year for our youngest class, from the excitement of going on the school bus for the first time to seeing their favourite animals. Trips continue throughout the Junior School: Pre KG visit the Aquarium and the supermarket, KG2 visit temples, a church and a mosque as part of their education into different faiths, and Junior 2 take an excursion to Thalangama Lake to learn more about birds. There are also trips to streams and a plastic factory.

At the Senior School, History students go on annual trips to Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura and other nearby sites, as part of their study of Sri Lankan History each Summer Term. As well as conducting their own independent fieldwork, Geography students go on regular visits to rivers, coasts, factories and national parks, investigating issues as diverse as the environmental effects of tourism, corporate social responsibility and the impact of the tsunami. A Level Biology students go to the Genetech laboratory in Colombo, a pioneer in genetic engineering, to witness DNA replication and genetic testing.

Senior School students also make an annual trip to Jaffna. This trip serves to build friendships and establish ties between Elizabeth Moir School, St John’s College (SJC) and Chundikuli Girls College (CGC) in Jaffna. The students spend a great deal of time in fellowship with their peers, as well as visiting key historic sites including the fort, the library, Point Pedro, Nallur Kovil, the Thondamanaura Mohan Ashram, the temples on Nainativu/Nagadeepa and more. In turn, students from St John’s College Jaffna journey to Colombo for a reciprocal field trip which includes a tour of Colombo and Galle.

Students also have the opportunity to go overseas. There is a regular trip to Paris for French students to practise their language skills and visit the sites they have learned about in class, such as Versailles and La Tour Eiffel. Science students also attend the Science Camp organised by the National University of Singapore every other year. They gain valuable insight into university life as well as working in some of the best laboratories in Asia and listening to lectures by world-renowned experts.

There are also Class Trips at the end of the year to reward the students for their hard work and strengthen class unity and team spirit. Although the beach remains a popular destination, classes increasingly opt for more adventurous Outward Bound activities from canoeing and climbing to paintball, while Leisure World is a popular destination for the Junior School

The progress of each student at Elizabeth Moir School is monitored very carefully. Small class sizes help teachers identify if the effort of individual students is diminishing and this is often enough to prevent students working below their potential. There is tremendous co-operation between all teachers in both schools, with regular meetings scheduled to discuss the progress of all the students in a class. If there are concerns about certain individuals, strategies are implemented to address a potential problem.

Children are motivated to work hard by frequent rewards for good work. Students receive grades for both effort and attainment on a regular basis from Junior 1 upwards and certificates are awarded to students on a weekly basis to commend them for good work, effort or improvement, as well as for good behaviour.

Elizabeth Moir School is committed to involving parents in their child's education and giving them regular updates on their child's progress in school. In addition to Reports and Open Days, Class Teachers will be in regular communication with parents throughout the year and parents can meet teachers at any time by appointment.

Reports

Parents receive detailed reports at the end of each term with individually written personal comments from all the relevant Subject Teachers, their Class Teacher and the Head of School.

Open Days

Open Days are held in both schools each term on Saturday mornings to enable parents to meet their child's Class Teacher and Subject Teachers and discuss their progress.

Parents' Evenings

At the start of each academic year, all Junior School parents are invited to listen to class and subject teachers explain what they will be teaching that year. This is an excellent opportunity for parents to find out what their children will be studying, ask questions and familiarise themselves with Junior School staff.

Towards the end of the academic year, Junior 5 parents and students are invited to a Transition Evening at the Senior School. Here, members of Junior 5 are introduced to their teachers for the following year and are given the opportunity to learn a little bit more about life at the Senior School.

At the Senior School, there are annual meetings for students and parents from Form 3 about the students' IGCSE Choices and from Form 5 about their A Level Choices, where they are given more information about the courses and what factors to consider when choosing their subjects. There is also a University Choices Evening for Lower 6th students and parents to advise them on the important decisions they will have to make.

Elizabeth Moir School is committed to giving all students the support they need to cope with academic classes and to individually tailoring the curriculum for each student, so that everyone can move at their own pace.

EFL

With so many countries represented in our school, it is not expected that English will be every student's first language. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes are provided at both schools for students whose English is not proficient when they enter school. Students normally become fluent in English extremely fast and are soon able to join mainstream classes.

Curriculum Support

There are Curriculum Support classes in both schools for students who are struggling in a particular subject or have missed work having joined the school midway through a school year, and for EFL students.

At the Junior School, students in this programme study English and/or Mathematics in the Curriculum Support unit and all other subjects with their classes, where they receive modified work. The unit is run by two teachers and the head of this unit has many years' experience at our school. At the Senior School, classes are arranged in students' free periods with a team of specialist subject teachers on hand to help students in any area they are struggling with.

University entrance becomes more competitive and more complicated each year, with more choices available to students but more variability in the quality of the courses offered. Mrs. Moir has thirty years' experience sending pupils to the best universities worldwide so students can rely on her advice to help them select the right course and university. The school's recommendations are valued so much by top universities that several have asked us to nominate students for scholarships on an annual basis.

There is a full-time Universities Co-ordinator who is always available to ensure that students receive the latest information and are guided through every step of the application process. A good application is as important as good grades in gaining admission to top universities and expert advice makes all the difference. Past students have attended universities in the USA, Britain, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, India and Korea so the school knows how the admissions procedure works in each country and what the top universities are. We also ensure that students required to attend an interview are exceptionally well-prepared, staging mock-interviews and providing detailed feedback.

We appreciate that university fees are hugely expensive for all parents and leave no stone unturned helping students find the financial aid they need to go to the university of their dreams. Students continue to benefit from this support even after they leave the school, some even returning for advice on their postgraduate applications.

Our students go to the traditional bastions of academic excellence - such as Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial in the UK, and Harvard and other Ivy League colleges in the USA - but increasing numbers are also choosing to go to the emerging intellectual powerhouses of the future, such as Hong Kong University and the National University of Singapore. Even though Harvard only normally admits one Sri Lankan student per year, five of our students have won full scholarships there in the past eight years.