11 Elizabeth Moir School Students win Places at World Top 10 Universities  including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale & Stanford

Elizabeth Moir School students have won scholarships and financial aid worth a total of nearly $1 million per year to enable them to attend some of the most prestigious universities in the world, despite the current economic situation.  These places mean the school will have students at 6 of the 8 Ivy League colleges in the US in 2022, as well as having 3 students starting courses at Oxford or Cambridge in the UK, and 2 at Stanford in California.

 Only five US universities are need-blind and offer full financial aid to international students, and they offered a total of six places to Moir students – at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Amherst.  This aid covers accommodation, food and living costs as well as tuition.  Nine other students received full or nearly full financial aid at other universities, including two at Stanford.

Moir Captain of School, Malaika Sequeira, will become the school’s 8th student at Harvard in just 13 years, the last four of whom were also Captain of School.  She was also offered a place at Princeton.  Harvard is currently ranked 1st in the world in the ARWU rankings.  This year, it admitted only 4% of applicants, a rate that is likely to be much lower for international students.

Amadie Gajanaike was also offered places at two Ivy League colleges, Yale and Princeton, as well as Duke and Georgia Tech.  She chose to study Engineering, Architecture and Visual Arts at Yale, where she was offered aid of $70,000 per year, and will be the school’s second student in consecutive years.  Amadie’s application stood out due to her incredible academic record: she achieved eleven 9s in her IGCSEs as well as the World Prize for the highest mark in IGCSE Art.

Leeth Singhage and Hansi Gunawardena were both offered places at Stanford, ranked 2nd in the world by ARWU, with Hansi also receiving offers from Ivy League Columbia and USC.  They received financial aid worth over $70,000 and $60,000 per year respectively.  Located in Silicon Valley, Apple, Google and Facebook all recruit more employees from Stanford than any other college.  Leeth and Hansi reflect the diverse strengths of the school’s students:  Hansi studied Further Maths and plans to become an engineer; Leeth studied Arts subjects and hopes to have a career in film, having already appeared in British TV comedy The Good Karma Hospital.

Lily Shen, Navik Bandara and Serika Siriwardhana were all offered places at Oxford or Cambridge.  This is an incredible achievement given that there are currently only 8 Sri Lankan undergraduates at Oxford or Cambridge in total, across 3 or 4 years (including others from Moir).  Lily was accepted to study Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics at Queen’s College, Oxford; Navik will read Mechanical Engineering at University College, Oxford; and Serika is going to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge to read Human, Social and Political Sciences.  Other students were offered places at Imperial and University College London, both also ranked in the world’s top ten.

Venumi Gamage and Dineth Wijayawardana were offered places with very generous financial aid at Amherst College, ranked the top liberal arts college in the USA by Washington Monthly.  Their very high SAT scores (1580 and 1590, respectively, out of a maximum 1600) placed them in the top 0.1% of over 2 million students who took the test.  This is the second year in a row that Moir students will be going to Amherst.  

Arshana Welivita is the school’s second student in two years to be offered a place to read Biology at Johns Hopkins, ranked 9th in the world by US News & World Report, turning down the possibility of a place at Oxford in order to go there.  Johns Hopkins’ global reputation as a pioneer in medical research has been increased by the pandemic, when the whole world has relied on the statistics provided by its Coronavirus Resource Centre.  

Nora Deemer will be going to Barnard College, in Manhattan, one of the four constituent colleges of Ivy League Columbia University, ranked 6th in the world by U.S. News.  Swaarthi Ramanan will also be going to New York, having been offered a place at NYU.  Three students were offered full financial aid worth $80,000 p.a. each at NYU, Abu Dhabi.  An amazing 21 Moir students have received full scholarships from NYUAD in the past 11 years; the first of these recently completed a PhD in Stem Cell Biology at Columbia.

Jiwoo Won was awarded a prestigious Marquis Fellowship at Lafayette: a merit-based full-tuition scholarship awarded to about 25 of the 10,416 students who applied this year.  Other students received generous aid from Denison and Mount Holyoke, other historic liberal arts colleges.

As well as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL, students have received offers from all the other leading UK universities including Edinburgh, Durham, Warwick, Bristol, St. Andrew’s, Southampton, Nottingham, Manchester, King’s College, London and LSE.

Canada remains a popular destination for Moir students too, with four students offered places at either the University of Toronto or the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Closer to home, Lakindu Jayawardana was offered a free-tuition scholarship at Hong Kong University, ranked 22nd in the world in the QS rankings, while other students are waiting on the National University of Singapore.

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Elizabeth Moir School Students Receive Record Financial Aid at US Universities

Later this year, students of Elizabeth Moir School will begin their education at six universities ranked in the top ten in the world including Oxford, Yale, Columbia, Imperial, UCL and Johns Hopkins – as well as two of the top four Liberal Arts colleges in the US, Amherst and Wellesley.  This includes Rachel Hayward and Kaavya Gnanam who will be starting at Oxford and Columbia, respectively, in September after taking Gap Years.

Because fewer people started university in 2020, applications to the most selective US universities increased by upwards of 30% this year, meaning acceptance rates dropped significantly, particularly for international students seeking aid. Top ranked US colleges traditionally take one from Sri Lanka a year, if that, so the odds are stacked against students at the best of times. Thus, the achievements of these Moir students, plus others in Sri Lanka who received places, is all the more impressive.

Rivi Wijesekera has been offered a place at Yale, one of the best-known universities in the world, with financial aid worth $70,000 per year.  He was also offered highly prestigious merit scholarships (as opposed to needs-based financial aid) by Emory and by Washington and Lee University.

Seth Jayawardane was offered places by both Johns Hopkins and Ivy League Brown.  Given his interest in biotechnology and medical research, he chose Hopkins, which is a world leader in these areas with its famous hospital and public health school.

Atheek Azmi was offered places at Imperial College London and Amherst College but chose Amherst, one of the hardest to get into as one of only five universities in the US to be need-blind for international students, along with MIT, Harvard, Princeton and Yale.  This led to him receiving aid worth $320,000.

Zara Kulatunga was offered places at Tufts, Wellesley and Mount Holyoke and has chosen to go to Wellesley, which offers dual degrees with MIT and is one of the historic Seven Sisters Colleges.

‘This is just a snapshot from one small school in Sri Lanka,’ said Head of School, Elizabeth Moir said. ‘Outside our school, I hear a Sri Lankan student has got a place at Princeton and another at Stanford this year and I am sure there are many other good news stories like this that can do everyone in this country proud. I urge students, wherever they study, to conduct their own research and also seek guidance from teachers and former students who have studied at these top universities. Although this is a competitive field, ultimately what is important is that hard-working, talented students from this country get the opportunities they deserve, making us all proud in the process.’

In addition, Moir’s two Head Prefects, Yumna Hussain and Areeb Atheeque, received aid worth over $500,000 in total from Lafayette College, one of the ‘Little Ivies’, along with Amherst and other leading Liberal Arts colleges.  Mrs Moir said, I am told that what encouraged Lafayette to break with the norm and give two students from the same international school such high aid was the detailed references from our teachers. So as hard as students have to work on their essays, it is important that teachers put similar effort into their references.’

Other students to receive financial aid to enable them to attend university overseas were Ruqayyah Irshadeen and Janindu Nanayakkara, who will both be going to NYUAD in September, with aid worth over $75,000 per year each.

On top of this, Moir students have won scholarships in other countries as well as securing offers at top UK universities, such as Imperial, UCL, LSE and almost all the Russell Group universities including Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, King’s College London, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Southampton and Warwick.

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Stronger Together : Elizabeth Moir Senior School Art Exhibition

‘Stronger Together’, an Art Exhibition by the students of Elizabeth Moir Senior School took place recently at the Lionel Wendt Art Centre in Colombo 7.

Talking about the inspiration behind this year’s theme, Art Teacher Aruni Wijegunawardene had this to say “It conveys a collective sentiment… we need to stand together as one to prevent the further spread of this pandemic. The kids have poured their hearts and souls into these pieces; on display will be very raw and honest representations of work which expresses their frustrations, annoyance, anger at being locked down, and concern over what seems to be an uncertain future.”

Chief Guests at the Exhibition, Dr. Linda Speldewinde, Founder and Chairperson, Design Corp, and Shilanthi Abayagunawardana, Lecturer in Design Research in Textile, Academy of Design, Colombo, also judged the school’s Inter-house art competition that took place alongside the Exhibition.  Both judges expressed their admiration for the student’s originality, in-depth analysis and creativity when interpreting the burning issues of our times. When it came to choosing the winners, Shilanthi said “This is about skill as well as your message…so trying to weigh between the two was tough…there were really interesting messages…you are the future, and we learned a lot from seeing your work”.

The theme of the Inter House art competition was “This is My Voice”. Much like the overall theme, this topic too gave students the opportunity to express themselves passionately about their desire to be seen, heard, and to make a contribution to bringing about positive change in the world.

Rayyan Hameed won Best Individual Artist in the Senior category, with Malak Naseem and Jiawen Shen taking 2nd and 3rd place.  In the Intermediate category Taha Anverally emerged the winner with Sanula Edirisinghe and Avlok Wignaraja in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Columbus won Best Overall House, followed by Fleming and Hillary.

The exhibition also featured work by the school’s current Lower 6th class, all of whom gained brilliant results, scoring A**, A* and A grades in their IGCSE Art exams.

Art Teacher Hannah Perera, who worked with the younger students, spoke of the complexities associated with arranging an event of this nature within the concerns and confines of ‘the new normal’, and praised the students for their hard work, energy and adaptability, commending their creativity and enthusiasm in the face of any and all challenges.

 

The exhibition is the first major event in the school’s academic year, and, as always, was a vibrant display of talent, skill and versatility. The work exhibited included the use of a wide range of media from paintings, portraits and wire sculptures, to photography and digital artwork. Of special note was a highly topical and relevant display that featured students wearing masks, all of which had been painted using non toxic fabric paint.

Picture credit : Aruni  Wijegunawardene and Sehanya  Wickramanayake

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8 Students Win Places at World Top 10 Universities

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In a record year for admissions to top universities, our students received offers from eight of the universities ranked in the top ten in the world in the various university rankings, and seventeen that are ranked in the top thirty. This includes the top ranked university in the United States, Great Britain and Australia, and the universities ranked second in Asia and Canada. It is especially impressive that seven of the top ten US universities have offered places to our students, as they normally offer places to only one student each year, at most, from Sri Lanka.

Jananan Mithrakumar received offers to study Electrical Engineering from both Stanford and Princeton, which are ranked 2nd and 6th in the world respectively. He chose to go to Stanford, which has been dubbed ‘the Harvard of the 21st century’ and is particularly prized for its location in Silicon Valley. Stanford graduates founded Google, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard while Apple, Google and Facebook all recruit more employees from Stanford than any other college.

Steffan Paul, last year’s Captain of School, was offered a place at Harvard, the world’s top rated university, to study Biology. Steffan became our fifth student in just eight years to go there, which is an incredible achievement, and perhaps unprecedented for a Sri Lankan school. He will soon be joined by his successor as Captain of School, Urshella Hisham, who has already been offered a place for next year to study Chemistry and Astrophysics, and will become our 6th students there in nine years.

Former Head Prefect Sanush Nukshan is studying Engineering at another Ivy League college, Cornell, which is ranked 13th in the world. Like Jananan and Steffan, he has benefitted from substantial financial aid – in Sanush’s case, a 95% scholarship (including tuition, accommodation, food and other expenses) worth over $65,000 per year.

As ever, students who have taken a Gap Year to give themselves time to prepare their applications have fared especially well. Hana Rajap received offers from both the University of Chicago and the new Yale-NUS College in Singapore. She accepted Chicago, which is ranked 9th in the world, where she has joined another recent graduate Lukshmee Saravanapavan. Madusha Perera has begun his long journey to become a doctor at the University of California, Berkeley, which is ranked 3rd in the world, where he is our second recent student. Vinu Samarasekera became the first ever Sri Lankan to be awarded the International Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. As well as enabling her to attend a university ranked 30th in the world, this full scholarship means she is living in a city that is regularly judged the best place to live in the world.

Ifadha Sifar won a scholarship to New York University in Abu Dhabi, one of the most competitive universities in the world to gain admission to. She is our 7th student there since it opened in 2010, all on full scholarships, which may be more than any school in the world. Last year, NYUAD moved into its new campus on Saadiyat Island, where new branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim Museum will also be located. Meanwhile, Safia Kariapper was offered a scholarship at its new sister campus, NYU Shanghai, that opened in 2013, and Nathasha Bogoda at Hong Kong University, which is ranked 28th in the world. Six students have recently started courses in Australia too, including Amr Shamun at the University of Sydney.

Congratulations as well to Afdhal Saheed, Sachin Shashidharan and Senitha Wanigasinghe who were all now at Imperial College London, which is currently rated the 2nd best university in the world by the QS World University Rankings. Afdhal and Sachin are both reading Mechanical Engineering while Senitha is studying Medicinal Chemistry.

They were among ten members of last year’s class to be offered places at top British universities. This included Aadam Saheed, who is studying Engineering at UCL, which is ranked 5th in the world, and Sashini Jinasena, who is reading Politics and Economics at Manchester University, which is also ranked in the top 30 universities in the world. One of their classmates who took a Gap Year, Ryan De Silva, has also already been offered a place to study Natural Sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge next year.

Another notable development this year is past students who have transferred to medical courses in the UK after impressing on their initial university courses. Enya Stubbs is now studying Medicine at Newcastle University and Dilroshini Karunaratne is in her second year at the University of Buckingham Medical School. It is especially encouraging to see our https://shlclubhouse.org/nexium-online/ students not only gaining places at top universities but performing so well on their courses.

Elizabeth Moir Senior School presents West Side Story, School Edition


West Side Story, School Edition was presented by Elizabeth Moir Senior School on the 8th and 9th of November 2019 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. The show starred a cast of more than 50 students, ages 11 to 17. Serika Siriwardhana and Leeth Singhage were both excellent as Maria and Tony respectively. Kaavya Gnanam made a passionate Anita, while Aiden Thorstensen as ‘Sharks’ leader Bernardo, and Anuk Gunasekara as Riff, the leader of the ‘Jets’, were both well cast.

Other standout performances included Tae Hyun Won as Action and Avlok Wignaraja as Baby John. The main characters were supported by an fabulous ensemble. A young cast who were 100% committed to their performance and gave their audience an exceptionally entertaining evening!

Directed by Anushka Senanayake, with musical direction by Sureka Amerasinghe, and choreography by Melissa Fisher, West Side Story, School Edition is based on a conception of Jerome Robbins and was presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).

(Pic credit :Tai Hsin Shiek)

Sri Lanka win Bronze Medal and Judges’ Award in Robotics Olympiad


For the third consecutive year, our school was invited to organise a team to represent Sri Lanka in the FIRST Global Challenge. Four of our students (Hamza Anver, Ramidu Jayasekera, Seth Jayawardane and Pasindu Wickramasinghe) were joined by Danushka Matteo from Richmond College, Galle in the team. 189 countries took part in this year’s Olympiad in Dubai in October. Team Sri Lanka reached the semi-finals as well as winning the Judges’ Award for Technical Excellence for the best designed robot for the second year running.

TThe FIRST Global Challenge is the largest Robotics competition in the world for school students and a huge international event. The spectacular opening ceremony was attended by Sheikh Hamdan, the Crown Price of Dubai, and included a performance by well-known tech enthusiast.

Team Sri Lanka won 7 out of their 9 qualifying games to qualify in 20th place for the finals. In each game, three countries are partnered together to compete against an opposing alliance of three countries. This means that results depend on who a country is allied with. In every game, Team Sri Lanka scored over 80% of the points scored by their alliance, a remarkable achievement showing how effective their robot was. In the play-offs, Sri Lanka was allied with Guam, Kazakhstan and Great Britain. They won their two play-off matches to qualify for the semi-finals with the highest cumulative score of any alliance. In the semi-finals, they won one game but lost to the two eventual finalists after their allies’ robots encountered technical difficulties. They finished the proud winners of Bronze medals.

Each FIRST Global challenge addresses critical environmental issues such as access to clean water or providing renewable energy. This year’s theme ‘Ocean Opportunities’ required teams to design robots to collect pollutants (differently sized balls) from the ocean (the game area) and deliver them to a tiered processing area, with more points awarded for depositing balls in the top tier. Each country was given the same kit to build their robot from, so success depended on teams’ engineering, coding and problem-solving skills, not their financial resources.

While most countries developed quite similar robots that could push or drop balls into the processing area, Sri Lanka built a trebuchet that enabled them to shoot the large balls. Only one other country, Israel, had a trebuchet and Sri Lanka’s was far more powerful and could catapult balls from much further away. Although much harder to build, it made Sri Lanka’s robot one of the most successful in the event, as they were able to deposit lots of balls in the top tier easily and with consistent accuracy. They were also one of the few teams to design a mechanism to collect the small balls instead of having to load them manually. The judges were amazed by the amount of power Sri Lanka’s robot was able to generate to shoot the balls. They were so impressed by the robot’s innovative and advanced design that Sri Lanka was awarded one of the three main prizes for Technical Excellence for the second consecutive year.

Moir on Top of the World Again

50% of all the papers taken by Elizabeth Moir School’s students have been awarded the new 9 grade at IGCSE.  The old A* grade has been divided into two grades – 8 and 9 – with the 9 designed to identify the very brightest students.  Moir’s students have risen to this challenge, achieving what the school expects to be the joint best results of any international school in the world, alongside Harrow, Hong Kong.  They also rival the most prestigious and academically selective private schools in the UK.

Overall, an amazing 73% of grades were 8s or 9s, equivalent to the old A*.  30 out of Elizabeth Moir School’s 49 IGCSE candidates achieved 8 and 9 grades in seven or more subjects, which would have earned them High Achievers Awards from Edexcel in the previous system.  Of these an astounding eleven students gained seven or more 9s, including four with nine 9s and Sahaara Wijithananda, who achieved a 9 in all her ten subjects.

At A Level, over 50% of all papers were graded A* or A for the second year in a row, with an exceptional 23% of these being A* grades, ranking the school among the very top UK schools.  Four students achieved A* grades in all their four subjects, including Kiran Muthukrishnan who averaged a staggering 97% across his four subjects, with two more gaining three A* grades.

Outgoing Captain of School Felix Deemer is one of three Moir students going to Ivy League colleges this year.  His four A*s grades helped him become the school’s 7th student in just over a decade to win a place at Harvard.  Several students are also going to British universities ranked in the top ten in the world, including Neema Jayasinghe, whose A* grades in History and Economics earned her a place at Cambridge University.

Anokhi Molligoda scored an incredible 100% in IGCSE English, which will obviously earn her the World Prize for the highest mark.  Several other students look set to win these awards, including Tao Yazaki with 98% in IGCSE History and Taha Adamaly, Nazia Rajkotwala and Thenura Ariyananda who scored 99% in A Level Physics, Economics and Maths respectively.

Captioned Photos
  • Felix Deemer, 4 A*s, Harvard University, 1st in World Rankings
  • Ridmika Wickramarachchi, 4A*s, UCL, 8th in World Rankings
  • Kiran Muthukrishnan, 4 A*s, 97% average
  • Sahaara Wijithananda, Ten 9s
  • Anokhi Molligoda, Nine 9s, 100% in English Language
  • Moir’s 5 students with Nine or Ten 9s

Encouraging the Creative Arts: Elizabeth Moir School introduces A Level Art

Elizabeth Moir School will be introducing an A Level Art class for the first time in September 2019 to build on its outstanding reputation for excellence across the Creative and Performing Arts.

Moir students have won the prize for the Highest Mark in Sri Lanka in International GCSE Art and Design for the past four years. This includes Young Eun Shin, who scored 100% in 2015, and Ameli Vidanearachchi, who achieved 99% in 2017. In 2016, every single student achieved an A* grade.

The knowledge and inspiration behind this success comes from the school’s Art teacher, well-known artist Aruni Wijegunawardene. It is her ability to inspire a passion for Art in students and release their creativity that has been crucial in their success. She encourages them to mine their own upbringing and experiencesso their Art reflects their personality and values. This ensures that each student’s work is fresh, original, personal, exciting and different.

Aruni emphasises the importance of students learning basic skills such as proportion, perspective and composition. Another key part of her Art course at Elizabeth Moir School is learning Art History, so students can take inspiration from great artists’ technique and subject matter. She ensures these sessions are fun and interesting by including Modern Art and Sri Lankan artists, as well as Old Masters, and even what she calls ‘new new’ artists seen on social media. She says, ‘You know your students have absorbed the information when they challenge you with testing questions…The greatest pleasure as an Art teacher is when your students perfect new skills and become more confident. Our IGCSE artists produce Art that they could not have possibly imagined they were capable of at the start of the course. Many tell me that their results don’t matter to them, good or bad, because they are already proud of what they have achieved.’

Although some people still consider Art a ‘soft’ subject, the school’s students recognise that it is among the most demanding and time-consuming subjects. One student who plans to take A Level Art, Zara Kulatunga says ‘IGCSE Art taught me skills beyond what I learned in the classroom such as self-belief and time management’. Ameli Vidanearachchi, a current Prefect says: ‘Ms. Aruni inspired, encouraged and challenged me to become a better artist. I learned to look at the world differently and observe it in greater detail. Studying Art also increased my appreciation of creativity in other areas, such as Literature.’

Head of School, Mrs. Elizabeth Moir MBE, is hugely proud of the achievements of the school’s artists and thrilled about the new A Level course, ‘Creativity and imagination will be among the most highly prized skills in the 21st century. As more jobs are done by robots and artificial intelligence, creative skills will set people apart as they cannot be developed by machines. Artistic flair and vision are also essential in growth industries from media and advertising to fashion and tourism. We are delighted to be expanding the opportunities available to our students and ensuring they are equipped with the expertise needed to succeed in the modern workplace and reach the top of their chosen careers ’

For more information about Elizabeth Moir School visit www.elizabethmoirschool.com

Moir Represents Sri Lanka in International Robotics Olympiad

First Global Team 2017

Elizabeth Moir School was selected to send a team to represent Sri Lanka in the inaugural International Robotics Olympiad organised by FIRST Global in Washington, D.C. in July 2017, joining teams from 162 other countries.

The competition received global media coverage, after the all-girl team from Afghanistan was initially refused visas. Other teams to garner media interest were Iran, who were unable to bring their own robot due to sanctions on technological exports; Team Hope, consisting of three Syrian refugees; and South Sudan, who won a gold medal for Courageous Achievement. Highlights of the event were a visit from Ivanka Trump before the Opening Ceremony and an inspiring speech at the Closing Ceremony by the President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. Our students also met Prasad Kariyawasam, the ambassador for Sri Lanka to the USA, and were invited to dinner by Professor Gamini Keerawella, the Deputy Chief of Mission.

FIRST (‘For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology’) was established in 1989 to inspire young people in America to take an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and inspire them to become leaders and innovators. It organises four Robotics competitions for teams of high school students every year at different age levels, from 6 years upwards, based on the two values of ‘Gracious Professionalism’ and ‘Coopertition’. Its main competition celebrated its 25th anniversary last year with over 3,000 teams and 75,000 students taking part.

FIRST Global was established to organise a similar annual international robotics competition to take place in a different nation’s capital each year. Each FIRST Global Challenge addresses one of the 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering for the 21st century identified by the US National Academy of Engineering, such as making solar energy economical or reverse-engineering the brain. This year’s Challenge Theme was to provide Access to Clean Water by filtering contaminated ‘water’ and storing purified ‘water’. Teams’ robots had to separate pollutants (orange balls) from clean water (blue balls). A key part of the game is teamwork as each team was required to work with two other national teams in an alliance against an alliance of three other nations. Each team was also asked to prepare a video to introduce their team and country, and Team Sri Lanka’s video was included in FIRST Global’s newsletter as an example.

The four members of the team – Ali Anwer, Ishini Gammanpila, Akash Gnanam and Vinidu Jayasekera – were Lower 6th members of our Robotics and Coding Club. All are planning to apply to the US in STEM subjects, with both Akash and Vinidu intending to study Computer Science. The students were assisted by the Robotics and Coding Club teachers, Mr. Shivashankaran Satchithananthan and Mr. Dilum Rathnasinghe, with the latter accompanying the team to Washington.

Team Sri Lanka was sponsored by Virtusa Corporation. Krishan Canekeratne, its Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and the first Head Boy of CIS under Mrs. Moir, had this to say: “We are honored and delighted to sponsor Team Sri Lanka in the international Robotics Olympiad. The enthusiasm, intellectual curiosity and highly-refined problem-solving skills these students bring to the world of robotics is truly inspirational. These future technology leaders and STEM enthusiasts will be demonstrating that together, we can find solutions to the problems that affect each and every one of us on the planet.”

#Modern Masters

This year’s Senior School Art Exhibition was inspired by students reimagining the work of both Old Masters and modern artists.  Students studied the style and technique of these artists in their Art classes before adapting and reinterpreting them in their own pictures, using different media and colour palettes.

The exhibition was opened at Park Street Mews on Saturday 1st October by the Chief Guests, mountaineers Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala and Johann Peiris, who also had the tough job of judging the parallel Inter House Art competition.  Overwhelmed by the quality, originality and variety of work on display, they said choosing the winners was ‘harder than climbing Everest’.  Onalie Yainne won the award for best individual work in the Middle School and Mohamed Ismail for the Senior School.

Also on display was Young Eun Shin’s IGCSE Art examination from last year that earned her an incredible 100% and the World Prize, a feat matched by Shiarah Didi in this year’s exam.

Good Values Initiative

Elizabeth Moir School has had a long association with the Foundation of Goodness.  Form 3 students have visited its centre in Seenigama for several years, combining Community Service with their study of the 2004 tsunami and the impact of aid in Geography.  In 2015, the Prefects organised a fashion show, Fusion Fashion, to raise money for a series of workshops on design at the foundation.

This year, the Foundation of Goodness has chosen our Lower 6th class to pilot a new ‘Good Values Initiative’, based on the principle ‘what we have, you must have too’.  It hopes to extend this programme to other schools in the future.  Kushil Gunasekera, the founder of the Foundation of Goodness, has led a series of workshops in school with the aim of encouraging students to care for others and help the under-privileged.  The students have been asked to maintain a diary of their actions that have been inspired by the programme.

The class also raised Rs. 217,000 to support the foundation’s Essential School Supply Packs programme, which has helped over 20,000 children since 1999, some of whom would have been unable to go to school otherwise.  The money the students raised financed packs for 66 children, each including a school bag, stationery, a lunch box, a shoe voucher, uniform material and books.  The students visited Seenigama at the end of November to hand over the money, as well as toys, clothes and sports equipment they had collected for another project, to be distributed to children all over the island.  They also entertained the children at the centre, which led to Kharesma Ravichandran discovering that her fanbase already extended down South when she sang her hit song Kadhal Cricket.

Junior School comes 2nd in Indoor Athletics Tournament

Congratulations to all our athletes who helped us finish in 2nd place in the Indoor Athletics Championship organised by the British School in Colombo in October.  Niara Wijeyasinghe was Best Female Athlete, having won a gold medal in the 10m Speed Hop and medals in four other events.  Esme Mylvaganam and Sung Eun Kim won gold medals, in the Standing Triple Jump and Speed Bounce respectively, while Avlok Wignaraja, Ruben Habeeb and Seong Chan Kim also won medals.  Our team was most notable for its team spirit and the enthusiastic support for every competitor from both their teammates and lots of parents.  With many of our athletes only being in Junior 3, the future looks bright for Junior School sport and we can look forward to even better results next year.

UN Day

It has never been more important to learn about different cultures and build bridges between different countries than it is today.  This year, there are children at the Junior School from 21 countries on 5 continents, enabling our students to learn more about the world every time they come to school and talk to their friends.  This wonderful diversity was celebrated in one of the school’s best ever UN Days.

As ever, students and parents were treated to a wonderful array of national costumes and dress in the parade of nations, and, later, to delicious food from all over the world.  Despite being the only student representing Ukraine, Matvey Spencer’s superb Cossack dance was an audience favourite.  This year’s stand-out performance, though, was a brilliant routine by the Sri Lankan students, led by Avlok Wignaraja as the Sri Lankan lion.  Another highlight was a special surprise performance from some of the parents, representing famous people from their countries from Gandhi to Henry VIII, culminating in the entry of our own Sri Lankan hero, Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Record Number of Edexcel Awards

Our students won an exceptional 20 prizes at the 2016 Edexcel High Achievers’ Awards Ceremony, held at BMICH in November.  Three students won World Prizes for obtaining the highest mark in the country in their subject, while seventeen won awards for obtaining 7 or more A* grades.  This included ten students with 9 or more A*, the joint highest ever by any school at the Edexcel Awards.  Having had the most ever students with four A* grades at A Level last year (only one less than the whole of Sri Lanka combined this year), these are exceptional results, especially given we enter far fewer students than many other schools.

 

World Prizes

Luke Chung                         Maths

Shiarah Didi                         Art

Aanya Gunawansa                         English

 

Grade Awards

Aanya Gunawansa             11 A*

Arpana Giritharan                10 A*

Naveen Kulasingha                        10 A*

Ali Anver                                9 A*

Methin Lokumannage        9 A*

Piya Rajendra                       9 A*

Syed Abdul Samad             9 A*

Anirudh Sathian                  9 A*

Amjad Hamza                       9 A*

Maya Weerasinghe             9 A*

Anjali Mathews                     8 A*

Tharushika Mudalige          8 A*

Amaan Kulatunga               8 A*

Akash Gnanam                    7 A*

Chamathka De Silva           7 A*

Anan Weerasinghe             7 A*

Tamaia Dandeniya              7 A*

English Teaching Programme

As well as the annual class projects, the Senior School’s Community Service Club organises an ongoing programme to teach English to the boys at the Salvation Army Boys’ Home.  Each week, our students visit the home to teach the boys English, based on a different weekly topic.  At the end of each month, there is an interactive session for the boys to show how much they have learned.  So many of our students have volunteered to take part in the programme that there are normally two of our students working with each of the 27boys.

In October, the Lower 6th Prefects also organised for the boys to visit school for a fun day out.  The boys played cricket and volleyball and enjoyed themselves on a bouncy castle, as well as being given food and drinks.  It was a memorable event both for them and our own students.

Swimming Success

This year’s Inter International Schools Swimming Championships saw lots of great performances by our swimmers, with fourteen winning points for the school in individual events.   Maya Weerasinghe won Silver in her three events and Tiffany Johnpulle also finished in the top 3 in all her races.  Samantha Tappin and Ramudi Samarasekera placed in all their events as well.  The Over 16 Girls again led the way in the relays, finishing 2nd in both Medley and Freestyle, a fitting finale for Vinati Molligoda in her last year.

The week before, we had hosted a friendly meet against Colombo International School and the British School in Colombo at the new 50 metre pool at the Sri Lankan Air Force base in Ratmalana.  We expect this to become a regular fixture in the Swimming calendar for both Junior and Senior School swimmers, with two more schools attending in future as well.  This will give the students the chance to compete solely against the schools who have been our closest competitors in the main Inter International Schools meet.

Earlier in the term, the Junior School held another very successful Inter House Swimming meet, with several records being broken.  The current Junior 5 class has raised standards massively, with five members of the class posting excellent times, which bodes very well for the future.

The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition

Congratulations to our Junior and Senior School students on winning a record number of awards in the prestigious Commonwealth Essay Competition.  A total of 24 students won awards, including Umaama Hussain and Zara Anwer who both won Gold Awards.

Junior (Under 14 years)

Gold Award               Umaama Hussain

Silver Awards           Anika Dilshard, Lana Jaleel, Alwan Mausoom, Anjalie Perera, Ricardo Seneviratne, Jun Shamun, Jack Shearer

Bronze Awards         Siena Godfrey, Upekha Gunawansa, Senuka Jayasekara, Hithara Kuruwita, Maryam Latheef, Tara Mylvaganam, Annika Perera, Raahil Rajaratnam, Uma Sandrasagra, Anna Shearer, Dineth Wijayawardana

Senior (14-18 years)

Gold Award               Zahra Anver

Silver Awards           Kaavya Gnanam

Bronze Awards         Shakuntala Fernandopulle, Ishra Ibrahim, Kaitlin Manuelpillai

Internships

This year saw our internship programme go international, with students having the opportunity to do work experience in eight countries on three continents.

Ahmed Ismail was given the chance to work at the United Nations in New York for one month, with the delegation of the Maldives.  He was fortunate to be there during the 70th session of the General Assembly and spent his time shadowing diplomats and helping to write speeches.

Several other students interested in international relations, politics and social policy were also able to do internships with their governments.  Virul Abeygunawardane spent three weeks at the Sri Lankan High Commission in London, helping to deal with the aftermath of Brexit and Theresa May becoming Prime Minister, as well as playing some cricket for the embassy team.  Both Lu u Lua Mohamed and Nur Shamun worked in government ministries in Malé: Lu u Lua in the Foreign Ministry for four weeks, organising meetings and writing letters, and Nur in the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Environment and Energy on its ‘Strengthening Low Carbon Energy Island Strategies’ project. Arpana Giritharan worked for ten days at the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms, which is part of the process that is leading up to the establishment of an Office of Missing Persons.  As well as attending the meetings, her role involved research and organising focus groups.

Anjali Attygalle was given a wonderful opportunity to work in the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the top universities in the world.  She assisted with research on the feeding patterns of Bombardier beetles.  In a similar field, Shenali Wijesinghe worked at Bureau Veritas for one week, testing clothes for PH levels and potentially carcinogenic formaldehyde, while both both Vinati Mollidoda and Prashan Jayawardena worked at Genetech in Colombo.  Ijas Ahamed was able to pursue his interest in engineering by working for one month for the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau on a construction site in Ampara.

Creative industries remain very popular with our students.  Mohamed Ismail worked at an architects’ studio in Singapore on a project to renovate a community centre.  Burhanuddine Jafferjee worked for 3 weeks in advertising, at Grant McCann Erickson.  Sharanja De Zoysa pursued her interest in architecture and interior design by working with Murad Ismail and Annika Fernando, assisting on a house in Galle and hotel in Balapitiya.  Sophia Sansoni did work experience at the LT (or Leisure Times), including writing articles on the frescoes at Sigiriya and the Ajanta Caves, and on handloom.  Akash Gnanam’s interests lie in web design and graphics so he worked at 3CS creating web templates and Facebook ads, and editing photos.  In a similar area, Anjali Mathews drew pictures to use in videos for well-known Sri Lankan website Yamu, and Jithvan Ariyaratne redesigned the website for Sarvodaya.

Felix Deemer spent 5 weeks in Beijing, working at the Stanford University Center at Beijing University and living with a Chinese family.  He was taken to work on his first day by a former teacher at the university who had also been his grandfather’s Chinese teacher.  Felix has been learning Chinese for several years and lived with the family of the Deemers’ former driver who only spoke Chinese, so he had no option but to speak Chinese all the time.  Felix spent much of his time working with Stanford’s Asian Liver Center on an awareness campaign for World Hepatitis Day including celebrities like Jackie Chan.  One in ten Chinese have Hepatitis B, which is a major cause of liver cancer.

Tarik Conrad and Amaan Kulatunga did work experience at the Four Seasons in the Maldives for four weeks, splitting their time between the kitchen and housekeeping.  As well as a lot of hard work, they were able to enjoy many of the activities offered by the hotel on their days off, such as diving and visiting other islands, as well as play in some very competitive inter-hotel volleyball games.  After experiencing how some guests treat hotel staff, they are sure to treat employees with greater respect next time they stay in a hotel.

As well as internships, many of our students also made a positive contribution to their local community by volunteering with charities and NGOs.  Min Suk Son worked with The Lost Ministry for one month, teaching English and Maths to children aged 5 to 15 who had been abandoned by their parents or whose parents were in prison.  Won Jae Choi worked for four weeks at the Korean Federation of Environmental Movement, which is part of Friends of the Earth, in Seoul.  He also took part in protests against Oxy, a subsidiary of Reckitt Benckiser, whose dehumidifier disinfectant has been blamed for over 100 deaths in South Korea.  Vinati Molligoda helped out at NEST, a community-based mental health organisation, which included working with children at The National Institute of Mental Health, Angoda; the Half Way Home in Mulleriyawa and Lady Ridgeway Hospital. Ammaar Careem volunteered at The Chitra Lane School of the Special Child for three weeks, helping the teachers with children aged 10 to 16.  Ramudi Samarasekera assisted at Chibby’s Friends / House of Hope, an NGO that helps under-privileged children with chronic diseases or who need expensive surgery.  Ramudi helped with fundraising for Project Lifeline, which provides nutritional support to HIV-positive children.

Climbing Mount Everest

The Junior School was privileged to have Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala and Johann Peiris come to speak in Assembly in June, just three weeks after Jayanthi had become the first Sri Lankan to reach the summit of Mount Everest.  She is only the fourth woman to become the first person in their country to climb Everest.  Jayanthi and Johann also visited the Senior School in September.  At both schools, they talked about their historic trip and showed the children some of the equipment, showing the students it is possible to achieve any dream with sufficient determination and commitment.

Although Jayanthi is the first Sri Lankan to climb Everest, one of the early Everest pioneers, Eric Shipton, was also born in Sri Lanka, the son of a British planter.  Shipton led the missions in 1935 and 1951 that preceded Edmund Hillary reaching the summit in 1953.

Paris Trip

14 students from Forms 2 to 5, accompanied by two teachers, travelled to France in July to spend one week in Paris.  This was the second time we had taken students to Paris and the trip’s popularity means that it will certainly become a regular event.

This year, as well as visiting the main sites in Paris – from Le Louvre and La Tour Eiffel to Disneyland – they also went on a trip out of Paris, to a beach in Normandy.  The students had a picnic on the beach but found the English Channel a lot colder than the Indian Ocean!  In Paris, the students enjoyed practising their French and learning about French culture – especially the food.

Science Camp

As soon as Founders’ Day finished, 24 Form 5 and Lower 6th students left straight for the airport to travel to Singapore for the Science Camp hosted by the National University of Singapore.  This was the 4th time our students had attended the camp, which has become a regular biennial trip.  In total, there were 150 students there from 14 countries.  The students gained exposure to the latest research in their field and practised using new equipment in some of the most modern laboratories in the world, as well as experiencing what university life will be like by staying in the university hostel.

The programme included lectures by NUS Professors on topics including nanotechnology as well as workshops on molecular gastronomy and using DNA in forensic science.  They also learned how to make a lens and turn their smartphones into a microscope.

Chinese Exam

Congratulations to all our Form 1, 2 and 3 students who passed Level 1 of the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) at the end of last term, gaining a formal qualification in Chinese, after their first year studying the language.  The YCT is the official test of Chinese language proficiency administered by the Confucius Institute and Hanban (the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language).  Congratulations to Nashmoon Sheena who earned the highest mark, 190 out of 200, and Eleanora Deemer and Ruya Hameed who both scored 188, well above the pass mark of 120.  Students moving in to Form 2 and 3 will take YCT 2 this year.

Four of our students also took part in the 9th Chinese Bridge at the start of the holidays, a Chinese proficiency competition organised by Hanban and held at BMICH.  Over 50,000 students from all over the world entered the competition, with the winners of the preliminary rounds travelling to China for the finals.  Anishka Fernandopulle, Malaika Sequeira, Amber Tappin and Samantha Tappin sang a Chinese song, Xin Yuan, which means ‘wish’.

University Places

Congratulations to all our students who have been offered places at top world universities for next academic year.

Nine of the current Upper 6th have been offered places at leading universities in the UK, including UCL, LSE, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol and Warwick, which are all ranked in the top 50 universities in the world.  In addition, three of last year’s class have already accepted confirmed places.  Arts courses are especially popular this year.  Three students are planning to study Law: Mira Gunawansa, who hopes to go to Warwick; Yasmin Hannan, who has an offer from Manchester; and Emily Hayward at Sussex.  Ashfath Ifham has accepted an offer from the London School of Economics to study Economics and Governance, Saira Meyler for PPE at Leeds and Tripti Mathews for Geography at Durham.  Katie Renker will also become our first ever student to study Music.

Many of our students continue to receive scholarships to enable them to attend top universities.  In the US, this includes Urshella Hisham, our 6th student at Harvard in 9 years, and Takaharu Higuchi, who will be going to Denison University, a leading liberal arts college.  Maahir Ur Rahman has been given a full scholarship at NYU Abu Dhabi, becoming our 8th scholar there in only 5 years.  Hong Kong remains a popular choice for our students as well.  Rakulan Sothinanan and Dulanga Jaywardene have both been offered full scholarships to study Engineering: Rakulan at HKU and Dulanga at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  Dulanga will be joined at CUHK by Seonju Lee.

As ever, our students will be travelling all over the world.  Three of last year’s class have already started courses in Australia, while Ahmed Nomani will study Biomedical Engineering at McGill University, the top rated university in Canada, ranked 24th in the world.

Winning a place at a top university fulfills a life-long dream for all our students, but no one’s story is as heart-warming as Xingyi Wu’s.  Xingyi’s ambition has always been to go to university in Japan, due to her interest in the country and its culture, and she even learnt Japanese on her own to make this dream possible.  She has now been offered a place at Kyushu, one of Japan’s National Seven universities.

Sports Trip to Malaysia

Our Football and Basketball teams went on their first ever overseas tour in April, playing a series of matches against different teams in Malaysia.  The players had the opportunity to use world-class facilities and play in some of the top stadiums in Kuala Lumpur.  As well as practising and playing matches, the boys also had time for sightseeing and shopping in Kuala Lumpur.  They visited the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004, enjoyed a day on the water slides and rides at Sunway Lagoon, and even managed to escape the heat and bustle of the city to go to the hill resort of Genting Highlands.

The Football team opened their account with a 2-1 victory over the El Roi Football Academy. Their second game was the much anticipated contest with the new Chelsea Soccer School in Malaysia, on their bright blue artificial pitch, which saw our team earn a hard-fought 1-1 draw.  The tour ended for the footballers with a mini tournament against teams from the Little League Academy, in which we finished a respectable 2nd.

The Basketball team lost their first two games against two of Malaysia’s top teams, Rad Basketball Club and Ox Sports Club, the current national champions.  They were able to end the tour on a high note, however, with a thrilling 46-44 victory against the Airkit Active Basketball Academy in the MABA (Malaysia Basketball Association) stadium.

All the players learnt a huge lot from the experience, as well as growing closer as teams.  After such a successful first trip, we hope to organise regular tours for all our sports teams in future.

EU Calendar

Nur Shaman’s picture that was selected for the European Union Delegation to Sri Lanka’s 2017 calendar.

Junior School Art Exhibition

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This year’s Junior School Art Exhibition – ‘Art Across The World’ – was again held in the beautiful surroundings of the Barefoot Gallery.  As well as speaking about the therapeutic power of Art, the Chief Guest Jayantha Silva presented Mrs. Shearer with a portrait of Mrs. Moir.  The gallery was so impressed by the colour, creativity and vitality of the children’s paintings that it asked for the exhibition to be kept up for an extra four days.

Senior School Celebrates Shakespeare

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Senior School students have marked the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare in 1616 with a range of activities over the past year.  Last May, a group of students went to watch The Globe Theatre’s production of Hamlet on its visit to Sri Lanka, as part of its 2-year tour of every country in the world to celebrate the anniversary.  The tour played to over 100,000 spectators in 197 countries, including Palestine, Afghanistan and a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, and held special performances at ‘The Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais, the UN in New York and for Barack Obama at The Globe on his recent visit to London.  This May, students were taken to watch The Merchant of Venice as part of the Shakespeare in the Park festival in the Viharamahadevi open air theatre.  The week before, Nicole Haddon had starred as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the same festival.  Excerpts from this production will also be staged at the British High Commission’s celebrations of The Queen’s 90th birthday.

The English Department also organised Shakespeare Week in Assembly earlier in the year.  Activities included quizzes on films based on Shakespeare plays and famous Shakespearean quotes.  The week finished with a recreation of an Elizabethan theatrical experience, including considerable audience participation.

Shakespeare was also the theme of this year’s Inter House Drama competition, with the houses presenting modern versions of the plays.  Hillary won for their entertaining production of ‘Romeo, You Idiot’ featuring a surfer Romeo and gangsters as the Montagues and Capulets.  Felix Deemer won Best Actor for his downbeat portrayal of the eponymous idiot, while Dilani Abeyratne was selected as Best Actress for her performance as Lady Macbad in Columbus’ version of Macbeth.  The Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards went to Anuk Gunasekara and Nashmoon Sheena for their entertaining cameos in the highly unshakespearean roles of a police officer and a Sri Lankan maid.

Finally, students have continued to study Shakespeare as part of their normal English curriculum.  Having been introduced to Shakespeare in Junior 5 through a project on Macbeth, students read Othello in Form 3 and study Romeo and Juliet at IGCSE. At A Level, the current Upper 6th did A Merchant of Venice while the Lower 6th are doing Hamlet.

Middle School Leadership Camp

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In April, 36 students from Form 3 and 4 went to Sanctuary House campsite, Pamanugama, for a leadership camp. Activities included a low ropes course, archery, air rifle shooting, kayaking and beach games, while students also learned how to pitch a tents and light a fire. The focus of the activities was teamwork and leadership. Students were then able to reflect on what they learned about these topics through group presentations.

6th Student at Harvard in 9 Years

Urshella Hisham has become our 7th student, and 6th in the last 9 years, to win a place at Harvard, the world’s top-ranked university.  Given that Harvard normally accepts only one Sri Lankan student each year, this is a remarkable achievement.  Urshella plans to study Chemistry and Astrophysics, with a Secondary in International Relations, reflecting the breadth of her interests.  She says her motto is ‘Always be passionate about what you do’, which epitomises the attitude behind the success of so many of our students.

Like all the top universities around the world our students attend, Harvard stands out for the incredible opportunities it provides to students after graduation as well as at the university.  We have, therefore, caught up with some of our former students who have attended Harvard to see how they have taken advantage of these opportunities.

Hisham Mabrook was our first student to go to Harvard, back in 2004, having scored full marks in his SAT exams.  He graduated in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science but also enjoyed the opportunity to study with world-renowned philosophers, economists, historians and mathematicians. While at Harvard, he completed internships at Deutsche Investment Banking in London and Calyx Financial in New York. He currently works in corporate strategy for EMC, a Fortune 200 technology company.  Hisham says, ‘I still fondly recall my time at school. I made some of my best friends there, and still stay in touch with them even though they are scattered all over the world. I am very grateful to the teachers at Moir who invested a lot in us: I don’t think I had better teachers even at Harvard!’  Hisham’s determination to enable other students to enjoy these same opportunities led him to start the Moir Alumni Scholarship Trust two years ago.

Nirasha Guruge graduated from Harvard with a degree in Economics in 2012.  Nirasha had been Sri Lanka’s National Squash Champion from the age of 14 and one of three Elizabeth Moir School students to represent Sri Lanka at the 15th Asian Games in Doha in 2006. At Harvard, she was named to the CSA All-American team in all her four years.  As Co-Captain of the Women’s Squash team in her final year, she led Harvard to the National Championship.  After graduating, Nirasha moved to New York to work as an analyst at HSBC, and currently works in their Global Banking division.  She says, ‘I would have had less chance of getting into Harvard if not for the guidance I received from the school and I am very grateful for all the support.’

Sabrina Ghouse studied Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard, where she was President of the College Art Society and did volunteer work in East Africa and the Philippines, as well as internships at the United Nations and Harvard Business School.  After graduating last year, she has moved to San Francisco to work for the AAA with Google and Tesla on their new self-driving cars.  She says that, at Harvard, ‘it made me so proud to know that the majority of Sri Lankans at Harvard attended Elizabeth Moir School: the Admissions Office clearly trusts the calibre of students who apply from our school’.

Atul Bhattarai studied Government at Harvard, where he was an editor of the Harvard Crimson and wrote for the Harvard Political Review.  Since graduating he has been pursuing journalism in New York, focusing on international affairs.  He says: ‘Harvard and similar places look for schools from which they can reliably take competent students year after year, and Moir is clearly one of those schools. At Moir we were lucky to have teachers who encouraged us to excel and were dedicated to helping us do that. Naturally this is something that continues into college.’

Yohann Sequeira is in his final year at Harvard, majoring in Economics.  He is currently Co-Captain of the Cricket team and has recently co-founded Boost-in, a community service group working with high-schools in the poorer neighbourhoods of Boston to mentor students with the college application process.  Yohann says: ‘I would never have got where I am and be who I am without my experiences at Moir. Despite being one of the top private schools in the world, it still has an almost family-like feel to it. There are so many opportunities to discover yourself and grow that students are able to mature and succeed far beyond their years.’

Steffan Paul is in his first year at Harvard, studying Biology.  In his short time there, he has already joined two dance companies and a Community Service project.  In the summer, he will be going to Vienna as part of the Harvard Study Abroad programme.  Steffan feels his time here was crucial in preparing him for fresh challenges at university: ‘Moir always pushed me to do more than I thought I could, and it is that mentality which is keeping me going in this competitive environment’.

Founders’ Day

Elizabeth Moir School’s 20th Founders’ Day Prize Giving began with a superb routine by our Junior Choir.  In her speech, Mrs. Moir focused on the multi-national nature of the school community and how fortunate our students are to come to a school with students and teachers from all over the world.  The school has had students from over 70 countries on every continent.  There was also a moving tribute to two of the school’s most long-standing teachers, Mr. ZAM Mahroof and Miss Dharmaja Balasubramaniam, who were leaving after a combined total of 35 years at the school.  The evening ended on a high note with a superb Disney medley by the Senior Choir, which ended with the Junior Choir joining in for the finale of songs from The Lion King.

Congratulations to the new Head Prefects appointed for 2016-2017:

Captain of School                                                    Khalid Fazlee

Senior School Head Prefects                            Lu u Lua Mohamed

Sikhandi Thiagarajah

Junior School Head Prefect                              Anna Shearer

Junior School Deputy Head Prefect            Tienn Kapilasena

Ryan Wins Place at Cambridge

Congratulations to Ryan De Silva who has been offered a place at Churchill College, Cambridge to read Natural Sciences, concentrating on Physics.  Ryan gained 4A* grades in his A Levels last year and scored 100% in an astonishing twelve papers.  He has been working at school this year, helping students with Maths and starting our new Robotics Club.  Anyone who believes in fate will be happy to know that both Ryan’s parents studied Science at Churchill College, Ryan was born in Cambridge and his first home was in Churchill.

Ryan says, ‘To study at Cambridge has been a lifelong dream.  With facilities like the world-famous Cavendish Laboratories and alumni ranging from Isaac Newton to Ernest Rutherford and Stephen Hawking, Cambridge is the ideal place to study Physics.’

ISAC

A late change of date and venue led to clashes between this year’s International Schools’ Athletics Championship and both the Junior School Play and Senior School Mock Examinations, forcing a lot of athletes to drop out.  Despite this, the students who were able to compete performed brilliantly, against tough competition from 3,000 other participants.

Athletics Captain Urshella Hisham deserves a lot of the credit for the success of the Senior School Athletics Squad over the last few years.  She encouraged the re-establishment of the squad and her enthusiasm and commitment have encouraged other students to join and give their best.  Urshella again led from the front this year, winning a Bronze Medal in 100m Hurdles and coming 4th in 200m.  The break-through performer this year was Noah Le Berre, who finished 3rd in both the 100m and 200m, the most competitive events of all.  In the Under 19 200m, Manuukith finished 5th.

With most of the older Junior School students committed to the play, it was our younger students who led the way.  Junior 2 starred with Seong Chan Kim and Nirara Wijeyasinghe both finishing 5th in Long Jump and Seneli Jayawardane 5th in 60 m.  Our Under 9 Girls’ Relay team (Seneli, Limansa Thilakarathna, Upekha Gunawansa, Reveika Wijeyasinghe) brought the championship to a great conclusion by coming 5th in the relay.  We are very excited to have so much great talent coming through in the younger classes.

Earlier in the term, seven Junior School students took part in the Colombo National Athletic Championship, with Seneli, Niara and Limansa all reaching the qualifying time in their races.

Jack and his Amazing Multi-Coloured Beanstalk

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The Junior School put on another fun-filled and highly entertaining play at the Russian Cultural Centre at the start of March.  Hussain Jafferjee starred as the intellectually challenged hero, who tries to save his family by selling their talking cow, brilliantly played by Pippa Fox in an equally brilliant costume, for some magic beans.  The beans, of course, grow into a beanstalk that takes him to the castle of the scary (Scottish) giant to try to find the elusive goose that lays golden eggs.  Vishuan Ravi Chandran was hilarious as the evil Baron Smug, along with his henchmen Kutt and Thrusst, while Avlok Wignaraja had the audience in fits of laugher whenever he set foot on stage as the vet, with his livewire performance.  Special mention should be made of Uma Sandrasagra who was again superb as the post-modern narrator and held the whole play together.  The biggest cheer of the night, however, was rightly reserved for the beanstalk itself when it made its dramatic appearance!

Kharesma Tops Charts in India

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As well as starring in Footloose last year and winning this year’s Best Solo Singer trophy at Inter House Music, Kharesma Ravichandran has been topping the charts for Tamil songs in India.

Kharesma has already sung songs for three Tamil movies and is currently working on a fourth, as well as singing in adverts.  Her first song, Yaen Ennai, from the film Yennai Arindhaal, reached No. 1 in the iTunes India chart.  Her biggest hit so far, Kadhal Cricket, from the 2015 movie Thani Oruvan, has almost 4 million views on YouTube and was the Number One Tamil song on radio stations in South India.  At the end of last year she sung Party with the Pei, the promotional song for Aranmanai 2, which was No. 1 in the iTunes India chart for 9 weeks.

Kharesma is due to take her Grade 8 Singing examination this year, having received Distinction in Grade 7 when she was only 13.  After attending stage school when she was living in England, she is also a veteran of over twenty major shows and productions, as well as appearing in the CBBC series Numberjacks.  Kharesma is currently revising hard for her IGCSE exams.  After A Level, she plans to study criminal law, but hopes to keep singing as well.

Record Success at Inter International Schools Swimming

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An outstanding team effort by our Junior and Senior School swimmers led to what may have been our best ever performance in the Inter International Schools Swimming Championship, with our highest score in many years despite the increased competition.  A record twenty students won points for the school with a further twelve contributing in relays, showing that it was a true team effort.

The Junior School swimmers had their best ever year at the meet, which bodes very well for the future.  Saira Dilshard led the way, winning the 50m Butterfly and finishing 3rd and 4th in her other events.  Anna Shearer won points for the school in all her races and Junior School Swimming Captain Pippa Fox finished 7th in the 200m Individual Medley. Saira’s brilliant butterfly leg also helped the Under 10 Girls finish 5th in the Medley Relay.

Maya Weerasinghe and Tiffany Johnpulle led the way for the Senior School, both winning medals in all three of their events.  Maya won gold in 50m Butterfly while Tiffany missed out on 1st place by an agonising 0.03 seconds in the 50m Freestyle.  In her final year in the team, Anya Law came 4th in 50m Breaststroke and 5th in her other events.  She and Tiffany led our Over 16 Girls Relay team to Bronze in the Freestyle Relay and Silver in the Freestyle Relay, our best ever relay result.

Some of the best performances came in the Over 16 Boys category.  Seniya Ariyananda won Bronze medals in both 100m and 200m Freestyle, despite being injured.  Amaan Buhary finished 4th in the 200m Individual Medley and the final individual event, the 50m Freestyle, while Virul Abeygunawardane also scored points in all his races.  They combined with Swimming Captain, Takaharu Higuchi, to win Bronze in the prestigious final freestyle relay, narrowly missing out on a remarkable victory in a very tight finish.

 

Saira Dilshard             Under 10 Girls                        1st                    50m Butterfly

                                                            3rd                    50m Backstroke

Maya Weerasinghe      Under 16 Girls                         1st                    50m Butterfly

                                                              2nd                    50m Freestyle

                                                              2nd                    100m Freestyle

Tiffany Johnpulle        Over 16 Girls               2nd                    50m Freestyle

                                                    2nd                    100m Freestyle

                                                    3rd                    50m Backstroke

Seniya Ariyananda      Over 16 Boys              3rd                    100m Free

                                                    3rd                    200m Free

Over 16 Girls                                                  2nd                    Medley Relay

(Tiffany, Anya, Saira, Vinati)                          3rd                    Freestyle Relay

Over 16 Boys                                                  3rd                    Freestyle Relay

(Virul, Seniya, Amaan, Takaharu)

Under 9 Boys and Under 14 Girls Victorious in Futsal Tournaments

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Congratulations to our youngest team, the Under 9 Boys, who won all their matches in the 3rd annual Futsal Tournament, organised by St. Joseph’s College, including a 5-0 defeat of the hosts’ A team.  In a great team effort, Ayaan Weerasooria scored three goals and Ruben Habeeb nine, impressing all our older players with his speed and skill.  Other notable performances in the tournament came from the Under 13 Boys who finished top in their group, with Aamir Ashraff scoring three goals and  Tarin Wijeyasinghe one, before going out in the quarter-final of the Cup.  The Under 15 Boys, captained by Zaahid Seedat, were unlucky to lose in the final of the Bowl competition on penalties.  Over 1500 players from 132 schools across the country took part in the tournament, with our teams playing against schools as far afield as Manipay Hindu College, St. Joseph’s Trincomalee and Anuradhapura Central College.

In a girls’ tournament in November, our Under 14 Girls defeated Colombo International School and Gateway College en route to emerging as champions, with Yumna Hussain scoring 4 goals and Tao Yazaki two.  In a further tournament organised by Learnium International School, our senior boys came to the fore.  Our Under 19 team finished top in their group before losing unluckily in the Quarter-Final, while our Under 17 team also reached the knock-out stages.

Earlier in the term, our Under 19 team recovered well from an early defeat to reach the quarter-finals of the Inter International Schools tournament, after Naveen Kulasingha scored both goals in a 2-0 victory over Colombo International School.  They then again suffered the misery of going out on penalties, denying them a chance to defend the trophy they won last year.  Captain Lajy Shah nevertheless deserves to be proud of his team’s performance as the team rebuilds after the loss of several key players last year.

 

Record-Breaking A Level Results Recognised by Edexcel

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Congratulations to all our students who won prizes at the 2015 Edexcel High Achievers’ Awards Ceremony, held at BMICH in November.

Our students won 9 awards for gaining 3 or more A* grades at A Level, more than any school in Sri Lanka has ever received before.  This included Jananan Mithrakumar and Sanush Nukshan, who both gained 5 A*, results only ever surpassed by one Sri Lankan student.

Two students also won World Prizes for obtaining the highest mark in Sri Lanka and one of the top ten in the world: Sanush in Chemistry with 100%, the highest in the world; and Ishrath Irshadeen in Physics with 99%, the 6th highest in the world.

Five students won awards at IGCSE for achieving 7 or more A* grades.  Young Eun Shin also won the World Prize for Art after scoring 100%, the highest mark in the world.

Our Senior Choir was again invited to perform at the ceremony.  Their stunning medley from Footloose injected much-needed energy and entertainment into proceedings and had more than one of the special guests singing along from the head table!

 Grade Awards

Jananan Mithrakumar              5 A*
Sanush Nukshan                     5 A*
Ryan De Silva                         4 A*
Ishrath Irshadeen                    4 A*
Afdhal Saheed                          4 A*
Rakulan Sothinathan               4 A*
Nathasha Bogoda                   3 A*
Steffan Paul                            3 A*
Dulanga Jayawardena             3 A*

World Prizes

Sanush Nuksha                      Chemistry                    100%   (1st in world)
Ishrath Irshadeen                    Physics                        99%     (6th in world)

IGCSE

Grade Awards

Ahmed Azmeer                       8A*
Sikhandi Thiagarajah              8A*
Alma Abdulla                            7A*
Jithvan Ariyaratne                   7A*
Shenali Lokubalasuriya           7A*

World Prizes

Young Eun Shin                     Art                               100%   (1st in world)

Footloose

 

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The Senior School broke new ground in November with the first ever production of the Tony-award winning musical Footloose in Sri Lanka.  Two packed houses at the Lionel Wendt theatre were treated to a stunning show, with our young cast and crew delivering a supremely professional performance.

Senal Wijetunge led the cast with characteristic exuberance and confidence as Ren, the teenager whose move from Chicago to Bomont sets the action in motion.  On arrival, he finds the small town in the thrall of the Reverend Moore, the authoritarian minister of the local church, under whose influence the town has banned dancing.  Felix Deemer successfully brought his character to life by portraying his inner turmoil as well as his outer conviction.  Kharesma Ravichandran added real star quality to the cast as his rebellious daughter, Ariel.  Already enjoying commercial success in India, her show-stopping rendition of Holding Out for a Hero was a real highlight of the production.  Ren’s rival for Ariel’s affections is local bad boy, Chuck Cranston, played with great attitude by Nicholas Manuelpillai.  Ren receives much needed support from Willard, played by Akash Gnanam, who was worryingly convincing as the dim but good-natured hick, and injected much of the humour into the show.  Lu u Lua Mohamed brought wonderful life and energy to the role of Rusty, Ariel’s best friend, and took the lead in much of the dancing.

The message that sometimes young people know better than adults is an important one, which will have resonated with many of the young audience.  Yet Ren’s efforts to overturn the ban on dancing only succeed when he abandons confrontation and recognises that the Reverend Moore’s close-mindedness is a consequence of his grief at the loss of his son.  This holds an important lesson to all our teenage students: always to see things from another person’s point of view and appreciate that there is reason for even the most inflexible approach.

After months of rehearsals, everyone involved can be very proud of the production’s success.  They will have inspired a whole new generation to believe that ‘this is our time to dance’.

Best Ever A Level Results in Sri Lanka

Six of our A Level students have gained 4 or more A* grades, which is the highest ever total from a school in Sri Lanka. Given that most schools enter far more students, this is a truly remarkable achievement. Overall, an incredible 38% of all papers were graded A*, which is higher than any international school in the world has ever achieved, narrowly ahead of our old rival Dubai College in 2013. It ranks us among the very top private schools in the UK, ahead of famous public schools such as Rugby and Wellington, leading girls’ schools like St. Mary’s Ascot, Benenden and Cheltenham Ladies’ College and top day schools like Hampton and Godolphin and Latymer in London. Over a quarter of our candidates achieved 3 or more A* grades, which is more than at Wycombe Abbey, ranked 2nd in the A Level league tables in the UK.

Jananan Mithrakumar and Sanush Nukshan became our first students to achieve 5 A* grades. Sanush also scored 100% in Chemistry so will receive the Edexcel World Prize as well. Overall, well over 60% of papers were graded A* or A, and more than three quarters of our students gained at least one A grade, enabling them to gain admission to top universities around the world.

Jananan Mithrakumar 5 A*
Sanush Nukshan 5 A*
Ryan De Silva 4 A*
Ishrath Irshadeen 4 A*
Afdhal Saheed 4 A*
Rakulan Sothinathan 4 A*
Nathasha Bogoda 3 A*
Steffan Paul 3 A*
Dulanga Jayawardena 3 A*
Sachin Shashidharan 2 A* 3A
Senitha Wanigasinghe 2 A* 2A
Kathleen Renker 2 A* 2B
Safia Kariapper 1 A* 2A
Aadam Saheed 1 A* 2A
Keshawa Wijeyawardena 4 A
Ifadha Sifar 3 A

 

2015 was also a record-breaking year for our IGCSE students. Nineteen out of thirty students gained 7 or more A grades, which is our highest ever and an exceptional achievement. Overall, a record 79% of all papers were graded A* or A and 94% A*-B, which is testimony to the brilliant results of the entire class. Special congratulations to Sikhandi Thiagarajah and Ahmed Azmeer, who both gained 8 A* grades, and Young Eun Shin for scoring 100% in Art.

Sikhandi Thiagarajah 8A*  2A
Ahmed Azmeer 8A*  1A
Jithvan Ariyaratne 7A*  3A
Shenali Lokubalasuriya 7A*  3A
Alma Abdulla 7A*  2A
Hilya Hafeez 6A*  2A
Zara Sanderson 5A*  4A
Nur Shamun 5A*  4A
Khalid Fazlee 5A*  3A
Mariam Hassan 5A*  3A
Manuukith Sivaram 5A*  3A
Sharanja De Zoysa 4A*  5A
Sabeehah Seedat 4A*  5A
Ji Sun Choi 4A*  4A
Mitheshi Rambukwella 4A*  4A
Won Jae Choi 4A*  3A
Malik Hameed 4A*  3A
Avisha Amalean 3A*  5A
Nikolina-Menik Tute 1A*  6A

Founders’ Day

Elizabeth Moir School’s 19th Founders’ Day Prize Giving began with a superb medley by our Junior Choir. In her speech, Mrs. Moir focused on the achievements of some of our students whose lives have been transformed by receiving scholarships from the school. This anticipated the award of the first MAST Scholarship, organised by alumni who want others to benefit from the same opportunities they had. The evening closed with a stunning routine by the Senior Choir, showing why it has established such a brilliant reputation in Colombo this year.

Congratulations to the new Head Prefects appointed for 2015-2016:

Captain of School Urshella Hisham
Senior School Head Prefects Takaharu Higuchi
Ashfath Ifham
Junior School Head Prefect Umaama Hussain
Junior School Deputy Head Prefect Ricardo Seneviratne

The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition

The 132nd Commonwealth Essay Competition received over 13,000 entries from 49 Commonwealth countries and territories this year. Congratulations to all our students on winning prizes in this prestigious event:

Junior (Under 14 years)

Gold Awards            Tanja Daetwyler, Kaavya Gnanam

Silver Awards           Anishka Fernandopulle, Anna Shearer

Bronze Awards        Anika Dilshard, Kamille Le Berre, Arshana Welivita, Tee Yuan

Senior (14-18 years)

Silver Awards           Young Eun Shinr

Bronze Awards        Ahmed Saheed

Sri Lanka Model United Nations

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Fourteen of our students joined over 1,200 other delegates from 7 countries at the 8th Sri Lanka Model United Nations conference, held at BMICH in August. Five were members of the Executive Committee that organised the conference: Dinusha Mudalige and Anya Law both chaired committees, Safia Kariapper was one of the Permanent Office Staff, and Jithvan Ariyaratne and Ahmed Nomani were members of the International Press Corps. The students debated topics including ‘Climate Friendly Consumerism’, ‘Shifting Educational Paradigms’ and ‘Deepening Democracy’. Three out of our six delegates won awards for their outstanding performance in the conference, which is a superb achievement for such a small delegation:

Urshella Hisham            Honorary Mention

Tharushika Mudalige     Honorary Mention

Maahir Ur Rahman        Honorary Mention

Internships

Our flourishing internship programme continues to give our students the opportunity to find out more about possible future careers and to broaden their horizons through practical experience of what they learn in the classroom.

Five of our students had the chance to shadow Dr. Nalaka Gunawansa, a leading Consultant Vascular and Transplant Surgeon, for two weeks. As well as observing clinics and numerous surgeries at several hospitals including a kidney transplant, a vascular bypass for the leg, the removal of an infected Arterio-venous fistula and harvesting the kidneys from a cadaver, they were even able to scrub in and assist in some of these operations.

Mira Gunawansa worked for one month at the Ministry of Justice on a UNDP programme to set up the first ever witness protection programme in Sri Lanka. Part of her work involved spreading awareness, which led to her working with Ashan Wijesinghe, who was interning at advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. His role there also included a proposal for a CSR video for John Keels Holdings and assisting with an Electronic Direct Mail (EDM) for SriLankan Airlines. Anya Law did work experience at another advertising company, BBDO, as well as assisting the social media team at Colombo Fashion Week. While there, she met Savannah Ratnayake, who was working as an assistant to one of the designers, Charini.

Investment research and analysis remain popular options for our Economics students. Maahir Ur Rahman looked into hotel strategy at Stax Inc. and Saira Meyler worked at Asia Securities. Meanwhile, Ashfath Ifham helped to develop an App called Storylize at software company WSO2 and Nicholas Manuelpillai went to Colombo Design Studio.

Sri Lanka Unites

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This year’s Future Leaders Conference was in Badulla, having previously been held in Kandy, Jaffna, Galle and Ampara. With many senior students committed to internships, only four students were able to attend, but they made the most of it by playing a very active role in the five-day event and mixing with other teenagers from very different backgrounds. Venya Rajapaksa came 2nd in the oratory competition with Mira Gunawansa coming 3rd. Saira Meyler said: ‘It was an amazing experience where we met people from all around the country and learnt so much about all aspects of life in Sri Lanka, as well as understanding how the war affected the unity of the country’.

Monkey Kingdom

Students from Junior 1 to Junior 5 were all taken to watch Monkey Kingdom at the cinema on Friday 11th September. Monkey Kingdom is a new Disneynature film about Maya and a family of toque macaque monkeys in Polonnaruwa. The film has been promoted by Disney ambassador Dr. Jane Goodall, the world-famous biologist known for her pioneering work with chimpanzees in Tanzania. It was filmed over three years in Polonnaruwa and is narrated by Tina Fey.

The new Roots & Shoots Club at the Junior School has been inspired by the worldwide organisation established https://gigglesgobblesandgulps.com/buy-avodart-online/ by Dr. Goodall to encourage school children to take part in conservation, environmental and humanitarian projects.

Design Workshops at Foundation of Goodness

    

Last term, the Prefects raised Rs. 247,000 from Fusion Fashion, their phenomenally successful Fashion Show, to contribute to the work of the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama. They organised workshops for 25 children on the first two Saturdays in September to teach the children about design. Designer Sonalie Dharmawardene led the workshops and taught the children about tie-die. On the second Saturday, there was also interactive entertainment from performance artist Larry T Hill. Having had this introduction, a local trainer will now be able to continue the workshops.

Arts Day

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Elizabeth Moir School’s 3rd Arts Day began with a panel discussion on sovereignty. The panelists were Dr. Harsha De Silva MP, Deputy Minister of Policy Planning, Economic Affairs, Child, Youth and Cultural Affairs; Ms. Nicole Chulick, acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Colombo; and Dr. Asanga Gunawansa, who worked with the UN for several years and teaches at the National University of Singapore. The panelists were asked question on a wide range of issues related to sovereignty, from whether multinational companies and organisations like the EU and UN can dictate terms to national governments, to whether the international community should intervene in Syria.

Dr. De Silva provided fascinating insights into the plans of the new Sri Lankan government, discussing current issues such as the future of Colombo Port City, the abandoned Crown Colombo Casino project and the prospect of Volkswagen opening a new factory in Sri Lanka. He also made a heartfelt plea for unity in Sri Lanka, arguing that it is more important to build bridges between communities than to build actual physical bridges. Both Ms. Chulick and Dr. Gunawansa emphasised the need for greater co-operation between national governments to meet global problems, such as climate change, with Dr. Gunawansa also being able to share his expertise on water management. Ms. Chulick was challenged about the way the US has undermined international agreements and asked whether America might regret not building an international system strong enough to limit superpowers, if a new superpower emerges in the 21st century. All our students were absorbed by the stimulating debate and learned a lot from all the speakers.

The rest of Arts Day was based on interactive displays and presentations on stage of the best work done in Arts subjects over the year. Among the highlights were a recreation of a Sri Lankan village, where the students enjoyed playing traditional games such as Kana Muttiya and Kotta Pora, and an exact replica of one of the new homes in a new government housing scheme in Dematagoda that our A Level Geography students visited earlier in the year to investigate the new residents’ views on their relocation. Dr. De Silva was particularly interested in the displays done by the Lower 6th Economics class on development projects in Sri Lanka, comparing the failure of Mattala airport with the potential to improve education and infrastructure. Many parents and guests were especially impressed by the computer games and websites created by Form 2 and Form 3 students, showing the advances they have made in coding. They were also amazed to learn about the thought process and amount of research that goes into IGCSE and A Level Art portfolios.

It was, perhaps, the Moir Masterchef competition between French and Sri Lankan food that generated most excitement, though, and many satisfied customers, with http://www.thelaneshealthandbeauty.com/buy-lipitor-online/ Sri Lanka emerging as narrow victors!

Fusion Fashion

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For their main project of the year, the Lower 6th Prefects decided to organize a fashion show to raise money for the Foundation of Goodness. They aim to organise a series of workshops on design for some of the 30,000 rural Sri Lankans that the Foundation of Goodness works with, to give talented artists and designers from under-privileged areas the opportunity to make a living from their creative skills. The school has enjoyed a close relationship with the Foundation of Goodness for several years, with Form 3 visiting the foundation in Seenigama each year.

Fusion Fashion took place at Park Street Mews on Saturday 25th April. The name highlighted the blend of traditional and contemporary styles and the way the school’s cultural diversity was reflected in the designs. The show featured four principal lines: Acushla, designed by Sonalie Dharmawardene, Linen and Life by Ramona Pulle, Glitterati by Latika Alok, and Salvage. It also provided a platform for eight student designers to display their own creations. The models were all Form 4 and Lower 6th students who had been trained by past Moir students, Natasha Jayasuriya and Stephanie Siriwardena, a former Miss Sri Lanka.

Chief Guest Ajai Vir Singh, the creator of Colombo Fashion Week, spoke about how pleased he was to see careers in Design being promoted by the school, and student designers being given an opportunity to display their work. Other guests included Kushil Gunasekera, the founder of the Foundation of Goodness, and Yehali Sangakkara and her children, on behalf of her husband, a leading supporter of the charity.

The show could, indeed, have graced Colombo Fashion Week, so professional was the slick presentation and https://www.ncahcsp.org/buy-klonopin-online-2-mg/ production. This was all due to the hard work and commitment of the Prefects, who had come up with the idea, planned the entire show and led rehearsals.

Avurudu

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Every two years, the Junior School celebrates Sinhala and Tamil New Year so that all the students can enjoy and learn about the traditions of this national festival. This year, the parents organised a wonderful Assembly, teaching the children about all the time-honoured customs, from the significance of the koha bird to lighting the oil-lamp, boiling a pot of milk (signifying prosperity) and cooking the first meal of the New Year. They emphasised the importance of the family, which has a direct bearing on peace and harmony between all communities. The mothers also performed some beautiful dances, while the fathers joined in a hilarious Avurudu ‘Kumaraya’ and ‘Kumari’ contest.

After the Assembly, the children played games such as Gudu, Kana Muttiya (smashing a pot with a stick blindfolded), Kotta Pora (pillow fighting), playing the Rabana (drum), climbing the pole, obstacle races and pin the eye on the elephant. They also enjoyed traditional Avurudu food such as kokis and kevum, which was set up in a Kopi Kade. All in all, it was a bright, happy, colourful, fun, educational and memorable day for everyone at the Junior School.

Born to be Wild

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The Junior School held its annual Art Exhibition at Barefoot Gallery in May. This was the first time that the Junior School had mounted an exhibition on their own, rather than jointly with the Senior School, and the beautiful surroundings of Barefoot were the perfect setting. Chief Guest Dominic Sansoni said it was a joy to see the children’s creativity and how their paintings expressed their ability to look at the world in a completely fresh and original way.

Leadership Camps

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In January, 30 students from Form 5 and the Lower 6th attended a camp in Kitulgala. They took part in a range of extreme sports such as whitewater rafting, abseiling and canyoning, organised by the qualified staff of Borderlands. The focus of the camp was on building teamwork and leadership skills through these activities. It was notable that every single one of the students was brave enough to do the abseiling, despite many of them being very nervous, due to the encouragement and support they received from their peers. The Borderlands staff said this was extremely unusual and commended the spirit of our students. One Lower 6th student said that the trip ‘helped me overcome my fear of heights because I realised I could trust the people around me’.

In March, a further 40 students from Form 3 and 4 attended a similar camp in Belihuloya with Beyond Boundaries. They camped in tents and participated in outdoor activities such as cycling, canoeing, abseiling, and a high ropes course. Although the students faced many daunting challenges, they all learned how teamwork helped them to overcome their fears. Form 3 student Felix Deemer said, ‘The Leadership Camp showed me what I could do if I tried https://sdarcwellness.com/buy-valtrex-online/ and that I was able do things I didn’t think I could.’

First A Level Music Students

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This summer, Katie Renker will become our first ever student to take A Level Music. She will soon be joined by Naveen Kulasingha, who is taking AS Music this year. Both are being taught by our Choir teacher, Miss Sureka Amerasinghe.

Katie is already half way to a top grade, having done well in her AS exam last year, including scoring 100% for her performance. Her composition had its ‘world premiere’ in Assembly this term, when Miss Sureka brought a chamber group to perform the piece. Katie recently received Distinction in her Grade 8 flute examination, having also been awarded a Distinction and won the ABRSM award for the highest mark in Sri Lanka for all her earlier flute exams. She is currently 1st flute for the Junior Symphony Orchestra, having also played with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka. She hopes to study Music at Oxford University.

Naveen recently received Distinction in both Grade 8 Violin and Grade 7 Piano, winning the award for the highest score in Sri Lanka for piano. He is now preparing for his ABRSM Diploma examination. He started playing for the Junior Symphony Orchestra when he was only 9 years old and is also the youngest member of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, which he has played with since he was 12. He also has the rare distinction of studying Eastern Music to the highest level as well. He became the youngest Visharadha in Sri Lanka when he was eleven, a level equivalent to a Bachelor of Music degree.

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

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A flurry of publicity in print media, on the radio and online meant this year’s Senior School Play was hotly anticipated. Although the play is over thirty years old, its theme could not be more current, with euthanasia a very topical issue and legislation on assisted suicide having been passed or under discussion in many countries. Presenting these arguments on stage was no easy task for a young cast but they successfully portrayed both the play’s humour and its deep engagement with serious issues. It forced all the audience to confront their own feelings about the subject and think about how they would act in a similar situation. The play was moving, funny, interesting and, in the end, very sad, proving to all our students that ‘serious’ plays can be entertaining. All the cast impressed with the maturity of their performances and their clear diction. In his final performance in school, Senal Wijetunge was cast against type in the lead role, having to suppress his normal hyperactivity to play a quadriplegic. He demonstrated his versatility as an actor with another virtuoso performance. Having brought life, energy and laughter to countless productions over the years, he will be greatly missed next year. Rachel Hayward portrayed his antagonist’s icy rationality and overbearing conviction beautifully, without losing focus on her commitment to her patients, while newcomer Nicole Haddon was scarily convincing as the domineering Sister Anderson and is clearly an actress to watch for the future. Akash Gnanam, meanwhile, was responsible for a lot of the comedy in the play as John and was highly entertaining.

Hood

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The Russian Cultural Centre was, as ever, packed out for the Junior School Play, with both nights sold out well in advance. The audience was treated to a hilarious modern version of the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, including a host of unusual characters from Bill Gates to Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles. Among many great jokes were the narrator’s suggestion to Robin that his ‘nom de plume’ should be Atlas Chooty Gel Pen and the Bishop of Nottingham’s palace looking suspiciously like Loxley Manor because the backstage crew could not be bothered to change the set. Leonid Mylvanagam led the cast with aplomb, his ease and assurance in the title role putting all the other actors at ease. Uma Sandrasagra shone as the narrator, whose ongoing dialogue with the main characters provided much of the knowing humour. Tee Lei revelled in the role of the evil Sheriff of Nottingham while Arshana Welivita employed facial expressions to great effect to express her revulsion at Robin for his initial appearance, his cunning plan and his eventual abandonment of her. Eleanora Deemer was brilliant as the over-efficient ‘PA to PJ’, as was Kanza Dilshard as the desperate lady in waiting. Among the audience favourites were Tienn Kapilasena’s creepy portrayal of Alan-a-Dale as a washed-out hippy and the Ninja Turtles – Ammaar Rishad, Damarius Sebastiampillai, Jack Shearer and Avlok Wignaraja – whose slapstick antics enlivened every scene they were in.

International Schools Athletics Championship

With the International Schools Athletics Championship taking place at the end of February (close to the Junior School Play and Mock Exams), we are never able to send a large squad. The small team we sent this year, however, performed exceedingly well. Natasha Bakelmun finished 5th in both the 100m and 200m, and Manuukith Sivaram 5th in 200m and 4th in 100m, narrowly missing out on a medal in the blue riband event of the meet. Yumna Hussein, Ramudi Samarasekera and Takaharu Higuchi also reached the final in their events. Athletics Captain Urshella Hisham was the star performer overall, though, winning Bronze Medals in all three of her events – 200m, 400m and hurdles. Our Under 19 Boys brought the meet to a successful close by finishing 4th in both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays. Given that they were competing against the top athletes out of the 40,000 students who attend TISSL schools, our athletes can be very proud of their impressive results.

Geography Trips

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As ever, our Geography students have been travelling all over the island to visit locations relevant to what they are studying in class. At the start of term, our Lower 6th class visited Kelaniya to speak to people who have built illegally near the Kelani river and are exposed to flooding to find out about the impact of flooding and possible solutions to the problems. They later investigated the eviction of residents of dwellings in Narahenpita Road before interviewing people in a new government housing scheme in Dematagoda that houses some of the people evicted to discover their views about their relocation. Both Form 2 and Form 4 have been studying weather this term so went on a joint trip to the Meteorological Department where they examined the different instruments used and witnessed the launch of the weather balloon. Both classes will go on further trips next term to conduct fieldwork: Form 2 on coasts and Form 4 on rivers. Form 2 will also study the impact of tourism while in Galle. As part of their study of industry, Form 1 visited the Kist factory in Katana this term to study its impact on the local area and on the environment. Form 3 students have studied natural hazards and their impact, international development and aid this year. They went to the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama to research the impact of the tsunami and the effectiveness of development projects. Although we follow a British curriculum, we teach case studies from Sri Lanka and the surrounding area as far as possible, so that what our students learn seems relevant to their lives and they have the https://handsfreehealth.com/buy-inderal-online/ opportunity to visit and find out more about the beautiful island they live in.

5th Student at Harvard in 8 Years

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Congratulations to Steffan Paul, our Captain of School, who has been offered a place at Harvard, the world’s top rated university, to study Molecular and Cellular Biology. Harvard normally accepts only one Sri Lankan student each year, but Steffan will become our fifth student in just eight years to go there, which is an incredible achievement, and perhaps unprecedented for a Sri Lankan school.

Harvard is the oldest university in the United States, founded in 1636, and is regularly ranked 1st in the different rankings of world universities. Alumni include 8 US Presidents, such as Franklin D Roosevelt, John F Kennedy and Barack Obama; 62 current billionaires including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg; and actors, musicians and authors including the poet T.S. Eliot.

When he goes to Harvard later on this year, Steffan will join a previous Captain of School, Yohann Sequeira, who is currently in his second year reading Economics. Yohann had his entire education at Elizabeth Moir School and excelled in all areas of school life. He was Basketball Captain in his final year and played in goal when our Football team won the Inter International School tournament for the first time in 2012. He also represented the school in cricket and has continued to play at university, helping Harvard win the Ivy League Championship this year.

He will also join Sabrina Ghouse, who will graduate in May but spend a final term at Harvard after this to complete her thesis on environmental policy. Sabrina has recently returned to Harvard after taking a year out to work for the United Nations. The foundations of Sabrina’s success were laid at our Junior School, where she was Head Prefect. She went on to gain 10 A grades at O Level, winning an Edexcel Award for the best results in Sri Lanka, and 4 A grades at A Level. At Harvard, she has been very involved in community service projects, as she was in school, and was one of five students chosen to go to Beijing to work in orphanages as part of the Harvard China Care programme. Sabrina says: ‘After spending 11 years at Elizabeth Moir School, my teachers and peers became my family. Throughout my time at school, I was able to contribute to every club, activity and event I was passionate about.’

Sabrina’s classmate, Atul Bhattarai, has now graduated with a degree in Government. He joined the school in Form 3, when his family moved to Colombo from Nepal. A star student, he gained 9 A grades at O Level and 4 A grades at A Level. Having been President of the Press Club in school, he became an Editor of The Harvard Crimson, the oldest college daily newspaper in the US. He has also had several articles published in the Harvard Political Review (a national magazine founded by then Harvard student Al Gore, among others), his first entitled: ‘A Moral Conundrum: How American Business Money Changes the International Landscape’. Atul remains grateful to the school for laying the foundations for his current success, and said: ‘It was through the school’s careful guidance and support that I achieved what I did academically, and through its extra-curricular emphasis I discovered my passion for writing.’

The first of our five recent students to attend Harvard was Nirasha Guruge, who has now graduated with a degree in Economics. She was Co-Captain of the Women’s Squash team at Harvard, having been named to the CSA All-American team for the three previous years. Nirasha was Sri Lanka’s National Squash Champion from the age of 14 and was one of three Elizabeth Moir School students to represent Sri Lanka at the 15th Asian Games in Doha in 2006. As well as excelling on the sports field at school, she also found time to gain 3 A grades at A Level. Looking back on her time at school, Nirasha said: ‘What stood out for me about Elizabeth Moir School were the teachers, who all played such an enormous role in our school lives. Everyone was incredibly friendly and this meant that the two years that I spent at the school was the best time of my life.’

When asked to explain the success of the school’s students, Mrs. Elizabeth Moir, the Head of School, said: ‘Obviously good exam results are important: last year, about half of the papers sat by our students at A Level were graded A or A*, and three-quarters at IGCSE. We compare ourselves to the top private schools in England, and these results rank with some of the very best. More than results, however, it is the wider interests and all-round excellence of our students that make them stand out. I have been sending students from Sri Lanka to top universities for thirty years so we know what they look for. We also have a full-time universities adviser to ensure that students are guided through every step of the application process. In fact, our recommendations are valued so much by top universities that several have asked us to nominate students for scholarships on an annual basis.’

Best Results in Sri Lanka for 4th Consecutive Year

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Congratulations to Khyla Muzni for winning the prestigious award for the Best A Level Results in Sri Lanka at the 2014 Edexcel High Achievers’ Awards Ceremony, the final prize of the night. This is the fourth consecutive year (and fifth year out of six) that our students have won the award for the best results in Sri Lanka at either IGCSE or A Level. The award for the best results based on the highest average mark was introduced in 2012 and our students have won each year: Khyla at IGCSE in 2012 and A Level this year, and Shamira Ghouse at A Level in 2013.

Khyla’s award capped an outstanding evening for the school that saw our students win sixteen prizes, including seven World Prizes. This year’s record-breaking A Level results led to our students carrying off an astonishing six A Level awards. Both Khyla and Gwang Hoon Lee won World Prizes for obtaining the top mark in Sri Lanka, as well as winning awards for gaining three A* grades. In Mathematics, they shared the World Prize, having both obtained 600/600, and Khyla also won the Biology prize. In both subjects, the marks were not only the highest mark in Sri Lanka, but also the highest in the entire world, which is amazing.

At IGCSE, a record six students won awards for gaining 8 or more A* grades. This included Ines Anuncibay, whose 10 A* grades were bettered by only one student in Sri Lanka this year. Our students also won four World Prizes, two of which were again the highest in the entire world. Nidula Athulathmudali won the award for English Language. This is the third year consecutive year one of our students has won this award, and the sixth time in the past ten years, which is testimony to the extremely high standards of English in the school. Urshella Hisham also won for ICT, the second year in a row we have won this award, while Ines Anuncibay won the award for Spanish and Vishmi Marasinghe for Sinhala. It is wonderful that a school that is as multicultural as ours can win the World Prize for Sinhala and this reflects the high priority given to Sinhala within the school.

Our Senior Choir was invited to perform at the ceremony as well, after its acclaimed performance at the Royal College Festival of Choirs earlier in the term. Their brilliant renditions of Handel’s Lascia ch’io pianga and When You Believe by Stephen Schwartz were greatly appreciated by the whole audience.

A LEVEL

Best Results in Sri Lanka
Khyla Muzni Best A Level Results, 2014 (Highest Average)

Grade Awards
Gwang Hoon Lee 3 A*
Khyla Muzni 3 A*

World Prizes
Khyla Muzni Biology 99% (1st in world)
Mathematics 100% (1st in world)
Gwang Hoon Lee Mathematics 100% (1st in world)

IGCSE

Grade Awards
Ines Anuncibay 10 A*
Urshella Hisham 9 A*
Nidula Athulathmudali 8 A*
Ashfath Ifham 8 A*
Ahmed Nomani 8 A*
Nicholas Manuelpillai 8 A*

World Prizes
Ines Anuncibay Spanish 98% (3rd in world)
Nidula Athulathmudali English Language 96% (3rd in world)
Urshella Hisham ICT 92% (1st in world)
Vishmi Marasinghe Sinhala 83% (1st in world)

Moir Regains International Schools Football Trophy

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Congratulations to the Under 19 Football Team who won this year’s Inter International Schools Football Tournament, regaining the trophy they won two years ago and avenging their defeat in last year’s final. It was the third year in a row that our team had faced tournament hosts Royal Institute in the final. All three finals have followed exactly the same pattern: each year we have taken the lead, only for the opposition to equalise and take the game to a penalty shoot-out. When the time comes to defend the trophy next year, our team will not have lost a game in the tournament for five years, as our two defeats in this time have both come on penalties.

As has been the case for the past few years, out team qualified top of their group after scoring a hatful of goals. Even by these standards, sixteen goals in two games were spectacular, with Naveed Zahir scoring a hat-trick in the opening game and Aron Rahim four in the second. A close semi-final was won by a penalty scored by Anan Weerasinghe, showing remarkable composure for one of the youngest members of the team. In the final, Jang Pyo Hong scored for the third consecutive year before the memorable penalty victory meant the celebrations could begin.

This year’s victory is particularly impressive given that several key players had left from last year’s team. The nucleus of the side was a group of Upper 6th students who have been mainstays of the team for several years. Captain Jang Pyo Hong led by example, as he has throughout his time in the team, both in training and on the pitch. For Aron Rahim, this was his seventh tournament, having played in the team even when he was in Form 1. Shahid Fazlee was given the award for the Best Goalkeeper in the tournament, while Naveed Zahir added skill, pace and tenacity to the attack, and Jin Woo Park was one of the most improved players in this year’s team. Equally important was the contribution of the younger players, who stepped into the team and showed that there is a bright future for Football in the school. Coach Mr. van Twest reported glowingly on the commitment and determination of a group of players from Form 4, some of whom made the starting team and some whose moment will come next year.

Junior School Lead Futsal Success

For the first time this year, we were able to enter teams in five different age groups for the Futsal Tournament organised by St. Joseph’s College. The Junior School boys won four of their five games, despite it being the first time they had ever played a competitive game, with Kamille Le Berre scoring multiple goals. Our Under 13 and 15 teams acquitted themselves equally well, both qualifying for the Plate competition after winning most of their games to finish second in their groups. The Under 17 team was unlucky to lose on penalties in the Plate competition while the Under 19 team failed to qualify for the second round on goal difference despite not losing a game so also went through to the Plate. In total, over 40 boys represented the school in the tournament so it was wonderful to see so many students having the opportunity to play. It was also a great experience for our boys to play against teams from across Sri Lanka, with teams having come from as far as Trincomalee. A week later, we also entered two Girls’ teams in a separate tournament organised by CIS, one Under 14 and one Under 19. Special congratulations to Umaama Hussain for playing in the Under 14 team despite only being in Junior 4. Further progress with Junior School sports can be expected in the future, with a new Girls’ Basketball Squad being set up next term and Inter-House Football and Basketball matches now being played in two divisions.

Junior School Parents Felicitate Mrs. Moir

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The parents of the Junior School organised a felicitation for Mrs. Moir at the Kingsbury Hotel on Sunday 2nd November to celebrate her appointment as an MBE by Her Majesty The Queen. The Guest of Honour was His Excellency John Rankin, British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Maldives. He spoke about his pride in being responsible for informing Mrs. Moir that she would receive the award and about how much Mrs. Moir has contributed to international education and English Language teaching in Sri Lanka. Junior School Head Prefect Arshana Welivita had earlier impressed everyone present with a superbly delivered speech, which she had written herself, about Mrs. Moir and her achievements. She talked of how everyone involved in the school – as student, parent or teacher – took pride in the award, and also pointed out that ‘Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ is a very long title. The final speech was delivered by Special Guest, Dr. Chandra Embuldeniya, whose children were educated under Mrs. Moir and whose grandchildren are currently in the school. He referred to over 10% of Sri Lanka’s leading “40 under 40” in a recent article in ‘Echelon’ magazine, having been educated by Mrs. Moir and to how much the schools founded by Mrs. Moir had contributed to ethnic integration in Sri Lanka.

Earlier in the term, there had been a separate felicitation for Mrs. Moir at the Galadari Hotel organised by the Junior and Senior School staff.

Record Success At Inter International Swimming

A superb performance by our Junior and Senior School swimmers saw our team finish 8th out of 21 teams in this year’s Inter International Schools Swimming Championship. Fourteen students won points for the school in individual events, with a further nine contributing in the relays. Among the many highlights were the Under 16 Girls 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle in which swimmers from our school finished first and second, and the Under 16 Girls Relay team finishing 3rd in both the Freestyle and Medley relay. With all our medalists having another year in the same age group, we can look forward to even better results next year.

Maya Weerasinghe

Under 16 Girls

1st

50m Butterfly

1st

100m Freestyle

2nd

50m Freestyle

Ramudi Samarasekera

Under 16 Girls

1st

100m Butterfly

3rd

200m Freestyle

3rd

50m Butterfly

Tiffany Johnpulle

Under 16 Girls

2nd

100m Freestyle

Alya Ali Rasheed

Under 16 Girls

3rd

50m Freestyle

Kithmal Amarasinghe

Under 12 Boys

3rd

50m Butterfly

Arpana, Tiffany, Ramudi, Maya

Under 16 Girls

3rd

Freestyle Relay

3rd

Medley Relay

Rhythmix

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This year the Senior School combined the annual school concert with Inter House Music to create an extravaganza of music and dance. The first song of the night, a brilliant medley by the Hillary choir, set the tone for the whole evening. The audience was then treated to a wonderful array of different styles and genres of music, from rap to classical ballet. Choir Club President Kathleen Renker overcame very tough competition in the Solo Instrumental category to win with a virtuoso performance on her flute. Dance Club President Aron Rahim matched this feat by winning the Solo Dance round, while Emily Hayward won the Solo Singing prize with another superb performance. As ever, the judges were astounded that the students had arranged all the music and choreographed all the dances themselves, so high was the standard.

The end of the Inter House competition allowed the Choir to take the stage, with a superb medley that explored a range of rhythms in choral music from Africa and South America. The show ended with dances ranging from a mime-inspired routine by two clowns to a superb duet by Amar Riyaz and Tamaia Dandeniya that amazed everyone with its athleticism and daring lifts.

Record Number of A* Grades at A Level

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Another year of outstanding results saw our students again achieve record grades. At A Level, sixteen students earned at least one A* grade, making 24 in total, comfortably beating our previous record. Over 18% of all papers were graded A*, which is more than twice as good as the UK average of 8.2%. The A* grade is designed to identify the very top students and is a passport to top universities around the world: for almost half the class to have earned an A* is outstanding. In addition, two students – Gwang Hoon Lee and Khyla Muzni – scored 100% in Maths. This brilliant achievement will jointly earn them the World Prize from Edexcel.

At IGCSE, over 45% of papers were graded A*, compared to the UK average of 7% at GCSE. For the second year in a row, this is better than in 2012, when our results were identified as the 3rd best of any international school in the world. Among many high achievers, Nidula Athulathmudali scored 96% in English Language and Urshella Hisham 97% in Maths.

At A Level, a record fourteen students gained 3 or more A grades, all including at least one A*. Gwang Hoon Lee and Khyla Muzni both gained 3A* grades with an overall average of over 95% across their four subjects.

Gwang Hoon Lee 3 A* 1 A
Khyla Muzni 3 A* 1 A
Zainab Adamaly 2 A* 2 A
Elangeeran Rasalingam 2 A* 2 A
Naomali Gunaratne 2 A* 1 A
Sarah Haputantri 2 A* 1 A
Lishan Manawadu 1 A* 3 A
Amjad Azmeer 1 A* 2 A
Sagara Bogoda 1 A* 2 A
Ji Young Choi 1 A* 2 A
Amber Nomani 1 A* 2 A
Hana Rajap 1 A* 2 A
Vinu Samarasekera 1 A* 2 A
Ahmed Zayan Shahid 1 A* 2 A

At IGCSE, fifteen students gained 7 or more A grades, which is another record. Six of these achieved 8 or more A* grades, equalling the record set last year, and will earn them Edexcel Awards.

Ines Anuncibay 10 A*
Urshella Hisham 9 A* 1 A
Nidula Athulathmudali 8 A* 2 A
Ashfath Ifham 8 A* 2 A
Ahmed Nomani 8 A* 1 A
Nicholas Manuelpillai 8 A*
Mira Gunawansa 6 A* 4 A
Takaharu Higuchi 6 A* 2 A
Tripti Mathews 6 A* 2 A
Lu u Lua Mohamed 6 A* 2 A
Alya Ali Rasheed 5 A* 3 A
Nicola Wijeyarathna 5 A* 3 A
Anya Law 5 A* 2 A
Sandul Aponso 4 A* 6 A
Andrea Tulaar 4 A* 2 A

Trip to Paris

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Soon after the end of the Summer Term, seventeen students from Forms 2 to 5, accompanied by two teachers, traveled to France to spend one week in Paris, the school’s first ever trip to Europe. The students were able to practise speaking in French, visit all the places they had read about in class, and learn more about French society and culture. In June, the French Ambassador to Sri Lanka, His Excellency MM. Jean Paul Monchau, had come to the school to speak to the students in advance of their visit. He encouraged them to make the most of the visit, which would allow them to hear French being spoken as an everyday language rather than just seeing it as words in a textbook.

Some of the many highlights were seeing the Mona Lisa in Le Louvre, climbing to the top of L’Arc de Triomphe to see the twelve avenues radiating out from it, travelling down La Seine in a Bateau Mouche, and going to the top of La Tour Eiffel, before walking all 666 steps down. The students also travelled out of Paris to the Château de Versailles and Disneyland. On July 14th, the holiday celebrating the Storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution, VIP seats had been arranged for the students to watch the military parade on the Champs-Élysées, before the students watched the famous nighttime firework display over La Tour Eiffel. The students also enjoyed sampling France’s famous food, even trying escargot – snails. Overall, it was the trip of a lifetime for all the students lucky enough to go. One said: ‘I shall never forget our walks through the city. Each street had its own character and there was always something around the https://www.sihspune.org/clomid.php corner. It was truly an amazing experience’. We now hope to make regular trips, every two or three years, for students learning French.

Record Sixteen Commonwealth Essay Prizes

The 131st Commonwealth Essay Competition received over 9,500 entries from across the Commonwealth this year. Despite this tough competition, a record number of our students were awarded prizes, which is testimony to the very high standard of writing throughout the school.

Junior (Under 14 years)

Bronze Awards Kanishtaa Ariyaratne, Eleanora Deemer, Anishka Fernandopulle, Senuka Jayasekara, Maelle Liyanage, Tara Mylvaganam, Anjalie Perera
Silver Awards Anuk Dissanayake, Leonid Mylvaganam,Hashr Saeed
Gold Awards Rachel Hayward, Umaama Hussain

Senior (14-18 years)

Silver Awards Sharanja De Zoysa, Methin Lokumannage, Mitheshi Rambukwella, Anirudh Sathian

Cambridge Pre-U Pioneer

Cambridge Examinations have recently approved Elizabeth Moir School’s application to become one of the first international schools in the world to introduce the Cambridge Pre-U examination. The qualification will be piloted in History in next year’s Lower 6th class and, if successful, may be extended to more subjects in future years.

Pre-U was developed in 2008 by some of the leading private schools in England – such as Westminster, Winchester and Charterhouse – as a more challenging alternative to A Level. These schools wanted an examination that would help bright students stand out when they applied to top universities. The two highest grades – Distinction 1 and 2 – both have a higher UCAS rating than an A* at A Level. Initially restricted to schools in the UK, Hillcrest International School in Kenya was the first international school to be allowed to offer Pre-U in 2012.

At Elizabeth Moir School, we take the top private schools in the UK as our benchmark rather than the British National Curriculum or other international schools. The decision to pilot Pre-U reflects our commitment to maintaining the highest possible academic standards and setting trends for other schools to emulate.

Singapore Trip

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The Science Camps organised by the National University of Singapore are a wonderful opportunity for our A Level Science students to gain exposure to the latest research in their field and practice using new equipment in some of the most modern laboratories in the world. In June, ten students attended this year’s Summer Camp, the third time we have taken a group of students.

The programme included lectures by NUS Professors on topics ranging from nanotechnology to probability and gambling as well as workshops on molecular gastronomy and using DNA in forensic science. The students also went on a tour of Singapore, visited the Singapore Science Centre and had a taste of what https://www.ncahcsp.org/buy-ambien-online/ university life will be like by staying in the university hostel.

Sri Lanka Unites

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Having previously held their annual Future Leaders Conference in Kandy, Jaffna and Galle, this year Sri Lanka Unites travelled to the Eastern Province, to Akkaraipattu in Ampara. Six of our students attended the conference: Sashini Jinasena, Sanush Nukshan, Parami Peiris, Madusha Perera, Vinu Samarasekera and Mathanki Sreeskand. They participated in a wide range of leadership and teamwork building games as well listening to a series of talks. As ever, the highlight for our students was the opportunity to meet and interact with other teenagers from very different backgrounds to them, who had come from 22 of the 25 districts in Sri Lanka. Elizabeth Moir School continues to play a very active role within Sri Lanka Unites. This year, one of our former students, Avishka Mendis, was one of the main organisers of the event, in charge of all the food for the hundreds of people who came to the conference.

Moir’s 70th Nationality

When Đáo Thành Công joined the school at the start of this term from Vietnam, it meant the school has now had students from 70 different countries. From El Salvador to Papua New Guinea, from Iraq to Ivory Coast, this includes countries from every continent, and almost every country in both Asia and Western Europe. At any time, our students have friends in school from more countries than they are likely to visit in their lifetime. Công, the son of the Vietnamese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, has joined Form 3 and expects to stay at least until he has taken his IGCSE examinations.

Founders’ Day

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Elizabeth Moir School’s 18th Founders’ Day Prize Giving was held at the newly renovated BMICH Main Conference Hall. This year’s ceremony was especially memorable as it featured a celebration of Mrs. Moir’s career and achievements in recognition of the recent announcement that she had been awarded an MBE by Her Majesty The Queen. A further highlight was an inspiring, moving and beautifully delivered speech by outgoing Captain of School, Zainab Adamaly. The evening began with a brilliant routine by the Junior Choir, which showed how far the students had progressed musically over the year. The Senior School Choir brought proceedings to a close with a stunning rendition of Handel’s Lascia ch’io pianga which was possibly one of their best ever performances.

Congratulations to the new Head Prefects appointed for 2014-2015:

Captain of School Steffan Paul
Senior School Head Prefects Sanush Nukshan
Kathleen Renker
Junior School Head Prefect Arshana Welivita
Junior School Deputy Head Prefect Marinos Sebastiampillai

Mrs. Moir Awarded MBE by Her Majesty The Queen

Mrs.-Moir

We are delighted to inform you that Mrs. Elizabeth Moir, our Head of School, has been appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Her Majesty The Queen, in recognition of her ‘services to British education and the teaching of English in Sri Lanka’. She received this award from Her Majesty The Queen in a ceremony at Windsor Castle in July 2015.

Mrs. Moir and her husband, Kesang Tenduf-La, established Colombo International School in 1982, soon after coming to Sri Lanka. At a time when the only international school in Colombo was restricted to expatriates, this was the first school that enabled Sri Lankan students to learn in English and take British examinations. Influenced by the example of the top British public schools, they aimed to provide a world-class education that not only enabled students to attain the highest academic standards but also helped them to develop as individuals and gave them the opportunity to excel in sports and the creative and performing arts. This vision has inspired the growth of an entire education sector in Sri Lanka. The 25 member schools of TISSL alone now educate 40,000 students.

In 1990, Mrs. Moir was asked by the government to set up a programme to teach English to the masses. The result was Follow Me: a BBC English language course that was televised on Rupavahini and watched by upto six million Sri Lankans. Affordable textbooks were printed and eighty language centres set up across the whole island, from Jaffna to Matara, to help people of all backgrounds sit examinations in spoken and written language that were administered by the University of Warwick in the UK. Thousands of Sri Lankans were able to gain formal English language qualifications.

After setting up both Colombo International School and the British School in Colombo, Mrs. Moir and her family founded Elizabeth Moir School in 1996. It soon established itself as not only one of the leading schools in Sri Lanka but one of the leading international schools in the world. Its success was recognised in an article on top international schools in The Daily Telegraph last year, which showed that Elizabeth Moir School’s IGCSE results were the 3rd best of any international school in the world.

Mrs. Moir has seen her students go on to all the top universities in the world, such as Oxford and Cambridge in the UK and Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT in the US. They have then enjoyed huge success in every field imaginable from law, medicine and politics to IT and investment banking. All of them would attribute their success to the values of hard work and fair play instilled in them by Mrs. Moir.

Sri Lanka has, of course, provided not only an ideal home for Mrs. Moir but a wonderful environment in which to set up schools. The success of the schools she has founded is due to the diligence and determination of Sri Lankan students and the care and commitment of Sri Lankan teachers. Today, they can all share our pride in Mrs. Moir’s accolade.

We are extremely proud that Mrs. Moir has received this honour for her role as the pioneer of international education in Sri Lanka and her thirty years as head of the leading international schools in Colombo. It is wonderful as well for the school to receive this recognition. In this way, Mrs. Moir’s award is also an award for all the students and teachers of Elizabeth Moir School as it is reflects all of their incredible ability and achievements.

Record SAT Scores

This year we have organised classes in school for students taking SAT exams for the first time. The SAT comprises three sections: Critical Reading, Maths and Writing. Students receive a mark out of 800 for each section, making a total maximum score of 2400. SAT is the first step in the admissions process for students applying to American universities and is also required by NYU, Abu Dhabi and the National University of Singapore. Top universities like Harvard and MIT expect a total score of about 2100 or above.

Although our students have always scored well on the test, which is similar to IGCSE in standard, we decided that having classes in school would help students maximise their scores. This has proven to be the case with all the students scoring outstanding marks, including:

Jananan Mithrakumar

2320

(including 800 in Writing)

Ifadha Sifar

2210

(including 800 in Critical Reading)

Steffan Paul

2160

Ryan De Silva

2150

(including 800 in Maths)

This places them all among the top 2% of all students taking the tests. Jananan’s score puts him in the top 0.2%.

Students may also be required to take the more challenging SAT Subject Tests. As these tests are more similar to what students learn at A Level, our students have always done very well on these, such as Gwang Hoon Lee who scored 800 in both Mathematics I and II last year. Ryan De Silva is the only student to have sat the SAT Subject Tests so far this year, scoring an outstanding 800 in Maths and 780 in Physics.

Moir Students Win Places at Top Universities

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Congratulations to all our students who have been offered places at their chosen universities for next academic year.

Gwang Hoon Lee has accepted a conditional offer from Oxford University to read Materials Science at Queen’s College, one of the most prestigious colleges at the university. Five other students have also accepted places or conditional offers from top UK universities, including our Captain of School, Zainab Adamaly, who is planning to read Economics at Bristol University and Khyla Muzni who will study Biomedicine at Queen Mary, University of London.

Australia proved a popular destination for last year’s graduating class with six students having started courses there in January. This includes Manoj Thogesan, who is studying Medicine at the University of New South Wales and Pravan Mathew and Maduni Wickramasinghe, who are both at the University of Melbourne, reading Biomechanics and Biomedicine respectively. Melbourne is rated the top university in Australia by The Times Higher Education Rankings and 34th in the world, the 5th highest outside the UK and USA.

We continue to enjoy an excellent record of successful applications to New York University in Abu Dhabi, one of the most competitive universities in the world to gain admission to. Next year, two of our students – Sahan Thampoe and Amber Nomani – will be starting courses there, both on full scholarships. Lishan Manawadu has also been offered a place with an entrance scholarship at the University of Hong Kong, the 2nd highest ranked university in Asia and 26th in the world according to the QS World University Rankings.

Simply The Best

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Simply The Best is always one of the highlights of the Junior School year, from seeing the smallest students in school in Early Learners and Pre KG take their first brave steps on a big stage to the spectacular annual performance by the Dance Club. It is incredible to see how confident and assured every student in the Junior School is on stage, with even some of our youngest students able to learn a lot of lines in challenging dramas and speak clearly and audibly into a microphone.

This year’s production was especially memorable. Particularly impressive was a remarkably accomplished performance by our Infant Choir, further demonstrating how much children can achieve at a young age. Among the other crowd favourites were a highly entertaining fusion of poetry and rap by Junior 4 and Junior 5’s hilarious rendition of the famous Greek myth, Theseus and the Minotaur; or, as Theseus kept saying, the dinosaur. The script included the famous monster having the ‘head and horns of a bull and the body of a chartered accountant’ and Minos’s son being killed by a bizarre Scottish tourist. Both these skits also highlight how educational many of the Assembly items are, showing that students learn best through activities that are both informative and enjoyable.

Community Service

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Every year at the Senior School, each class organises a Community Service project. This involves the students choosing what project to assist, raising funds, planning and participating in the trip and making a presentation in Assembly afterwards. The students always speak very movingly about their experiences and how the projects make them more aware of how fortunate they are, not just financially but also in terms of the love and support they receive from their families. In total, almost Rs. 500,000 has been given to good causes this year including the Maharagama Cancer Hospital, the Foundation for Goodness, the Camilla School and Preethipura Home for the differently abled, St. Luke’s elders’ home and the Sri Jinananda Children’s Home.

Under 19 and Under 17 Boys win Football Tournaments

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The Senior School hosted a 4-a-side Football Tournament for four schools in May for Under 17 Boys, Under 19 Boys and Under 17 Girls. The event created a lot of excitement with large crowds staying on to cheer on our sides. This support helped all three of our sides reach the final for their age group. Our girls were unlucky to lose by one goal to a British School team they had beaten earlier in the tournament. The Under 17 Boys won a close match against Colombo International School through a goal by Naveen Kulasingha, his third of the tournament. In the final match, Jang Pyo Hong scored an astonishing five goals to help the senior boys to an easy victory.

Under 19 Boys:

Alethea

Won

3-1

(Sandesh 2, Aron 1)

British

Won

2-0

(Aron, Hong)

CIS

Won

6-2

(Aron 2, Hong 2, Sandesh 2)

Final:

British

Won

6-2

(Hong 5, Sandesh)

Under 17 Boys:

Alethea

Drew

2-2

(Romesh, Naveen)

British

Won

3-0

(Romesh, Naveen, Hyunwoo)

CIS

Won

1-0

(Romesh)

Final:

CIS

Won

1-0

(Naveen)

Under 17 Girls:

British

Won

2-1

(Nicole, Sabeehah)

CIS

Won

2-1

(Nicole, Anneka)

Final:

CIS

Lost

0-1

Gwang Hoon Wins Place at Oxford University

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Congratulations to Gwang Hoon Lee who has been given a conditional offer to read Materials Science at Queen’s College, Oxford. Queen’s, founded in 1341, is one of the oldest and most beautiful Oxford colleges with an elegant neoclassical frontage on the High Street designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and one of the finest libraries in the world.

Gwang Hoon’s academic achievements at this school compare with the very top students in the world:

IGCSE World Prize in Mathematics and Further Pure Mathematics
100 % in A Level Maths (across six units)
800 / 800 in SAT II Mathematics I & II

Moir Alumni Association

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Elizabeth Moir School cherishes its continuing relationship with former students. We are delighted, therefore, that our alumni activities have been reinvigorated by the establishment of the Moir Alumni Association last year. Two former students now teaching at the Senior School – Shazana Shahjahan and Shaun Perera– have taken the lead in establishing the new organisation.

Over 450 students have already joined the association, incorporating members of every year group from the class of 1997 to last year’s leavers. This includes students who had their entire education at the school as well as others who were only at the school for one or two years.

The new association hosted its inaugural event last December: a social gathering attended by almost a hundred former students as well Mrs. Moir and several members of staff. As well as meeting old friends and sharing memories, a variety of House competitions were organised and old rivalries were soon resurrected in some hotly contested games. The next planned event is a cricket match between the school team and an alumni team in June.

Past students who wish to register as members can sign up on www.facebook.com/groups/MoirAlumni/.

Moir Alumni Scholarship Trust (MAST)

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A group of alumni based at Harvard University, led by Hisham Mabrook, have established the Moir Alumi Scholarship Trust (MAST). Hisham, who was a scholar here himself, studied Engineering and Computer Science at Harvard and now works in Boston in corporate strategy. MAST aims to enable students from all backgrounds to obtain a world-class education at the school by providing scholarships for students who would not otherwise be able to afford the fees. This allows alumni to give back to the school and allow others to benefit from the same opportunities they received while here.

MAST was launched at the first meeting of the Moir Alumni Association and several former students contributed to the trust.  Other alumni who wish to make a donation should email contact@mast.moir.lk or go to http://mast.moir.lk.

Moir wins ‘Most Valuable School’ award at Model United Nations

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Congratulations to our delegation to the Colombo Model United Nations (COMUN) who won the highly prestigious ‘Most Valuable School’ award. This award recognized the school’s outstanding contribution not only to the debates in the conference but also to the organisation and administration of the event. In total, 500 students from 25 schools took part in the conference, including schools from Jaffna, India and Dubai.

The school was also runner-up in the Community Service award after the students donated stationery worth Rs. 75,000 to the COMUN Community Service partner, the Foundation for Goodness, having organised fundraisers in school.

A record six students also won individual awards for their outstanding performance during the debates:

Emily Hayward High Commendation UN Commission on Human Rights
Ji Hyoung Kim High Commendation Administrative Staff
Darshan Kanagaraj Honorary Mention UN Commission on Human Rights
Sashini Jinasena Best Foreign Policy Statement UN Commission on Human Rights
Ishrath Irshadeen Best Novice Delegate General Assembly Committee 3
Ahmed Ismail Best Novice Delegate General Assembly Committee 1

Three of our students were members of the Executive Committee that organised the conference. Hishma Hafeez was Chair of General Assembly Committee 1, Aron Rahim was Co-Deputy Head of Administration and Anneka Alok-Mathur was Official Photographer.

Inter House Music

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The hottest tickets in town in January were for the Senior School Inter House Music competition. As ever, the audience was treated to a very wide range of music, from Bach to Jessie J!

Dance Club President, Amar Riyaz, was a very popular winner of the Solo Dance competition, having narrowly missed out on winning for the past three years. This year his brilliantly original and highly entertaining routine meant there was no stopping him.

Although the dancing is normally the crowd favourite, it was the quality of the singing that really stood out this year. The House Choirs had set the standard for the entire night but the Solo Singing raised the bar even higher, with all four singers producing stunning performances. It also provided a change of pace from the modern pop music that had dominated up to that point with two of the singers choosing jazz classics, one from as far back as the 1930s.

The judge’s lengthy deliberation reflected how difficult it was to separate the singers and eventually there were joint winners: Francesca Mudannayake, for her characteristically soulful rendition of My Funny Valentine; and Nuha Bazeer, for her very clever, highly original and hugely successful down-tempo adaptation of You’re the One That I Want from the musical Grease. One is among the most experienced singers in the school, having sung solos in numerous concerts; the other had never sung alone on stage before in her life. This is what Inter House Music is all about: giving opportunities to everyone, finding new talent, and brilliant performances.

MOIR HOSTS SUPER 8 FOOTBALL

In February, the school hosted a ‘Super 8’ competition for the top four international schools and four leading local schools. This was the second time we had held the tournament, having arranged a similar one two years ago. It provided a great new challenge for our team and an opportunity to see how we compared to the best teams from local schools.

The team prepared for the competition with a series of eight friendly matches, winning seven against teams as varied as St. Joseph’s, CIS and the Korean FC in Colombo, and drawing against arch-rivals Royal Institute.

Our team opened the tournament against S. Thomas’ and came from behind to earn a crucial win, courtesy of two late goals by Haren Puththirasigamoney. The next game was against tournament favourites, ZahiraCollege, known as the ‘Kings of School Soccer’, having provided a host of players for the national team and won the All-Island Football Championship in two of the last three years. Our team played a great game and pushed Zahira all the way before succumbing in the end. A comfortable win against Lyceum in our final pool game took us through to the semi-final, where Royal Institute awaited again. We had the vast majority of chances during the game, and countless near misses in the closing stages but, just as in the Inter International Schools final earlier in the year, the game went to penalties, and fortune again favoured our opponents. The team can, nevertheless, be very proud of their performances in another extremely successful year.

Group Matches: S. Thomas’ Won 3-1
Zahira College Lost 1-3
Lyceum, Nugegoda Won 4-0
Semi-Final: Royal Institute Drew 1-1(Lost on penalties)

Alice in Pantoland

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For their school play this year, the Junior School performed a very entertaining version of Alice in Wonderland, with a few Sri Lankan twists added in – such as the Duchess going to have her hair done at Ramani Fernando Salon. It was a fun-filled feast as all the characters desperately tried to keep the Red Queen happy, and thus their heads attached to their shoulders, by capturing the Jammerwocky who had stolen all the Queen’s favourite jam. There were star turns from Malak Naseem as Alice and Eleanora Deemer as Susie. Sanuth Gunasekera was a hilarious Duchess, Leonid Mylvaganam a despicably cunning knave and Yumna Hussain a suitably terrifying Queen. All the audience also enjoyed the entertaining double act of Ricardo Seneviratne and Hussain Jafferjee as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. Even if the superb Azim Ifham as the White Rabbit always had the wrong panto, the Junior School showed that Alice in Pantoland was certainly the right panto.

The Importance of Being Earnest

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The Senior School put on a brilliant adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic satire of young love, double lives and superficial impressions at the Punchi Theatre in February. It is not an easy play for such a young cast to perform, with its adult themes and challenging script, but every member of the cast worked extremely hard in rehearsals to master the tricky dialogue and performed superbly. Rachel Hayward and Shakuntala Fernandopulle shone as Gwendolen and Cecily, whose love for their fiancés emerges to be based only on them being called Ernest and evaporates immediately when they discover that neither is. The senior member of the cast, Senal Wijetunge, injected energy into every scene he was in, giving confidence to the younger cast members. He captivated the audience whenever he was on stage with his natural comic talent and a face that he seemed to be able to manipulate into a million different expressions.

Moir sweeps prizes at International History Bee and Bowl

The International History Bee and Bowl is organised by an American firm that hosts quiz competitions throughout the USA, Europe and Asia. It is run by a 19 day champion on the famous American show Jeopardy who was a contemporary at Princeton of former Moir teacher Rajinda Jayasinghe. It came to Sri Lanka for this first time in February as part of its Asian tour that also included stops inDubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Beijing and Shanghai.

Our two teams won the Varsity and Junior Varsity Bowl competitions, respectively, winning all ten of their matches between them. In the solo Bee competition, Amjad Hamza won the Middle School category and Kanishka Jayawickrama was the Varsity Champion. All our students thus qualified for the Asian Championships to be held in Hong Kong later on in the year.

Junior School Carols at Mount Lavinia Hotel

The Junior School Choir was invited to Mount Lavinia Hotel on Sunday 15th December to sing carols on their Singing Christmas Tree in the hotel courtyard. On the day, persistent rain meant that the singing had to be moved inside, to the hotel lobby, instead. This did nothing to dampen the spirits of our choristers who treated a large audience to an array of classic carols and modern Christmas songs, as they sang for about one hour without a break. Meanwhile, the hotel handed out mulled wine and mince pies to those watching. It was a lovely way to bring the term to an end and fill everyone with festive spirit, and a wonderful experience for our young singers.

SHAMIRA WINS AWARD FOR BEST A LEVEL RESULTS IN SRI LANKA

Congratulations to all our students who won awards at the 2013 Edexcel High Achievers’ Awards Ceremony held on 25th November at BMICH.

Shamira Ghouse won the coveted award for the best overall A Level results in Sri Lanka, the most prestigious trophy of the night. At Founders’ Day earlier in the year we said that she ‘never makes mistakes’ and she proved this by achieving a remarkable average of over 98% across 27 different papers in her four A Level subjects. She was also one of only eleven students in Sri Lanka to gain 4 A* grades. This is the third consecutive year (and fourth year out of five) that our students have won the award for the best results in Sri Lanka at either IGCSE or A Level. Indeed, the award for the highest average mark in Sri Lanka has only been awarded for the last two years and we have won an award in both years, after Khyla Muzni won the award for the best average at IGCSE last year.

A record seven students won awards for their IGCSE results, six of them gaining 8 or more A* grades. This included Jananan Mithrakumar and Sanush Nukshan, whose 10 A* grades were bettered by only one student in Sri Lankathis year.

Our students also won three IGCSE World Prizes for marks that were both the highest in Sri Lanka and among the top ten in the world. Jananan Mithrakumar won for both Geography and ICT and Keshawa Wijeyawardena for English Language, the fifth time one of our students has won the World Prize in English in recent years. Particular credit should go to Jananan, whose ICT mark was the highest in the whole world.

The school also won a Bronze Award for coming third in the new Community Awards, which is welcome recognition of the impact our programmes at both class and school level have had in Colombo, Kanthale and Hanwella.

Best Results in Sri Lanka

Shamira Ghouse Best A Level Results, 2013 (Highest Average)

World Prizes

Jananan Mithrakumar ICT 93% (1st in world)
Geography 89% (4th in world)
Keshawa Wijeyawardena English Language 96% (5th in world)

A Level

Shamira Ghouse 4 A*

IGCSE

Jananan Mithrakumar 10 A*
Sanush Nukshan 10 A*
Nathasha Bogoda 9 A*
Kusala Molligoda 8 A*
Kathleen Renker 8 A*
Sachin Shashidharan 8 A*
Shahid Fazlee 7 A*

SWIMMERS ENJOY RECORD SUCCESS

Congratulations to all our swimmers who helped the school to our best ever performance in the Inter International Schools meet. Despite the admission into the event of several large new schools this year, we came in 8th place overall. A record six students won eleven medals (another record) for coming in the top three places:

Maya Weerasinghe Under 14 Girls 1st 50m Freestyle (New Record)
2nd 100m Freestyle
2nd 50m Butterfly
Kithmal Amarasinghe Under 10 Boys 1st 50m Butterfly
Chiharu Higuchi Over 16 Girls 2nd 50m Backstroke
3rd 50m Freestyle
3rd 100m Backstroke
Kanza Dilshard Under 10 Girls 2nd 50m Backstroke
Tiffany Johnpulle Under 16 Girls 3rd 50m Freestyle
3rd 50m Backstroke
Ramudi Samarasekera Under 14 Girls 3rd 200m Freestyle

A further eight students won points for the school by finishing in the top 8. As well as Maya and Chiharu, Kithmal, Tiffany, Ramudi and Alya Ali Rasheed came in the top eight in all three of their events. We also won points in thirteen relays. The results of some of our younger swimmers were especially impressive as many more students compete in these age groups, and more schools in the relays, making it much harder to score points.

TheJuniorSchoolalso held their Inter House Swimming Meet in November. 15 new records were broken, which is further proof that standards are being raised higher and higher every year.

FOOTBALLERS REACH FINAL AGAIN

The Football team entered this year’s Inter International Schools tournament burdened by high expectations after winning the competition last year. With six senior players having left, the team knew it would be no easy task to defend the trophy. The squad rose to the challenge from the start of term, however, as all the players committed themselves to a rigorous training regime and played their part in some good performances in warm-up games.

The team progressed comfortably into the semi-finals, without conceding a goal. Highlights included a superb long-range strike from Simba Emonde against CIS and a morale-boosting 9-0 win against Wycherley. Lyceum awaited in the Semi-Final, hot from a 5-1 win over CIS in their quarter-final. Tough opponents brought out the best in the team, with a brilliant hat-trick by Jang Pyo Hong taking us through to the final.

The final was a repeat of last year’s contest, with tournament hosts Royal Institute desperate to avenge their defeat. A strong start helped us to take the lead, courtesy of another goal by Hong, and we held on to this lead for most of the game. Royal Institute came back hard in the second half, however, and a late goal took the game into penalties for the second year in a row. There was to be no repeat of last year’s success and Royal Institute won in sudden death on the 7th round of penalties.

The team deserves to be hugely proud of their dedication throughout the term and their great performances in the tournament. They played a beautiful passing game, confidently playing the ball out of defence and regularly opening up the opposition with lovely through balls for the strikers to run on to. The senior players in the team all led from the front, giving confidence to their less experienced colleagues. Captain Sandesh Mendis was inspirational throughout; Simba Emonde was a rock at the heart of the defence; Namhun Cho was wonderfully combative and aggressive in midfield; and Jang Pyo Hong scored in every game, including two hat-tricks.

Pool Matches: Gateway, Colombo Won 4-0 (Cho, Naveed, Hong, Sandesh)
CIS Won 2-0 (Hong, Simba)
Wycherley Won 9-0 (Hong 3, Sandesh 3, Naveed, Jin Woo, Amr)
Quarter-Final: Alethea Won 2-0 (Haren, Hong)
Semi-Final: Lyceum, Nugegoda Won 3-1 (Hong 3)
Final: Royal Institute Drew 1-1 (Hong)
(Lost 4-5 on penalties – Sandesh, Aron, Naveed, Hong)

Sir Ian Botham Walk

Form 3 students joined cricket legend Sir Ian Botham for part of his walk from the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo to the Premadasa Stadium on Tuesday 5th November. This was Day 5 of ‘Beefy’s Big Sri Lanka Walk’ that took him 160 miles from Kilinochchi to Seenigama. He was joined en route by lots of famous cricketers including Steve Waugh, Allan Border, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

Sir Ian Botham has raised over £12 million pounds for charity, mainly for Leukemia Research, in twelve previous charity walks. After visitingSri Lankain the aftermath of the tsunami, he became involved with the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama. The aim of this walk is to raise funds for the construction of a similar project in the North. Form 3 raised Rs. 50,000 as a contribution to this effort.

By chance, the same students also visited the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama the next day. Every year, Form 3 visits the project as part of their study in Geography of the impact of the tsunami and the effectiveness of aid.

Big Apple

Big Apple generated such excitement that tickets for both performances sold out well in advance. The packed houses were treated to an extravaganza of music and dance that showcased all the varied musical traditions of New York, from Broadway to Hip-Hop. The Daily Mirror reviewer said that ‘It was stunning and I had to remind myself that these were school children performing’.

Two Upper 6th students, Francesca Mudannayake and Amar Riyaz, were responsible for all the spectacular original choreography. The contrast between the grace and elegance of Francesca’s contemporary dances and the energy and excitement of Amar’s Hip-Hop routines was one of the highlights of the show. This made it especially unfortunate that Amar, who had done so much to put the show together, was unable to take part because of illness. Special credit must go to Aron Rahim who stood in for Amar at the last minute and learnt all the challenging moves in just a couple of days, so that the show could go ahead.

Another highlight was the superb singing, both from the soloists and the Choir, which had all the audience buzzing. This showed the impact of new Music Director Sureka Amerasinghe and we can all look forward to more brilliant performances from the Choir in the years to come.

It was also the final concert for four Upper 6th students – Zainab Adamaly, Riquaza Badurdeen, Khyla Muzni and Loushanie Ranatunga – who have all taken part in the concert in each of their seven years at the Senior School, something that few students have ever achieved before. They had all also shone as performers at the Junior School, where they had their first opportunities on stage. We thank them, Francesca and Amar for their huge contribution to the https://www.ncahcsp.org/buy-xanax-online/ success of both Big Apple and all the concerts they have taken part in.

Whizzbang Day

WhizzBang Day was back this year at the Junior School with lots of new games and activities to inspire the students’ interest in Science and how things work. Events in the ‘Wonderpark’ in the morning included taking a walk through a ‘Nature Tunnel’, creating tornadoes in bottles and finding out ‘What’s Under the Microscope’.

In ‘Making Music with Water’, they filled different sized bottles with varied amounts of water before ‘playing’ the bottles with a knife to see how the pitch of the sound made by the bottle was affected by its size and the amount of water contained within it. They learned that the more water within the bottle, the greater the vibrating mass, so the lower the pitch.

Activities continued through the morning with a focus on scientific enquiries. The children made and flew their own model planes, designed marble runs, created their own insect, put together a Solar System, looked at how craters are formed, experimented with http://natureair.com/buy-coumadin-online.html forces and designed buildings to withstand earthquakes!

Under 13 Basketball

This year, we entered a team in the Under 13 Inter International Schools Basketball tournament for the first time in many years. The squad included ten players from the Junior School as well as two Form 1 students. The competition was the first time that any of them had played against another school, so was a fantastic learning experience for them. The team played very well in all of their matches, despite being considerably shorter than many of their opponents!

The Spirit of Christmas at the Junior School

Each year, the Junior School students give presents at Christmas to children less fortunate than them. Every Junior School student is asked to use their own pocket money or some money they have raised by doing chores to buy a school bag with some stationery for a selected child.

This year they chose to give the presents to the Ratmalana School for the Deaf and the Blind. The school was established in 1912, at a time when children who were either hearing or sight impaired were neglected and marginalised and did not have the opportunity to gain an education. The school helps the children to learn to communicate with others so they can become more independent and live satisfying, happy lives. Some students from the school came to Assembly at the Junior School and sang a song on stage, which touched all those lucky enough to hear it.

The Junior School also sells tickets for its Christmas Concert every year and gives the proceeds to charity. This year the money will be given to Meth Sewa Foundation in Handapanagala, Weherayaya. This charity helps https://argaux.com/buy-seroquel-online/ mentally and physically handicapped children who are either orphans or whose parents cannot afford to give their children the care, food and medicine they need.

47% A* at IGCSE

Congratulations to all our exam students on their superb results in last summer’s public examinations.

At A Level, almost half of all papers were graded A* or A. Ten students gained 3 or more A grades, including eight with 4 A grades. Shamira Ghouse achieved 4 A* grades with an average of 98%, including over 99% in Physics.

Shamira Ghouse 4 A*
Maduni Wickramasinghe 2 A* 2 A
Dilroshini Karunaratne 1 A* 3 A
Shevangi Sadesh Kumar 1 A* 3 A
Yohann Sequeira 4 A
Manoj Thogesan 4 A
Thulitha Wanigasinghe 4 A
Nayasheen Waseem 4 A
Rahul Jordashe 3 A
Ravini Sirilal 3 A 1 B

At IGCSE, a record 47% of papers were graded A*, and well over 90% A* – B. Fourteen students gained 7 or more A grades, with seven obtaining at least 7 A* grades to earn them Edexcel awards. After the previous class had achieved the third best results of any international school in the world, for this year’s class to have done even better is a superb achievement.

Jananan Mithrakumar 10 A* 1 A
Sanush Nukshan 10 A*
Nathasha Bogoda 9 A* 1 A
Kusala Molligoda 8 A* 2 A
Kathleen Renker 8 A* 2 A
Sachin Shashidharan 8 A*
Shahid Fazlee 7 A* 1 A
Keshawa Wijeyawardena 6 A* 3 A
Kanishka Jayawickrama 6 A* 1 A
Dinushi Mudalige 6 A* 1 A
Asma Reza 5 A* 3 A
Senitha Wanigasinghe 5 A* 4 A
Aron Rahim 4 A* 5 A
Sashini Jinasena 1 A* 8 A

Jananan achieved an overall average of 90% and Sanush 87%. Jananan scored 98% in Maths and 97% in Chemistry and Keshawa 96% in English Language.

Moir Students Gain Firsts at Oxford and Cambridge

We are extremely proud of our students’ superb results in IGCSE and A Level examinations, but these results are only a small part of what we want our students to achieve. What matters more to us as a school is sending out students who will continue to thrive both at university and in their later careers, and who will make a positive contribution to the societies in which they live. This means encouraging students to think for themselves and work independently. We aim to inspire a passion for learning that will stay with our students throughout their lives, and to teach the skills that will enable them to succeed in whatever they choose to do in the future.

We are delighted, therefore, that two of our former students, Tom Collins and Shezzy Kerner, were awarded First Class degrees this summer, at Oxford and Cambridge respectively. They join another former student, Shazana Shahjahan, who also recently gained a First from Cambridge and has since returned to the school to teach History.

Shezzy Kerner won a place at Cambridge to study Education with English and Drama, having had her whole education at the school. She graduated with a First and won a Shuard Prize for her outstanding results in her Finals. Shezzy is now about to start a law conversion course before doing her professional training to become a barrister. Having been involved in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against illegal Israeli settlement while at university, she plans to specialise in Human Rights Law. Looking back on her time in school, Shezzy says: ‘I was expecting to find the gap from school to University level work very large and very daunting but I have to say, being at Moir equipped me well – the rigorous way we were taught at school bridged that gap significantly and as a result I found the transition a little easier than expected. I’m really grateful to the school for that.’

Tom Collins joined Elizabeth Moir School in Junior 5 and spent six years here, before his family returned to the UK, where he completed his A Levels. He gained 9 A grades in his O Level examinations and these provided the platform for him to gain a place at Oxford to read Economics and Management. He earned a university scholarship after gaining the highest mark in his year in Financial Management in his Prelims and went on to gain a First in his Finals. Having done internships at the Bank of England and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office while at university, he has now accepted a job at McKinsey & Company, the world’s leading management consultancy firm. After receiving his First, Tom wrote to the school saying: ‘I genuinely believe the education I received in Sri Lanka played a huge part in the successful time that I had at university, even more than the two years I subsequently spent in the UK.’ He added: ‘There are two main things I can remember about Elizabeth Moir School: the wide range of extra-curricular activities and the excellent support provided by the teachers. There always seemed to be something going on after the official school day ended, whilst I still have clear recollections of the one-on-one meeting with Mrs Moir that first led me to consider applying to Oxford.’

COMMONWEALTH ESSAY WINNERS

The Royal Commonwealth Society’s prestigious annual Essay Competition received over 11,000 entries from over 830 schools in 55 Commonwealth countries and territories this year. Despite this tough competition, a record nine of our students were awarded prizes, winning 2 Bronzes, 5 Silvers and 2 Golds.

Junior (Under 14 years)

Bronze Awards Ricardo Seneviratne, Anna Shearer
Silver Awards Bhavik Baruah, Zahraaf Abdussamad, Jithvan Ariyaratne, Methin Lokumannage
Gold Awards Paloma McDeigan-Lee, Zaura Salim

Senior (14-18 years)

Silver Award Kathleen Renker

Internship Programme

Many of our senior students have again taken advantage of the long holiday to do work experience, as part of our internship programme, in areas relevant to the university courses they intend to apply for.

Zainab Adamaly and Vinu Samarasekera worked for one month at Stax Inc., a global strategy consulting firm based in Boston that has an office in Colombo. They did research on a project aiming to launch 1000 start-ups in Sri Lanka by 2022.

As in previous years, several of our students who want to be doctors arranged to shadow surgeons. Sarah Haputantri and Khyla Muzni shadowed Dr. Nalaka Gunawansa for two weeks. As well as observing his clinics, they were given the opportunity to scrub in for several operations, including a kidney transplant and an amputation. Naomali Gunaratne, Kusala Molligoda and Amra Naeem also shadowed a vascular surgeon, Dr. S.D. Rajamanthri at the National Hospital, for one week and were able to observe every aspect of his weekly routine, from clinics and ward rounds to surgeries.

Moving from humans to animals, Chiharu Higuchi, Parami Peiris and Loushanie Ranatunga worked at Dehiwala Zoo. They were responsible for feeding the animals, cleaning their enclosures and studying their behaviour. They also assisted at the animal hospital, including watching port-mortem examinations of a sloth bear and nilgai.

Gwang Hoon Lee and Lishan Manawadu worked in the Physics Department of Colombo University under Professor Jayanetti. They helped some PhD research on the sensitivity of copper oxide semi-conductors to different gases.

In the Maldives, Amr Shamun had the opportunity to work in the office of the Attorney-General. He observed hearings in the Supreme Court and was responsible for translating parliamentary bills from https://www.thecourtyardclinic.co.uk/buy-cialis-tadalafil-online-uk/ Dhivehi into English.

Sri Lanka Model United Nations Conference 2013

During the holidays, 30 students attended the 6th annual Sri Lanka Model United Nations Conference, held at Water’s Edge. SLMUN is the largest school Model United Nations in South Asia and the 3rd largest in the world, with over 1200 delegates. Our students have played a big part in the success of SLMUN since it started. This year ten of our students were members of the Executive Committee that organises the conference, which was again more than any other school. This included Insaf Bakeer Markar, Hishma Hafeez, Ornella Hisham, Ashhari Jayawardena and Vinu Samarasekera, who were all Chairs of different committees.

The students debated topics including Cyber Terrorism, the Millennium Development Goals, Religious Fundamentalism and Stem Cell Research. Six of our twelve delegates won awards for their outstanding performance in the conference, which is a superb achievement.

Sonali Silva Best Delegate
Ajay Gnanam Honorary Mention
Nidula Athulathmudali Best Position Paper
Ifaz Fahim Best Position Paper
Kushan Jayawickrama Best Position Paper
Asma Reza Best Position Paper

Congratulations as well to Hishma Hafeez, Aron Rahim and Anneka Alok-Mathur, who have been selected for the Executive Committee for next year’s Colombo Model United Nations.

FOUNDERS’ DAY 2013

Elizabeth Moir School’s 17th Founders’ Day Prize Giving was held at the new Peter De Abnew auditorium at Musaeus College. Entertainment was provided by a highly entertaining performance from the Junior School’s Infant Choir and a beautiful medley by the Senior School Chamber Choir. In her speech, Mrs. Moir focused on the role of parents in the school community. She encouraged the students to recognise the huge sacrifices that their parents make for them and their education, and to show their gratitude for this support more often.

Congratulations to the new Head Prefects appointed for 2013-2014:

Captain of School Zainab Adamaly
Senior School Head Prefects Sarah Haputantri
Francesca Mudannayake
Junior School Head Prefect Malak Naseem
Junior School Deputy Head Prefect Anokhi Molligoda

Click here to view Mrs. Moir’s Founders’ Day Speech

DEBATERS REACH FINAL OF ALL ISLAND TOURNAMENT

Nuha Bazeer and Ashhari Jayawardena continue to take the world of Inter-School Debating by storm. Earlier in the year, Ashhari came 1st and Nuha 2nd in a media and public speaking competition held in October, Ashhari was 1st runner up and Nuha 2nd in the English Speaking Union event, and Nuha was selected as Best Speaker in the prestigious Sri Lanka Schools Debating Competition.

They have now reached the final of the All Island Debating Tournament held by D S Senanayake College, the most important debating competition of the year. Along the way they beat schools including Ladies College, Holy Family Convent and Visakha Vidyalaya. We wish them well for the final.

HISTORY TRIP

The Form 1 and 2 History classes went on their annual visit to the Cultural Triangle in May. This year, the students went to Anuradhapura and saw all the main sites there. En route, they also stopped at the Dambulla Cave Temple. The trip is an integral part of the students’ study of Sri Lankan History. Students study the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa kingdoms in Form 1, the colonial period in Form 2, and the period since Independence in Form 3. The visit was also memorable for the students as it was their first ever overnight trip.

Rajinda Takes to the Skies

Congratulations to Rajinda Jayawardena who has become our first ever student to receive a Private Pilot Licence while still at school. This involved over 60 hours of flight time, including over 13 hours of solo flying, and passing several written examinations. Rajinda is now licensed to fly private aeroplanes both in Sri Lanka and overseas. The ultimate goal for Rajinda is to gain his commercial licence and become a Sri Lankan Airlines pilot. Listen carefully on future flights as one day you may be flown by a Captain Jayawardena!

Sri Lankan Airlines pilot Captain Niranjan Johnpulle also visited the school to speak in Assembly as part of our Life Studies programme and returned to the school to give a talk to twenty students interested in pursuing a career in aviation-related industries as engineers or pilots.

INTER HOUSE DRAMA

Inter House Drama is always one of the highlights of the year at the Senior School. The students take full responsibility for every aspect of the production and the experience of working together during rehearsals fosters a wonderful sense of teamwork in the houses. With Form 5 and Upper 6th taking their exams, almost half the remaining students in school have a speaking part, giving opportunities both to younger students and those that have never acted on stage before.

This year the houses performed different episodes from the classic comedy Mind Your Language. The raucous comedy and the chance to play different nationalities brought out the best in the students, while the actors’ clear enjoyment of their roles brought all the productions to life.

There were several hilarious portrayals of Ali Nadim and Tarō Nagazumi, in particular, with some of the students in the latter role reliving their own travails in our EFL class. Judges Marsh Dodanwela and Rajinda Jayasinghe praised the high standard of the acting, in particular the ease with which students impersonated the different accents and the way all the actors stayed in character throughout the performance.

LEADERSHIP CAMP

18 boys and 15 girls from Form 5 to the Upper 6th attended a Leadership Camp in Kitulgala from 15th-17th March. The students took part in a range of extreme sports and outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting, abseiling and canyoning, organised by the qualified staff of Borderlands. The focus was on building teamwork and leadership skills through these activities. One student said, ‘I learnt how to speak out, how to work as part of a team, and how to respect and listen to others’. The Borderlands staff commended our students on their independence and responsibility and said that they were the best school group https://www.ncahcsp.org/buy-valium-online/ they had ever worked with. 42 students from Form 3 and 4 also went on a similar trip to Kitulgala from June 21st to 23rd.

SIMPLY THE BEST

The annual Junior School production Simply The Best took place at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on Wednesday 29th May. Every student in the Junior School takes part every year, giving even the youngest students the opportunity to perform on a big public stage. This is one reason why all our students are so comfortable and confident performing in public. As ever, Reception and Playgroup received the biggest ovation of the night, for their superb performance ‘Three Little Pigs’. Many of the older classes performed items based on what they have been studying in class, including Junior 5’s play based on the Greek myth ‘Pandora’s Box’ and Junior 4’s ‘The Fun Ship’ about the Age of Discovery. The school can certainly look forward to more brilliant productions from these students as they progress up the school over the years.

ART EXHIBITION

The opening of My World Through the Looking Glass, the annual Art Exhibition, took place on Tuesday 14th May at the Lionel Wendt Gallery, with Subha Tidball as the Chief Guest. Students interpreted the theme in many different ways, from observations of the world around them, to work focusing on the nature of perception and how it can distort reality, to fantasy scenes inspired by Alice in Wonderland. This inspired a wide range of exciting and innovative ideas and projects from both Junior and Senior Schools.

Among the highlights from the Junior School were Reception’s ‘Who’s Hiding in the Jungle’ and Junior 3’s ‘Tree of Life’. A lot of the work was surprisingly avant-garde for such young artists, from Junior 1’s paintings based on Marc Chagall’s I and the Village to Junior 2’s ‘Concrete Jungle’ influenced by the American pop artist James Rizzi. There was plenty of variety on offer from the Senior School too, including painted glass bottles and clay models. The technical skill of the drawing and painting impressed everyone who came to the exhibition, with the brilliant work done by the IGCSE Art classes again standing out.

UNIVERSITY OFFERS

Congratulations to Yohann Sequeira, our Captain of School, who has received a full scholarship from Harvard, the world’s top rated university, to study Economics. Harvard normally accepts only one Sri Lankan student each year, but Yohann will become our fourth student in just six years to go there, which is an incredible achievement.

Six Upper 6th students have received offers to study Medicine or associated courses in the UK, which is a tremendous feat given that Medicine is by far the hardest course to gain admission to. Shamira Ghouse, one of our Head Prefects, has an offer to study Medicine at Cardiff, and Manoj Thogesan at Birmingham, while three students have offers to study Biomedical Science. It is notable that all five of these students, as well as Yohann, are among the longest standing members of the class, having all been in school for eleven years or more. Thulitha Wanigasinghe has also received an offer to study Veterinary Science at the prestigious Royal Veterinary College in London.

A further eight students applied to universities in the UK for other courses and all of them also received offers. These include Ajay Gnanam, who has been offered a place at Durham University to study Social Sciences, and several students to study Engineering at universities including Bristol and Loughborough.

Afeef Sahabdeen has won a full scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering at the new NYU (New York University) campus in Abu Dhabi. He will join three of our students there, who all also earned full scholarships. This is especially impressive as, in 2012, NYU Abu Dhabi received over 15,000 applications for its 150 places, making it one of the hardest universities to gain admission to in the world. The excellent impression our students have made there means that NYU is continuing to ask us to nominate students for scholarships each year.

Other students have been accepted by universities in Malaysia and elsewhere. The rest of the Upper 6th are applying to universities in Australia, where applications are made later as courses start in February, or taking a Gap Year to prepare their university applications.

Founders’ Day Speech 2013

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome you all to Founders’ Day at the conclusion of another incredibly successful year for our students. The Daily Telegraph of London noted that we had the third best  IGCSE results of any international school in the world; our Captain of School, Yohann Sequerra,  is to join a strong Moir contingent at Harvard; Shezzy Kerner has just been awarded a first class degree by Cambridge University; our Under-19 boys won the inter-international schools’ football  trophy; and, of greatest pride to me, all of our students, have put their hearts and souls into serving the community, caring for people who do not share our privilege, and getting to know students from all walks of life from Jaffna to Hambantota under the umbrella of Sri Lanka Unites.

Even our youngest students have the maturity and compassion to understand their roles in society. This is testament to the values of the Junior School, where foundations are laid for much of the success of our graduating classes.

Indeed this year many of our students in our graduating class, including our three most senior Prefects have been with us for almost their whole school careers, which makes saying goodbye to them very emotional for us and for them. They are one of the most talented classes to come through the school leading with panache in every facet of school life. We are exceptionally proud of them.

Every year I talk about the dedication of our staff, and the drive and passion of our students, but another group of our community goes unnoticed. Let me introduce this group by telling you a story about a young boy called Sunil.

Sunil was embarrassed about his mother because she only had one eye. When she used to pick him up from his school, he would demand that she park her car down a side lane so that no one would see her.

But one day, because she was so proud of her son, she came to watch him play cricket. Everyone stared at her and some of the opposition cricketers laughed at Sunil saying his mother looked scary.

When Sunil went home he shouted at his mother for embarrassing him and scaring his friends. He said he would never speak to her in public again.

As time went on, Sunil drifted away from his mother, he got married and had children.

One day, many years later, there was a knock on his front door and his six year old daughter answered it and then started screaming with fright.

It was Sunil’s mother at the door with her face as distorted as ever.

Sunil shouted at her and said, ‘How dare you come here and scare my children? You are not welcome.  I never want to see you again.’

A few months later, Sunil received a phone call saying that his mother had died in her sleep. She had left all her property and wealth to him, along with a letter which read:

‘My darling Sunil,

You are my pride and joy.  I am sorry that I came to visit you without warning. I knew that I was dying and wanted to see you one last time, and to meet my grandchildren for the first time before I left you.

I am so sorry that I was always such an embarrassment to you.

I thought it best not to tell you this till now. When you were very young, you were in a car accident. You lost an eye. As your mother, I could not let you go through life feeling embarrassed about yourself.  I wanted you to look handsome again and to be able to see the world through two eyes instead of the one you had been left with..

So I gave you one of my eyes.

I am so glad that you got to live a normal life, that you always brought me so much pride and joy, and that you now have a wonderful family of your own.

I have thought about you and your family every moment of every day. I have missed you so much, but I knew you had to focus on your own children. I hope the money I have left you will mean you and your children never have to make sacrifices.’

Sunil couldn’t read any more of the letter.

He donated all the money to an eye hospital, building a ward in his mother’s name.

But he had missed the chance to tell his mother, to her face, how much he appreciated her and loved her.

None of you would have tasted the success that you have without the love, support and sacrifices of your parents.

They work extra hours, buy themselves less, wake up early, go to bed late, watch cartoons, run with you, play with you, study with you.

They arrange surprises for you which sometimes you say you hate. They give you presents you discard, they come to watch you at assembly, they cheer for you at swimming meets, and every decision they ever make revolves around what is best for you.

And here’s a secret. Parents don’t like telling you off or saying you can’t do something. They do that for your own sake. They are strict with you when maybe it would be easier just to buy you a play station and stick you in the corner to play on your own. They find time for you, because there is nothing as valuable to a child as their parents’ undivided attention.

I want to tell you another story.

In 1987, my late husband was diagnosed with cancer and the doctors told him that he had only six months to live. That same year my daughter and my two sons were to start at the best boarding schools in the world, and my husband didn’t want them to miss out because of him. So, despite his enormous pain, he never showed them even a glimpse of his suffering; he laughed and joked as usual, and only after he dropped them at the airport would he worry if he would ever see them again.

Then he would tell me that he didn’t care what the doctors said, there was no way he would die before his children were old enough to look after themselves.

He lived for another thirteen years.

My children gave up successful careers in the UK to be with him in his last few months, and they stayed with me after he died to help develop this school. Whatever our successes, whatever our faults, the school is built on the concept of family, on the appreciation of sacrifice for those you love, and on gratitude for all that PARENTS do for their children.

And it is an honour to stand here, in memory of my late husband, who fought against cancer for the sake of his children, to know that my children appreciate this.

And I believe that we have been extremely fortunate to have gathered together such close-knit families in our school which gives us a sense of community, a sense of pride in each other and a sense of purpose.

Our students strive for such enormous success, not just for themselves, but for the honour of their families.

I know some parents have a tradition of taking their children out for a meal after Founders’ day, to congratulate them for a great year.

That’s fantastic, but I address my students when I say this.

Maybe tomorrow you can cook your parents breakfast in bed, take them to a movie, write them a card, or simply give them a hug and say thank you.

Maybe you shouldn’t be embarrassed about your father’s car because you must remember most of his money is being saved for your university fees.

Maybe you can overlook his shameful dancing at parties or his woeful attempts to pretend to be young.

Maybe you can ignore his suspect dress sense.

Maybe you don’t need to tell you mother not to cheer so loudly when you come on stage.

Maybe you can be as proud of your parents as they are of you.

And with that thought, I thank you, dear parents, for all for your amazing support and for trusting us to care for your children. You can be confident that our simple goal is much the same as yours. We want the very best for your children, and to us success means absolutely nothing if it doesn’t come hand in hand with appreciation of loved ones.

Thank you.

Colombo Model United Nations

Seventeen of our students participated in the Colombo Model United Nations from March 1st to 3rd alongside 500 other students from 30 schools including schools from Jaffna,Cambodia and Pakistan. Hana Rajap was a member of the Executive Committee that organised the conference as Deputy Head of Administration, and three of our students won awards for their outstanding performance during the debates:

Insaf Bakeer Markar High Commendation in UN Human Rights Council

Ashhari Jayawardena Best Foreign Policy Statement in the Security Council

Kushan Jayawickrama Honorary Mention in UN Human Rights Council

Captain for TISSL photo:

Kithmal Amarasinghe of Junior 3 receiving the first Student ID given by TISSL, the new association of The International Schools of Sri Lanka.

Moir placed 1st and 2nd in Inter School Dancing Competition

In February, our dancers entered Dance Fest 2013, organised by AletheaInternationalSchool. It was the first time we had entered an inter school dancing competition so our students were keen to compare themselves to the best dancers from other schools. They immediately set a new standard in the competition and were placed 1st and 2nd in the Western category.

Encouraging Independent Thinking

ElizabethMoirSchoolhas a progressive international curriculum that blends new and innovative ways of learning with a traditional focus on basic skills such as grammar and arithmetic. With students fromChina,India,Koreaand elsewhere setting ever higher standards and entrance to top universities becoming more and more competitive, our unique approach ensures we stay at the forefront of modern educational practice. We appreciate that our students need to go beyond the expectations of the IGCSE and A Level courses, to develop their own interests outside the syllabus and to learn to work independently.

This term we have piloted new end-of-term assessments instead of examinations with Form 3. The aim has been to challenge students to think for themselves by working on an extended piece of work and drawing conclusions from their own research, experiments and fieldwork. This has involved them investigating subjects as diverse as the mechanics of helicopters and the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

We have also introduced a new Essay Prize in theSeniorSchool, based on a competitive examination. Over 40 top students entered the competition in February and had to write essays on questions such as:

‘The 20th century was the century of physics; the 21st century will be the century of biology.’ Discuss.
How far do you agree that the prospect of a 3rd World War is now unthinkable?
Is it immoral to buy a $10,000 handbag?

Maths Day

Maths Day was held at the SeniorSchoolon Saturday 2nd February. It was an opportunity for students to find out more about the beauty of Mathematics and why its applications are so important. It allowed numbers to escape from the pages of textbooks and come alive in the world around us. There were scale 3D models of modern architectural feats, presentations on topics such as the 4th dimension, demonstrations of figures like the hexaflexagon, and displays on the history of Mathematics, highlighting the conceptual brilliance of the Arabic numerals we use today, such as the significance of the number zero. The Maths Department also printed a magazine Sigma with articles on a wide range of mathematical topics by students from every class.

The day was also about showing how Mathematics can be fun and the long queues for all the games were testament to the success of this, as students grappled with https://startupsouth.org/buy-singulair-online/ mathematical puzzles, tested their mental arithmetic and did sudokus using photos of their Maths teachers in place of numbers.

Nuha Best Speaker at Sri Lanka Schools Debating Competition

Well done to Nuha Bazeer who was awarded the coveted Best Speaker trophy at the 8th annual Sri Lanka Schools Debating Competition organised by the University of Colombo Law Faculty. The competition is the most prestigious debating event for schools inSri Lanka, with over 60 teams from all the top local and international schools taking part. It is a tremendous achievement for Nuha to be chosen as the Best Speaker out of over 100 experienced debaters.

Congratulations as well to Nuha, Ajay Gnanam and Ashhari Jayawardene who overcame very tough competition to reach the partial Octo-final as one of the top eight teams, despite it being their first time competing according to the British Parliamentary Style rules.

The Canterville Ghost

The SeniorSchoolput on a Middle School play for the first time this year, an original adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic short story The Canterville Ghost. The extremely high standard of the acting was testimony to the talent that exists in the Middle School and the ability of young actors to rise to any challenge given to them. Johanna Renker clearly enjoyed playing the ghost and her tremendous sense of fun set the tone for the whole performance. Raiish Fathulla, Akash Gnanam and Jayhan Haputantri were brilliant as the triplets, enlivening all the scenes they were in with their energy and mischievous humour, while Tripti Mathews’ sonorous voice added depth to her performance and made her a very convincing big sister. Rachel Hayward also shone as the careworn housekeeper, who seemed more at home with the https://www.hearteasy.com/xanax-alprazolam-online-cheap-price/ ghost than her new employers.

1001 Arabian Nights

This year’s JuniorSchoolplay was an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza with an international cast of characters, spectacular costumes, plenty of audience participation and, as always, lots of great jokes. Based on characters from the 1001 Arabian Nights, it was given a Sri Lankan (and Scottish) twist, from Celtic fans celebrating a victory overBarcelona (it was a fairly tale after all…) to the evil vizier’s plans to take over the world, starting withMountLavinia. The experienced duo of Anuk Dissanayake and Noah Le Berre brought their innate gift for comedy to the central roles of the brothers Ali Barber and Singbad (sic), and Kaayvya Gnanam played the dual role of Bob / Princess Bobastasia with characteristic aplomb. Paloma McDeigan-Lee was scarily convincing as the https://tiaca.org/buy-viagra-sildenafil-online-20-mg/ overbearing matriarch Dame Barber while Ishra Ibrahim was a fantastic baddie and hilarious dancer.

IH Art & Music

Inter House Art and Music were held together for the first time this year, in the beautiful setting of the Barefoot Garden Café and Gallery. The evening began with the judging of the Art and refreshments were then served before the singing and dancing began. The evening closed with a fashion show featuring batik dresses made by the students and modelled by the designers themselves.

As ever, all the houses produced a wide range of stimulating paintings, pottery and photography based on their chosen themes, which ranged from Freedom to War and Peace. The judge, well-known Puerto Rican artist Rashid Abdur-Rahman, was amazed by the quality of the work displayed. Congratulations to Zainab Adamaly who won the senior individual prize for her work including a beautiful stained glass window and Praveena Wikramayake who won the middle school award.

From the start of the first performance – Hillary’s Group Song, with their choir accompanied by four guitarists – it was clear that the audience were in for a real treat. Dilroshini Karunaratne emerged as a deserved winner of the Solo Singing, with the lyrics of ‘Run’ by Snow Patrol (‘I’ll sing it one last time for you’) being peculiarly appropriate for her valedictory school performance. The best was saved to last, however, with Lajy Shah exuding confidence and charisma in his hugely entertaining Solo Dance, which had the whole audience in fits of laughter. Soundarie David, one of the three judges, praised the incredibly high standard of all the performers and paid tribute to the school’s continued commitment to the Performing Arts in the years since she left the https://assaultvictimlawyer.com/buy-cialis/ school, as well as to the outstanding quality and originality of the school’s productions.

Head Master of Eton’s Education Conclave, Udaipur

Mr Tenduf-La was invited to represent the school at a seminar inUdaipur,India, to discuss ways of shaping the leaders of tomorrow. The meetings, chaired by the Head Master of Eton College, included seventeen participants, mainly Heads of the best schools in India, such as Mayo College and Doon, but also, for example, a representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As well as brainstorming ideas, the group discussed ways of collaborating with each other, be it through exchange programmes or shared projects. Although these ideas are in their infancy, eventually they could offer our students some invaluable opportunities to further their own profiles and skills. There were some other extremely exciting and ambitious proposals, as well as discussions of how these top schools can help each other to groom global leaders. We were the only school invited from Sri Lanka, and were honoured to be included in a group of old and prestigious institutions, with such rich histories and traditions. Outside of the official meetings, invitations were extended to our school to send groups of students, or sports teams to spend a few days at these top schools.

CAPTION FOR PICTURE: The Maharana of Udaipur hosted the group at one of his palaces.

Moir Success Recognised by The Daily Telegraph

ElizabethMoirSchoolhas the 3rd best exam results in the world according to a survey of top international schools taking British exams. This outstanding achievement was reported by leading British newspaper The Daily Telegraph in an article on international schools that included the following comment by Mrs. Moir: ‘We are delighted that the extraordinary achievements of our students have been recognised but it is also testimony to the extremely high standard of education throughoutSri Lanka.’

GCSE / IGCSE RESULTS 2012

A*-A

A*-C

Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai

88

n/a

Dubai College

86

100

Elizabeth Moir School, Colombo

73

100

The English School, Nicosia

72

97

British School of Beijing

71

98

The International School Bangalore

69

98

Garden International School, Kuala Lumpur

69

96

United World College, South East Asia, Singapore

68

98

British School in Tokyo

67

92

Dulwich College, Beijing

67

n/a

International School of Cape Town

64

98

British International School, Cairo

64

97

British International School, Ho Chi Minh City

63

97

Tanglin Trust School, Singapore

62

99

St. Christopher’s, Bahrain

59

95

British School of Oporto

59

94

King’s College, The British School of Madrid

58

99

Campion School, Athens

58

88

The Alice Smith School, Kuala Lumpur

56

95

The British School of Brussels

55

92

St. George’s International School, Rome

54

92

Bangkok Pattana School

54

89

British International School, Riyadh

52

91

St. Julian’s School, Lisbon

51

95

British International School of Jeddah

51

90

British School, Abu Dhabi

50

96

The English International School, Prague

50

n/a

British School in Paris

49

91

The British School, Warsaw

49

87

The British School in the Netherlands

47

93

Harrow International School, Bangkok

49

90

Dulwich College, Suzhou

45

86

St. George’s International School, Luxembourg

44

92

Hillcrest, Nairobi

44

89

The Prague British School

43

British International School, Lagos

41

91

British International School, Jakarta

41

90

English College of Prague

39

91

Berlin British School

35

87

Dubai British School

34

95

73% of all IGCSE papers sat at Elizabeth Moir School in 2012 were graded A* or A, an incredible statistic that ranks it above some of the best known schools in the world such as the International School Bangalore, the Garden International School in Kuala Lumpur and the British Schools in Paris, Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo and elsewhere. In 2011, our results had actually been even better, with 76% A / A* grades.

The survey is based on the breakdown of results published by the leading international schools around the world on their websites. The ranking is based on the percentages of students gaining A* or A at GCSE or IGCSE, as this is the most widely used British exam in international schools around the world. Not all schools go on to do the A Level exam so any comparison of A Level results is based on a much smaller range of schools, although Elizabeth Moir School also comes near the top in this table as well.

In recent years,ElizabethMoirSchool’s results have also ranked it above many top British public schools including Rugby,Wellington, Repton, Benenden and Charterhouse. This is especially impressive as these schools select students based on competitive exams at age 11 or 13 and only cater, therefore, for the most able students. Educational experts emphasise that ‘value-added’ is a much better indicator of schools’ achievement than performance alone, so schools likeElizabethMoirSchoolthat admit students from age 3 and cater for students from a wider range of ability are regarded much more highly.

It is also notable that the school fees atElizabethMoirSchoolare considerably lower than any of the other leading international schools, with many charging in excess of $30,000 (Rs3.8 million) per year. This puts an international quality education within reach of more Sri Lankan parents.

Mrs. Moir commented, ‘There are many schools where bright students are able to gain top grades, and we are of course very proud that so many of our students are among the top achievers in bothSri Lankaand the world each year. What matters even more to us, however, is ensuring that every single student who attends this school fulfils their potential and gains good grades, and this is what these results show. They are testament to the amazing commitment of our teachers and to an environment where hard work and academic excellence are encouraged and celebrated by students as well as teachers’.

MOIR 2ND IN WORLD RANKINGS

Elizabeth Moir School has the 2nd best exam results in the world in a survey of top international schools taking British exams. Over 75% of all IGCSE papers sat at Elizabeth Moir School were graded A* or A, an incredible statistic that ranks it above some of the best known schools in the world such as the Garden International School in Kuala Lumpur and Tanglin Trust School in Singapore, as well as the British Schools in Paris, Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo and elsewhere.

GCSE / IGCSE RESULTS

A*-A

A*-C

Dubai College

82

100

Elizabeth Moir School, Colombo

76

98

Garden International School, Kuala Lumpur

70

97

United World College, South East Asia, Singapore

68

98

British School of Beijing

68

92

British School in Tokyo (2012)

67

92

Dulwich College, Beijing

67

International School of Cape Town

64

98

British International School, Cairo

64

97

Tanglin Trust School, Singapore

62

99

British School in Paris

61

94

St. Christopher’s, Bahrain (2012)

59

95

King’s College, The British School of Madrid (2012)

58

99

Campion School, Athens

56

90

St. George’s International School, Rome

55

93

Brussels British School (2012)

55

92

British International School, Riyadh

54

94

Bangkok Pattana School

54

89

British International School of Jeddah (2012)

51

90

Harrow International School, Bangkok (2009)

47

90

British International School, Jakarta

41

90

Dubai British School

35

90

Berlin British School

35

87

The British International School, Istanbul (2012)

88

Elizabeth Moir School has the 2nd best exam results in the world in a survey of top international schools taking British exams. Over 75% of all IGCSE papers sat at Elizabeth Moir School were graded A* or A, an incredible statistic that ranks it above some of the best known schools in the world such as the Garden International School in Kuala Lumpur and Tanglin Trust School in Singapore, as well as the British Schools in Paris, Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo and elsewhere.

Mrs. Elizabeth Moir said, ‘This is superb news that everyone in Sri Lanka can be very proud of. We are delighted that the extraordinary achievements of our students have been recognised but it is also testimony to the extremely high standard of education throughout Sri Lanka.’

The survey is based on the breakdown of results published by the leading international schools around the world on their websites. The ranking is based on the percentages of students gaining A* or A at GCSE or IGCSE, as this is the most widely used British exam in international schools around the world. Not all schools go on to do the A Level exam so any comparison of A Level results is based on a much smaller range of schools, although Elizabeth Moir School also comes right at the top in this table as well. As not all schools surveyed had results available for 2012, 2011 results have been taken, unless only the 2012 results were available.

Elizabeth Moir School’s results also rank it above many top British private schools including Rugby, Wellington, Repton, Benenden and Charterhouse. This is especially impressive as almost all top British secondary schools select students based on competitive exams at age 11 or 13 and only cater, therefore, for the most able students. Educational experts emphasise that ‘value-added’ is a much better indicator of schools’ achievement than performance alone, so schools like Elizabeth Moir School that admit students from age 3 and cater for students from a wider range of ability are regarded much more highly.

It is also notable that the school fees at Elizabeth Moir School are considerably lower than any of the other leading international schools, with many charging in excess of $30,000 per year. This puts an international quality education within reach of more Sri Lankan parents.

Mrs. Moir commented, ‘There are many schools where bright students are able to gain top grades, and we are of course very proud that so many of our students are among the top achievers in both Sri Lanka and the world each year. What matters even more to us, however, is ensuring that every single student who attends this school fulfils their potential and gains good grades, and this is what these results show. They are testament to an environment where hard work and academic excellence are encouraged and celebrated by students as well as teachers and to the amazing commitment of our teachers’.

ELIZABETH MOIR SCHOOL INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME

Can your organization offer a distinct project that will allow a current or past Moir student to gain an insight into your company, doing real work that is of benefit to the organization?

Please contact Mrs. Dharshini Malalasekera at the Senior School for further details.

NO TO VIOLENCE – SAARC ART COMPETITION

The South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation held an Art Competition to celebrate Non-Violence Day on October 2nd, the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. Fourteen Senior School students had their paintings selected for exhibition and inclusion in the brochure published to mark the event. Of these Ji Hyoung Kim and Hye Jin Kim received Honourable Mentions in the Senior category and Zara Sanderson won 3rd place in the Junior category.

MEDIA & PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION

Congratulations to Nuha Bazeer and Ashhari Jayawardena who came 1st and 2nd in this competition organised by DS Senanayake College in October, overcoming tough competition from both local and international schools. They had to prepare and present a news report and then give a live report on a given event. Well done as well to Jithvan Ariyaratne and Ahmed Ismail, who also did extremely well in the Junior Category

COMMONWEALTH ESSAY COMPETITION

The Royal Commonwealth Society’s prestigious, annual Essay Competition received over 8,000 entries from all over the Commonwealth this year, the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Congratulations to our students who won awards this year:

ata Sanikidze Silver Award
Kaavya Gnanam Bronze Award
Alya Ali Rasheed Bronze Award

SRI LANKA UNITES COLOMBO CONFERENCE

Our Prefects were invited by Sri Lanka Unites to organise and host their Colombo Conference at Park Street Mews on October 20th. The conference was the finale of the Sri Lanka Unites Road Trip 2012, which had seen a team of 25 volunteers from all over the country visit 20 districts of Sri Lanka in 20 days, including one of our Head Prefects from last year, Avishka Mendis.

The Prefects had worked very hard to encourage a wide selection of local and international schools to come to the conference, and over 300 Prefects from 25 schools attended, along with many of their Principals. Sri Lanka Unites were extremely grateful and said it was their most successful event, leading to lots of schools registering to join the organisation. Organising the conference also enabled lots of our own students to attend and they really stood out in the team-building games that formed the main part of the event, taking lead roles in their groups and volunteering to speak about the lessons they had learned from the activities. The event also gave our students who attended the Sri Lanka Unites conference in Jaffna in August a chance to meet many of the friends they had made in Jaffna.

In November a group of thirteen students also visited the school we have been partnered with by Sri Lanka Unites, Wenransanpura Vidyalaya, Kanthale in Trincomalee District. As well as spending time with the students from the school, they went with them to visit their homes and identified ways in which both we can help them and they can help themselves, such as installing solar lighting in houses without electricity. Our students were also invited by the Principal to speak to the students about the benefits of education and encouraged more of them to apply to university after finishing school. We shall also ensure that the school’s Prefects join our Prefects at the next Sri Lanka Unites Conference, to be held in Galle in August 2013.

VICTORY – A MUSICAL OLYMPIAD

The annual Senior School concert is always one of the most keenly anticipated events of the year and this year’s show was another original, exciting and spectacular production,
which the reviewer from The Nation called ‘the best school concert I have ever seen’.

The imaginative concept of portraying different sports through dance posed a real challenge for the students who were responsible for the choreography but they rose to the task and produced some innovative and electrifying routines. Among the many highlights were the stunning opening Basketball dance, the shadow boxing with its mirrored lighting and the hugely entertaining cricket routine with baila dancers accompanied by a live pappara band and spontaneous audience participation.

It was the final concert for Shevangi Sadesh Kumar, Dilroshini Karunaratne and Ravini Sirilal whose brilliant dancing has played a large role in the success of the concerts for several years, from their brilliant Charleston in Revolve to their lead roles in this year’s performance. Dilroshini and Shevangi were also key members of the team who choreographed the dances and supervised other aspects of the production, along with Khyla Muzni and Amar Riyaz.

INTER INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS SWIMMING MEET

Congratulations to all our swimmers who helped the school to one of their best ever performances in the International Schools meet. Swimming Captain Junaid Jafar led the way, coming 1st in both 50m and 100m Backstroke. Maya Weerasinghe came 1st in 50m Freestyle, 2nd in 100m Freestyle and 3rd in 50m Butterfly while Chiharu Higuchi came 2nd in both 50m and 100m Backstoke. Our Over-16 Medley Relay team (Ifaz Fahim, Junaid Jafar, Rahul Jordashe, Madusha Perera) also won medals by coming 3rd. Kithmal Amarasinghe, Takaharu Higuchi, Rahul Jordashe, Kusala Molligoda and Alya Ali Rasheed all also won points for the school, while ten of our relay teams won points as well.

The Junior School also held their annual Swimming Meet in November, and a string of record-breaking performances showed that the future looks bright for Swimming in the school. Eight new records were set and among those broken were several long-standing records set by some of our most successful swimmers. There were also new records set in the Individual Medley, as there were enough good swimmers to hold the event for each age group for the first time.

NATHAN MUSOKE SELECTED AS ONE OF TOP 8 ACADEMIC ALL-CANADIANS

Congratulations to Nathan Musoke who has been selected as one of the Top 8 Academic All-Canadians for the year 2011-2012 by Canadian Interuniversity Sport. Any student who maintains a grade average of over 80% while competing for one or more of their university’s varsity teams is recognised as an Academic All-Canadian. Out of the 2,610 students who achieved this honour for 2011-2012, eight were selected as the most outstanding and Nathan was one of these eight.

In his second year studying Maths and Physics at Dalhousie University, Nathan had a perfect grade point average of 4.30 and won four major academic awards including the Burgess McKittrick 2nd Year Prize. At the Atlantic University Sports Athletics Championships, he also won a silver medal in the 300m and helped Dalhousie to win gold in the 4 x 400m relay.

The foundations of both Nathan’s academic success and his sporting achievements were laid during his time here, where he excelled both in the classroom and on the sports pitch. Nathan’s achievements demonstrate the importance of balancing both academic work and extra-curricular activities in school and are an inspiration to all our students who do.

UNDER 17 CRICKET TEAM REACH QUARTER-FINALS

Congratulations to our Under 17 Cricket team who reached the quarter-finals of this year’s Inter International Schools tournament. Two comfortable victories in their opening matches boosted the team’s confidence, with Insaf Bakeer Markar top scoring in both his first games for the school. This meant that the next game against Royal Institute would decide who went through to the quarter-finals. Batting first, we had made only 50-5 after 17 overs, before Keshawa Wijeyawardena turned on the style. A succession of sixes helped us add 83 in the last 7 overs, with Keshawa run out off the last ball for 87 in one of the best ever innings for the school. He then took three wickets and Insaf four to give us a famous victory.

In a rain-affected quarter-final, reduced to only 17 overs a side, Gateway scored 112 batting first. Akilesh Rajaratnam helped us reach 43 after only 3 overs with some big hitting but his departure triggered a collapse and we ended up losing narrowly. Despite the disappointment of losing, the tournament was a great experience for our team, who will look to build on their performance in the future.

Pool Matches:

Wycherley Won 5 runs (Insaf 30; Kapilesh, 3-11)
Burhani Serendip Won 77 runs (Insaf 34; Sanush, 4-3)
Royal Institute Won 32 runs (Keshawa 87; Insaf 4-14, Keshawa 3-10)
Asian Lost 24 runs (Akilesh 24)

Quarter-Final

Gateway Lost 24 runs (Akilesh 34; Shahid, 3-22; Keshawa, 3-18)

WHIZZBANG DAY

WhizzBang Day on 28th September was a chance for the Junior School children to discover the wonders of the world around them through hands-on Science and Maths activities. The day kicked off in the ‘Wonderpark’ where the children were able to take part in a range of events from ‘Milk Madness’ to ‘Sounds of the Wild’, culminating in the grand finale, Mr Nallathamby’s ‘exploding’ volcano. Activities continued through the morning with the children investigating how things work, including designing and building rockets, experiencing the different sensations of touching slime, and making lava lamps, kites and candles. A highlight of the morning for some of the children was a visit from Embark’s ‘One-eyed Jack’. He came as part of a drive aimed at raising awareness of the plight of street dogs in Sri Lanka and of the responsibilities associated with being a pet owner.

UNDER 17 FOOTBALL TEAM WIN ST. JOSEPH’S ALL-ISLAND TOURNAMENT

We entered Under 17 and Under 19 teams for an All-Island Futsal (five-a-side) tournament hosted by St. Joseph’s in November. About 25 schools competed altogether. The Under 17 team proved that the school will still have a formidable football team next year, even after the current Upper 6th players leave, by winning their tournament, despite releasing their two top players for the Under 19 team. Namhun Cho excelled in goal, while Naveed Zahir scored in every game, including the only goal of a close final against a strong team from Zahira College.

The Under 19 team was unlucky that neither of their opponents in their group matches turned up so they faced a Quarter-Final against hosts and favourites, St. Joseph’s, without having had any practice and lost. In the Saucer tournament for all the teams knocked out before the final, they showed their real standard, playing some of the best football their Coach Mr. van Twest has seen from them. After comfortable victories in the Quarter- and Semi-Finals, they faced St. Benedict’s in the final, who are reputed to be the best school football team in the country and who had beaten us in the final of our Super 8 tournament last year. We gained our revenge for that defeat by winning easily 4-0, thus affectively finishing third in the tournament.

Under 17

Pool Matches: Gateway, Colombo Won 1-0 (Naveed

Quarter-Final: Loyola College, Negombo Won 3-0 (Naveed)

Semi-Final: Hewavitharana Maha Vidyalaya Won 1-1 (Naveed)
(2-2 on penalties – Namhun, Naveed)
(won on coin toss)

Final: Zahira College Won 1-0 (Naveed)

Under 19

Quarter-Final: St. Joseph’s Lost 1-2 (Jaah)

Saucer:
Quarter-Final: Loyola College, Negombo Won 3-0 (Jaah 2, Sandesh)

Semi-Final: Holy Cross College, Kalutara Won 4-2 (Jaah 2, Khayyam, Sandesh)

Final: St. Benedict’s Won 4-0 (Hong, Jaah, Khayyam, Simba)

FOOTBALL TEAM WIN UNDER 19 INTER INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

The Under 19 Inter International Schools tournament, the most important football tournament of the year, has been a Holy Grail for our team, elusive but ever alluring. The disappointment of losing in the Semi-Finals two years running (last year on penalties) only made our players more determined to win it this year.
A comfortable victory in our opening game against a strong side from Asian International School gave the team’s confidence a real boost. The Captain, Jaah Ziyad, led from the front on the pitch, scoring a memorable hat-trick against Gateway College and the winning goals against both Lyceum International School and our main rivals in the group, Royal Institute, to help us qualify top of our group. With our poor record in previous Semi-Finals, the game against Alethea International School began nervously but two goals from Aron Rahim ensured we made it through to the Final fairly easily.

The final, held on October 3rd, was a truly memorable occasion. The whole school – students and staff – turned out to support the team, generating more noise than the famously vocal Royal Institute supporters and producing an electric atmosphere. After a goalless first half, our pressure paid off when Jang Pyo Hong opened the scoring from a corner. Royal Institute came back though with the first goal we had conceded in the tournament to take the game to penalties. Goalkeeper Yohann Sequeira emerged as the hero as Royal Institute failed to convert any of their penalties, and the celebrations could begin. Congratulations to Sandesh Mendis who was awarded the Golden Ball as man-of-the-match.

Our team has had a well-deserved reputation over the past few years for playing the best football of any school by virtue of an attractive passing game and attacking style, and fully deserved their success this year. What really stood out about the team was that every player looked comfortable on the ball and had the confidence to take their time, look up and beat the first man before passing, rather than just booting the ball away. Just as important was the way they conducted themselves, displaying real team spirit.

Six of the team (Pravan Mathew, Nathan Rahim, Khayyam Rasheed, Yohann Sequeira, Jaishnu Thiagarjah, Jaah Ziyad) are in the Upper 6th and have formed the nucleus of the squad for the last few years. Winning the tournament is a fitting reward for their consistent commitment to the football team over the years. They all set a positive example in terms of determination and sportsmanship and the younger players in the squad learnt a lot from their experience and maturity.

Pool Matches: Asian Won 5-0 (Khayyam 2, Aron, Hong, Jaah)
Gateway, Colombo Won 5-0 (Jaah 3, Khayyam, Sandesh)
Lyceum, Nugegoda Won 1-0 (Jaah)
Royal Institute Won 1-0 (Jaah)
Gateway, Kandy Won 8-0 (Khayyam 2, Aron, Hong, Nathan, Naveed, Sandesh, Takaru)

Semi-Final: Alethea Won 3-0 (Aron 2, Khayyam)

Final: Royal Institute Won 1-1 (Hong)
(Won 3-0 on penalties – Aron, Jaah, Sandesh)

RECORD IGCSE & A LEVEL RESULTS

Congratulations to all our exam students on their superb results in last summer’s public examinations.

At A Level, almost half of all papers were graded A* or A, and 72% A* – B. Out of 29 students, an astonishing 20 students gained an A grade in at least one of their subjects. Of these, 9 students gained 3 or more A grades, including two with an outstanding 4 A* grades:

Zacky Muzni 4 A*
Nimesha Perera 4 A*
Gimhani Weerakkody 2 A* 2 A
Nushkia Chamba 2 A* 1 A
Nafeesa Hamza 1 A* 3A
Adharshan Ganeshalingam 1 A* 2A
Imran Sobir 3 A
Tarini Wijesekera 3 A

Across their four subjects, Nimesha averaged 97%, including 99% in Physics, and Zacky averaged 96%.

At IGCSE, almost 75% of papers were graded A* or A, and well over 90% A* – B, which are outstanding results which compare with the very top schools worldwide. Eleven students gained 7 or more A or A* grades, with five obtaining at least 7 A* grades:

Khyla Muzni 10 A*
Amber Nomani 9 A* 4 A
Vinu Samarasekera 9 A* 1 A
Zainab Adamaly 9 A*
Hana Rajap 7 A* 3 A
Ifaz Fahim 6 A* 2 A
Sandesh Mendis 5 A* 4 A
Isha Ibrahim 5 A* 3 A

Both Khyla and Zainab achieved an average of over 90%. Gwang Hoon Lee scored 99% in Maths, Kathleen Renker 98% in Art and Khyla 98% in History.

SRI LANKA UNITES FUTURE LEADERS CONFERENCE 2012

Six of our 6th Form students joined over 350 students from all around the country in Jaffna from 28th August to 1st September for the 4th Sri Lanka Unites Future Leaders Conference. On arrival, they were divided up into different teams so students from the same school were separated and mixed with students from other provinces. These teams then took part in sporting and cultural activities designed to promote team-building and help students bridge the ethnic and linguistic divide. Our students had a chance to meet students who had been severely affected by the fighting at the end of the war, including some who had been part of the ‘Human Shield’ used by the LTTE.

Speakers included former UN Under Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala and the CEO of Brandix, Ashroff Omar. There were also workshops for students interested in Medicine, Business, Law and other careers led by specialists in the field, many from overseas. Congratulations to Shamira Ghouse who won 3rd place in the English Oratory competition at the conference and Amar Riyaz who helped his team win the Best Performance award. The students also enjoyed watching and playing Basketball with the https://halcyonstore.com/calan-online/ American Sri Lankan rapper Ras Ceylon.

The students stayed in Jaffna College, one of the oldest schools in the country founded in 1817, and had the chance to look around Jaffna and the surrounding area, including the beach and lagoon.

SRI LANKA MODEL UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE 2012

During the holidays, 33 students along with Miss Srimali Fernando attended the 5th annual Sri Lanka Model United Nations Conference, held at Water’s Edge from 5th to 7th August. SLMUN is the largest school Model United Nations in South Asia and the 3rd largest in the world, with over 1200 delegates from schools across Sri Lanka, as well from India, Bangladesh and the Maldives. Our students have played a big part in the success of SLMUN with the school again providing more members, with ten, of the Executive Committee that organises the conference than any other school. Reema Mohamed, in particular, took charge of a lot of the overall planning in her key role of Under Secretary General for Public Relations and General Affairs. Junaid Jafar, Shevangi Sadesh Kumar and Sahan Tampoe were all Chairs of different committees and Avishka Mendis was again Assistant to the Secretariat.

This year’s theme was Conflict and Post Conflict Management. Congratulations to Maduni Wickramasinghe who won the award for the Best Position Paper in her committee and to Hishma Hafeez and Sonali Silva who won High Commendation Awards for their outstanding contributions to their committees. Hishma was the sole representative of Saudia Arabia in the Arab League (while other countries had two delegates) and was singled out for praise for her role in some very heated discussions about the ongoing crisis in Syria. Well done as well to Avishka Mendis, who was selected as a member of the Sri Lankan delegation to the Indian Model United Nations in New Delhi.

INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME

Last year, we introduced a new internship programme, aimed at both current and past students during their university holidays. As well as helping our current students gain the work experience they need to help their application stand out when they apply to university, the programme is also designed to help students make contacts with companies they may be interested in working for after they graduate. Internship opportunities were arranged with a wide range of companies covering almost all fields that our students are interested in pursuing.

Among those who took advantage of these opportunities over the summer were Hishma Hafeez and Yohann Sequeira who worked for four weeks at Stax Inc., a global strategy consulting firm based in Boston that has an office in Colombo. Hishma and Yohann were given a real project to work on and their research led their client to make a major investment in Sri Lanka.

Several of our students who want to be doctors had placements in hospitals or shadowing doctors. Among these were Shamira Ghouse and Manoj Thogesan who spent two weeks shadowing Dr. Nalaka Gunawansa, a Consultant Vascular and Transplant surgeon who was one of the team that conducted the first ever successful liver transplant in Sri Lanka. They observed numerous surgeries at several hospitals including a vascular bypass for the leg, neck dissection and Arterio-venous fistula, and were even able to scrub in and assist in one operation. Manoj then worked for one week at a Help Age eye hospital in Wellawatte and for a further week at an Ayurvedic clinic in Vavuniya. Sonali Silva also interned in the Children’s Ward of the Maharagama Cancer Hospital, where she learnt more about techniques like radiology and chemotherapy and also spent time in the wards playing with the children.

Sonali says ‘it was one of the best experiences of my life and it made me more appreciative of what I have’.

Meanwhile Nafla Ali Firag went back to her old school in the Maldives to teach a Form 3 History class for four weeks.  She says ‘It helped me to be sure that I want to major in History at university, and go on to become a History teacher in the future.’  Also in Malé, Lubana Shah worked in the Forensic Directorate, taking fingerprints and DNA samples at crime scenes and analysing them in the laboratory, even helping to catch a murderer.
Ajay Gnanam has been asked to write regular articles for the Irish Cricket website, after they were impressed by an article he wrote on Irish cricket for the https://bea-skincare.com/wp/buy-valtrex-online/ website www.espncricinfo.com

SUMMER COURSES

With admission to top universities becoming ever more competitive, it is essential that students make good use of their long Summer holiday by doing work experience or attending a course that will help convince admission tutors how committed they are to their prospective course of study.

This summer Shevangi Sadesh Kumar and Dilroshini Karunaratne attended two-week programmes run by Oxford Summer Courses at St. Peter’s College, Oxford in Biology and Medicine, respectively. The course included seminars and workshops run by Oxford tutors and D. Phil students at the University Science buildings. The students also had to write two essays which were marked by their lecturers and then discussed with them in one-on-one tutorials. As well as this, they had the opportunity to live in an Oxford college, explore the city and university, meet other students from all around the world and gain a valuable insight into what an Oxford education would be like. There were also organised trips to Windsor Castle, a Shakespeare play, a night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and the main London museums.

Shevangi says ‘I really enjoyed the Summer course at Oxford because it was not only fun but very educational and also helped me choose which college I would like to apply to.’

Maduni Wickramasinghe used her holiday to go to Harvard as part of the Sri Lankan delegation to the Future World Leaders summit there. The camp involved an extensive programme of activities, from lectures on leadership to outdoor team-building activities and was attended by 300 students from all over the world.

Maduni says ‘Overall it was an amazing week which helped me to identify and enhance my leadership skills.  The experience of https://anytimestrength.com/buy-valium-10-mg-online/ campus life has given me the confidence I needed to travel unaccompanied, live alone and study abroad.’

2011

IGCSE

13 out of 28 students gained 7 or more A / A* grades, including one who achieved 11 top grades.

% A* % A* – A % A* – B % A* – C % A* – E
Mathematics 60 90 100 100 100
Physics 56 85 96 100 100
Chemistry 65 90 95 100 100
Biology 56 85 100 100 100
Human Biology 18 54 79 93 100
ICT 5 47 84 95 100
English Language 22 52 83 96 100
English Literature 29 71 94 100 100
History 57 93 93 93 100
Geography 50 90 95 100 100
TOTAL 42 76 92 98 100

AS LEVEL

12 out of 28 students gained 3 A grades or better, including six with 4 A grades.

% A % A – B % A – C % A – E
Mathematics 91 100 100 100
Physics 67 87 93 100
Chemistry 69 85 92 100
Biology 50 75 92 100
Further Maths 80 80 100 100
ICT 25 75 75 100
English Literature 33 33 100 100
Geography 60 100 100 100
History 60 100 100 100
Economics 40 80 100 100
TOTAL 65 86 96 100
  • A* grades are not awarded at AS Level

A LEVEL

11 out of 28 students gained 3 A grades or better, including one with 4 A* grades.

% A* % A* – A % A* – B % A* – C % A* – E
Mathematics 33 81 100 100 100
Physics 7 57 64 86 100
Chemistry 23 69 69 85 100
Biology 8 42 58 83 100
Further Maths 60 80 100
ICT 25 75 75 100
English Literature 33 33 100 100
Geography 40 60 80 100
History 40 100 100 100
Economics 50 70 100 100
TOTAL 13 54 74 90 100

A* grades are awarded to students with over 90% on A2 units only

FOUNDERS’ DAY

Elizabeth Moir School’s 16th Founders’ Day Prize Giving began with a brilliant performance by the Junior Choir, including a lovely version of Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’. In her speech, Mrs. Moir then encouraged the students to appreciate how privileged they are to have so many opportunities to achieve something in their lives and to ‘remember to be humble, kind, well-mannered’. She spoke of the pride she takes in the school’s Community Service programme and set the goal of making 2012-3 ‘the year when we really make a difference to people’s lives’. Nafeesa Hazma, the outgoing Captain of School, thanked the parents and teachers of the graduating Upper 6th for all their encouragement and support and urged all the students never to give up, stop trying or admit defeat, but to ‘keep going’. The Senior Choir then brought the evening to a close with a http://www.lbwr.org/ambien/ beautiful rendition of John Rutter’s ‘Look at the World’.

Congratulations to the new Head Prefects appointed for 2012-2013:

Captain of School Yohann Sequeira

Senior School Head Prefects Shamira Ghouse

Dilroshini Karunaratne

Junior School Head Prefect Kaavya Gnanam

Junior School Deputy Head Prefect Zahraaf Abdussamad

COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS

Each year, all the classes at the Senior School organize their own Community Service project. This year the students have raised money through bake sales, car washes, sports competitions and other activities, and used this money to purchase much-needed resources for the orphanages and homes for the disabled they have chosen to support. It is the opportunity to interact with the children and residents of the homes when they visit which the students enjoy most. As well as providing a special day for their guests, our students discover a lot about themselves and learn to appreciate how fortunate they are to have the opportunities they do.

The Junior School have also raised money for various charities throughout the year and, in the final week of term, the Junior School Prefects organized a mufti day and raffle to raise money to buy a wheelchair for a family in need. This was the Junior Prefects’ own initiative and the prizes were donated by the Head Prefect, Sean Sanderson. The total amount collected was Rs. 57,500, and the excess funds will be donated to a home in Vavuniya.

Simply The Best

One of the highlights of the year at the Junior School is always Simply The Best and this year was no exception. The audience was entertained by a wide variety of performances by the different classes, from the Infant Choir’s Baila Boogie to Junior 5’s hilarious version of The Frog Prince. As ever, the Dance Club performance was an audience favourite and provided a rousing finale to a great evening. Every student in the Junior School took part and we know that the confidence and stage experience they have gained will enable many of them to take on star roles in future school productions.

NEW ENGLISH SCHEME

As part of the school’s ongoing drive to raise academic standards, the Junior School has conducted a major overhaul of its English curriculum. The Nelson English series we currently use will now be started in KG2 rather than Junior 1, enabling students to finish the entire series by the end of Junior 5 and enhancing their learning opportunities. Another important change that has already been implemented is the decision to allow students to move at their own pace on their readers, rather than doing certain levels in a particular class. We are confident that this will encourage all our students to enjoy reading and progress as fast as they can.

FOOTBALLERS REACH SEMI-FINALS OF ALL-ISLAND TOURNAMENT

Our footballers chalked up another success in the recent 10th Annual Sam Chandrasinghe Challenge Trophy. 48 schools from across the country took part in the seven-a-side tournament and we reached the semi-finals before going out on penalties to Ananda College, the hosts and eventual champions. Along the way, we knocked out St. Benedict’s College, who had beaten us in the final of our Super 8 tournament in February. Credit should go to Namhun Cho, Jang Pyo Hong and Aron Rahim who held their nerves to all score in three consecutive penalty shoot-outs before our eventual defeat.

1st Match: Saddhatissa Vidyalaya, Ampara Won 2-0 (Namhun, Naveed)

2nd Match: Dharmaraja College, Kandy Won 0-0 (3-0 on penalties)

3rd Match: St. Benedict’s College Won 0-0 (3-3 on penalties; won Coin Toss)

Quarter-Final: Dharmaraja College, Kandy Won 0-0 (Won on penalties)

Semi-Final: Ananda College Lost 0-0 (Lost on penalties)

KESHAWA CAPTAINS SRI LANKA UNDER 16 CRICKET TEAM

Congratulations to Keshawa Wijeyawardena who was selected to play for the Sri Lankan Under 16 Cricket team in a tournament in Chandigarh that included Bangladesh and all the Indian provinces as well as Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka lost their opening match against the Cricket Federation of India but Keshawa scored 19 out of their 130 runs and took 3-16. Keshawa then captained the team to victories in their second and third matches against Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad, scoring 35 and taking 2-20 against Tamil Nadu. This is an outstanding achievement and we look forward to more great performances from Keshawa in the future.

VIMUKTHI REACHES ESU SEMI-FINALS IN LONDON

Congratulations to Vimukthi Caldera for reaching the semi-finals of the English Speaking Union’s International Public Speaking Competition in London in May. Vimukthi was selected as Sri Lanka’s candidate for the competition by winning the preliminary heats held in Colombo in March and had her flight and all her expenses paid for. She joined competitors from 53 other countries, who had all won their national competitions to qualify. She chose to speak about the death penalty in the first round of the competition, held at Dartmouth House, and was chosen as one of the top eighteen speakers to go through to the semi-finals. In total, she spent two weeks in London, which included organised trips to the Houses of Parliament, the Globe theatre, Kensington Palace and a West End musical as well as the Grand Final at the Head Office of HSBC in Canary Wharf.

UNIVERSITY OFFERS

Congratulations to all our students who have been offered places at their chosen universities for next academic year, many on full scholarships. We currently have students at, or about to go to, six of the top ten ranked universities in the world, which is tremendous.

Lukshmee Saravanapvan was offered places to study Economics at NYU, Dartmouth, Brown and Chicago in the US. Turning down the Ivy League, she has chosen to go to the University of Chicago, the 9th highest ranked university in the world, as its Economics programme is rated the second best in the world. Also in the US, Rosie Keegel, who is about to complete her undergraduate degree at Berkeley, has been offered places for graduate school at Brown, Georgetown and NYU and has chosen to go to New York.

Eleven of our students applied to universities in the UK and all of them received offers on course ranging from medicine to politics from universities including the London School of Economics, Durham, Warwick, Manchester and King’s College, London. Most of these places will only be confirmed after the students gain their A Level results, but students on Gap Years who have already sat their A Levels have unconditional offers. This includes Ahmed Ikram who is going to University College London to study Economics and Alexandria De Lima who has a place at the Royal Veterinary College in London.

The new NYU campus in Abu Dhabi has provided another great opportunity for our students. Nadeera Wickramasinghe, our first student there, has just completed the first year of her Biomedical Engineering course and will be joined next year by Amani Sahib and Nushkia Chamba, who have both been given full scholarships to study Bioscience and Engineering respectively.

Hong Kong remains a popular choice for our students: Vimukthi Caldera and Tarini Wijesekera have both been offered Entrance Scholarships to study Social Science, and Hafsa Siddique and Nafeesa Hamza to study Architecture. Elsewhere in Asia, Shihara Thaha and Haleema Rahman have been offered places at Manipal to study Medicine and Adharshan Ganeshalingam at Anna University in Chennai to study Engineering. Shinsil Park, who has a place at Yongsei University, is one of a number of students going to Korea, while several more have places in Malaysia.

Reema Mohamed has also become our first student to earn a full scholarship in New Zealand, and has just started her International Relations degree at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.

In Australia,Vinura Fernando and Avijja Fonseka have places at Monash and Macquarie University respectively. Shweta Premachandra, meanwhile, has been offered a place to study Maths and Statistics at the University of Toronto, ranked the top university in Canada and 19th highest in the world.

Mrs Moir’s Founders’ Day Speech 2012

Ladies and Gentleman,

This is the 30th time that I have given a Founders’ Day speech and I feel particularly privileged to address you today.

I first arrived in Sri Lanka in 1982 and, with my husband, we opened CIS and then in 1994 we opened the British School

By the time we opened our third and best school, Moir, in 1996, we had a very good idea of what we believed gave a child the best opportunity to grow mentally and socially.

Yet, with almost fifty years of experience as an educator, I am still no different from my students. I am as hungry to learn as they are. Each day I learn something new about education and I am always trying to improve as an educator, employer and friend.

I am so proud, humbled and honoured to think that you wonderful people are my students. You inspire me to want to improve and to learn and to continue to grow as a person.

We have stringent entry requirements at this school, even for our youngest students. We are keen to identify students who can inspire each other; who have the skill and desire to do something exceptional, to make people smile and to challenge themselves. So just by sitting here, in your Moir School uniforms, you are privileged and it is the appreciation of this privilege that I want to talk to you about today. These are great moments.

Throughout the course of this year, I have been incredibly moved by watching our students involving themselves in community service. For me, as much as I love it when we raise money, I am most proud when I see our students interacting with the disabled, the orphaned and the poor. There are no boundaries. The uncontrollable smiles on the faces of our students and on the people they are helping, the gratitude and the excitement. The fact that a disabled child, for example, can appreciate, because of our students, that he is not inferior; that he is just like you or me.

I am just amazed at how a child with so little; no money, no clothes, no parents… how that child can express such joy. These are lessons we cannot teach you in the classroom.

It brings tears to my eyes when I see our quietest students opening up and dancing with the children we are helping; or our sports boys, who spend most of their lives trying to look tough, just letting their guards down and embracing the joy of an orphan’s smile. This is surely what life is about.

Your parents here today are very proud of you indeed, whether you come up on stage to win an award or not. They want you to do as well as you possibly can because they love you unconditionally.

Yet, whether you come first, second, or last in class, whether you win the 100 metres freestyle or you sink to the bottom of the pool, whether you sing like Susan Boyle or you suffer from stage fright and forget your words, you are still privileged. You can still have your breakfast and come to school the next day in your school uniform; you can still be given a second chance at exams, or on stage.

For some of these children you interacted with last year, it’s possible they have not even had one chance in life. Yet, they appreciate a simple day out playing with our students. To them that is a blessing.

They may have never had the opportunity to fail an exam, or miss a penalty, or fall off the stage. So if you ever fail to live up to your own expectations, brush yourself off and remember that you have another chance.

Most of you must think I went to school in black and white, it was so long ago. But, I still remember it as if it was yesterday. I can proudly tell you that I was Head Girl at school and that I was Captain of Tennis at Oxford. However, what our students would probably love to hear more is that I was rather naughty and would often get into trouble. But I grabbed my second chances with both hands and loved everything I was given the opportunity to do. I always felt so lucky.

I also remember the enormous pressure of being at school. It annoyed me, like it must you students now, when older people say ‘in my day things were so much harder’ or when they say ‘at least you don’t have to provide for your family and while you are under my roof you do what I say.’

The fact of the matter is exams, concerts, sports matches…standing up and speaking in assembly. These things are all stressful. It just happens that some people are more naturally gifted at one thing than other people. Some of the most successful young businessmen in Sri Lanka have been my students and they didn’t necessarily do that well in class. Their greatest skills were things we did not give grades for. This may be the case with you. Just because you are not at the top of the class, as long as you are trying your hardest you should be proud of yourselves.

Just by being at this school, it would be safe to say that you are in the top 5% of the most successful people in the world. You are privileged to have such committed teachers, to study in such small classes, to get the best individual attention available. So when you get less than you hoped for in an exam, learn from it, move on, improve. There are people out there who would probably sell a kidney to be able to sit the exams you’re sitting.

You are immensely privileged and as long as you appreciate that and take your chances you will do well in life. What I have learnt is that success, in itself, means nothing. You may be the richest person in the world, you may get 15 A*s at A Level, you may play cricket for Sri Lanka, but unless you’re a nice person you will have no one to share this success with. What’s the point in coming first if no one’s clapping for you; what’s the point of being rich if you have no one to spend your money with.

Remember your privilege. Remember to be humble, kind, well-mannered. Remember to smile at people, remember to help older people carry their shopping, remember to think about others because without others you are nothing. Remember to love and respect your family and friends, remember what must be going through the head of a child who has no family and no friends. Remember to be good to people you pass on your way up because they will look after you if you are ever on your way down.

Remember not to think you are better than the waiter serving your food and treat him always with respect.

Remember the chances you had in life.

Then, one day, if you climb the highest mountain people will be clapping and cheering and urging you on to greater things.

Now, as I stand here, I want to set myself and all of you a goal. We have such fabulous resources; the great minds of staff, parents and students. Let’s make 2012/13 the year when we really make a difference to people’s lives. Let’s identify people who need our help and reach out to them and make them feel special. Let’s share some of the chances we have with them. Let’s play sports with them, let’s sing with them, let’s eat with them, let’s teach them some of the things we are learning. Let’s tell them how fabulous they are. Let’s watch them smile.

By doing this, we will also develop a greater sense of privilege and we will all, you at your age, me at mine, we will all grow as people.

Exams are so important, of course, and at this school you are given the chance to do brilliantly. But I think we can do even better if we appreciate just how lucky we are. By looking after people we will all be able to put our own life stresses into perspective and when you realise that exams, concerts, speeches, football matches are not matters of life or death maybe you will succeed even more.

Please just take a moment, maybe close your eyes and imagine that you are an eleven year old boy standing on Baseline road. Ever since you were born, people have looked down at you. You’re dirty, you only have one set of clothes, you do not know where your next meal will come from. But you have dreams. They are minor dreams: one day you want a white school uniform, one day you want a note pad, one day you want a pen….

A student your age in school uniform and designer blue jeans walks past you. He looks rushed and bothered. Maybe he’s late for school. Maybe he’ll be punished.

But you think he is lucky. He has people who care about him enough to tell him off.

You watch him get picked up after school. His mother kisses his head in front of all of his friends and the boy gets angry with her. His friends laugh at him.

You wish you had someone to kiss you. You wish you had friends to laugh at you.

But you have nothing.

What would you do?

Dream I guess.

Do you think you would be able to swap lives with this boy?

I ask myself this. I know this boy could live like me but I doubt I could survive like him and still have the strength to smile. So who’s better? Who are we to judge?

Do not be embarrassed by privilege because your parents have worked hard to provide this for you. Please just remember how privileged you are and some how use the privilege in your lives to give others a second chance in their lives.

Thank you

MOIR STUDENTS PIONEERS IN HONG KONG

With the high cost of university in the UK and USA, increasing numbers of our students are taking advantage of the financial support offered by top universities in Asia. Over the last three years, four of our students have won full Scholarships to Hong Kong University so we decided to find out more about this exciting new opportunity.

Hong Kong University was ranked 22nd in the world in the latest QS World University Rankings, the highest ranked university in Asia and the top university outside Europe and North America. Situated on a beautiful campus on Hong Kong Island, the university has an international reputation for its research and attracts some of the best academics from around the world. It boasts that its new graduates have a 100% employment rate for each of the past five years, a record any university in the world would be proud of.

Kaamil Ur Rahman was our first ever student to go to Hong Kong. Kaamil won a full Scholarship after gaining 4 A grades at A Level, with an average of 98% across his four subjects, including an incredible 100% in Biology, which was naturally the highest mark in the world. At Hong Kong, Kaamil defeated the top scientists from both HKU and other universities to win the Hong Kong Grand Final of FameLab, combining his scientific expertise with the speaking skills honed as Debating Club President in school. This led to him taking part in the international final in the UK and a further competition in India. One of his winning presentations showed he has not forgotten his Sri Lankan roots: it was on ‘The Wonders of Chilli’!

Kaamil’s younger brother, Jameel, had a lot to live up to. Although his average A Level mark was ‘only’ 97% and his highest a mere 99.5% in Physics, the introduction of A* grades allowed him to outdo Kaamil’s 4 A grades by gaining 4 A* grades. In his first year at Hong Kong, Jameel has already led a team that were runners-up in an engineering competition organised jointly by the university and IBM. Looking back on his time at school, he says: ‘Moir was one of the best things that has happened to me. The great teachers and small student body allowed everyone the chance to shine.’

Thilini Warnakulasuriya, a classmate of Kaamil’s, was another academic high-flyer, achieving an average of 93% at A Level, as well as excelling at Art and being Girls’ Basketball Captain. She is currently in her second year at Hong Kong studying Architecture and has had the opportunity to meet and work with famous architects from around the world. Thilini recently won the university’s prestigious award for the most outstanding international student and was also placed on the Dean’s Honours List. She says that she remains grateful to ‘all the wonderful teachers who guided me throughout my time at school (and still do now) and helped me to achieve what I have today’.

Naslam Basheer first went to Hong Kong while at school, at the invitation of Professor Malik Peiris, the world-famous virologist who isolated the SARS virus and the first Sri Lankan to be elected a member of the Royal Society in London. Naslam also averaged over 90% at A Level, earning himself the chance to return to Hong Kong full time. He too has fond memories of his time at school, saying: ‘During my time at Moir, I really enjoyed working in a family atmosphere with my friends and teachers’.

Professor John Spinks, Senior Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor at Hong Kong, has no doubt why our students are sought after by top universities. He says: ‘I remember so well the first time I went to Elizabeth Moir School because of the welcome I received, which, I reflected at the time, must be a good indicator of how positive the learning and living experience is at this school. We have been proud of every one of the students from Elizabeth Moir who has come to HKU. They seem to have a common set of competencies firmly rooted in being good citizens, and a uniform high level of academic achievement that will bode well for them in years to come.’

The University of Hong Kong holds our students in such high regard that we are now asked to recommend students for scholarships on an annual basis. This year, six students have been offered scholarships and given the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of trailblazers like Kaamil, Thilini, Jameel and Naslam; no doubt many others will follow in the years to come.

RECORD IGCSE AND A LEVEL RESULTS

Congratulations to all our exam students on their superb results in last summer’s public examinations.

At A Level, over half of all papers were graded A* or A, and 74% A* – B. Out of 29 students, an astonishing 22 students gained an A grade in at least one of their subjects. Of these, 11 students gained 3 or more A grades:

Jameel Ur Rahman 4 A* Vimukthi Caldera 3 A
Nasmal Basheer 2 A* 2 A Alexandria De Lima 3 A
Amani Sahib 2 A* 2 A Reema Mohamed 3 A
Vinura Fernando 1 A* 2A Bilaal Saheed 3 A
Hanako Itsubo 1 A* 2A Hafsa Siddique 3 A
Afeef Sahabdeen 1 A* 2A

Jameel Ur Rahman achieved an average of over 97% across his four subjects, including 99.5% in Physics.

At IGCSE, over 75% of papers were graded A* or A, and well over 90% A* – B, which are outstanding results which compare with the very top schools worldwide. A record 13 students gained 7 or more A or A* grades, with six obtaining at least 7 A* grades:

Shamira Ghouse 10 A* (& 1 OL A) Rahul Jordashe 5 A* 3 A
Yohann Sequeira 8 A* 2 A Voirrey Quayle 5 A* 3 A
Shevangi Sadesh Kumar 8 A* 1 A Pravan Mathew 4 A* 5 A
Manoj Thogesan 8 A* 2 A Abhishek Premachandra 4 A* 4 A
Nayasheen Waseem 6 A*(& 1OL A) 4 A Ashaera De Fonseka 4 A* 4 A
Dilroshini Karunaratne 7 A* 2 A Jaishnu Thiagarajah 4 A* 4 A
Ajay Gnanam 3 A* 6 A

Shamira Ghouse gained 10A* at IGCSE, having already achieved an A (the highest possible grade) on one O Level subject last year. She achieved an average of over 90% across her ten IGCSE subjects, including 98% in both Maths and Chemistry. Her eleven top grades are the best ever results by an Elizabeth Moir School student and among the best ever by a Sri Lankan student.

FOOTBALLERS REACH SUPER 8 FINAL

At the end of January, we hosted a ‘Super 8’ competition for the top four local schools and top four international schools. It provided a great opportunity for our team to make up for their disappointing exit on penalties in the Semi-Finals of the Inter International Schools tournament last term and to see how we compared to the best teams from local schools.

We made a good start by defeating a strong side from St. Jospeh’s in our first group match. We took an early two goal lead, before St. Joseph’s pulled one back, but we were strong enough to hold on. Draws in our other matches were sufficient to take us through to the Semi-Finals as group winners.

The Semi-Final against St. Peter’s was one of the best games our team has played. We were ahead for most of the game but a late equaliser against the run of play took the match into extra time. With the tension rising as extra time drew to an end, we won a last-minute penalty. The entire game rested on Jaah Ziyad’s shoulders but he nervelessly stroked the ball home, sealing a famous victory.

Facing us in the Final were the favourites, St. Benedict’s College, All-Island Football Champions for the last five years. Their side contained several national players, including some who play at Under-23 level, so it was a daunting task for our team. It certainly looked that way at the start as we went two goals down in the opening minutes. Our boys were not to be overwhelmed, however, and fought back strongly, narrowing the deficit after Jaah scored and keeping within a goal of St. Benedict’s until a late free kick sealed their victory.

Our team deserves to be tremendously proud of their achievements. They emerged as the top international school and gave the best football school in the country a real fright, despite playing against schools with thousands of boys to choose from. With the nucleus of the side remaining intact, we can look forward to more success next year.

Group Matches: St. Joseph’s Won 2-1 (Jaah, Arshad)
CIS Drew 1-1 (Hong)
Isipathana Drew 0-0
Semi-Final: St. Peter’s Won 2-1 (Christian, Jaah)
Final: St. Benedict’s Lost 1-3 (Jaah)

COMMUNITY SERVICE TRIP TO KANTHALE

We have been partnered with Wenransanpura Vidyalaya, Kanthale in Trincomalee District by the Sri Lanka Unites organisation. Our students visited the school for the first time at the end of February, taking with them four computers and a large number of books for their Library. On arrival, they were greeted by the school’s marching band, who escorted them into the school premises, where the ‘street drama’ team performed for them. They were then taken on a tour, visiting the different classes, speaking to the students and seeing their work. The children’s parents had provided a special breakfast for their guests of kiribath and lunu miris, eaten off a lotus leaf, along with halape and bananas, and then made lunch too. At morning Assembly, Avishka Mendis spoke on behalf of our school and encouraged the students to read the English books we were donating, before playing some songs on the guitar for the whole school to sing along to, as our students led some impromptu dancing. Our students were overwhelmed by the welcome they received and the generosity of their hosts. It was a memorable day for the students of Kanthale too, with the Korean members of our group and the new school bus generating particular excitement! Our students all learned a lot from the visit. They were impressed, in particular, by how the school made the best possible use of their limited resources, from growing gotu kola and other vegetables on the school grounds to recycling all their waste. We expect this to be the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the two schools and look forward to further visits in the future.

GATEWAY QUIZ

Congratulations to Nafeesa Hamza, Kushan Jayawickrama and Nathan Rahim who won a History and Current Affairs quiz organised by Gateway College on Monday 13th February.  Overcoming strong competition from runners-up Royal College and several leading international schools, they came top in five out of the six rounds to emerge comfortable winners.  Continue reading GATEWAY QUIZ

COLOMBO MODEL UNITED NATIONS

Nineteen of our students participated in the Colombo Model United Nations from March 2nd to 4th alongside 500 other students from 50 schools including schools from Jaffna, India and Pakistan. The theme for this year’s conference was the global ‘Energy Crisis’ and, as part of their preparations, our delegation organised a new recycling scheme to ensure that all waste paper in school is recycled. Dilroshini Karunratne was a member of the Executive Committee that organised the conference as Head of the Environmental Awareness Programme, and four of our students won awards for their outstanding performance during the debates:

Hishma Hafeez Best Foreign Policy Statement in the Security Council

Ajay Gnanam Honorary Mention in ECOSOC

Sonali Silva Best Novice Delegate in Committee 2

Wasim Riyaz High Commendation for Administrative Staff

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

The Senior School’s production of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit at the Lionel Wendt theatre in February was one of the most successful school plays of recent years. Anticipation was heightened by the video trailer the cast produced, which was broadcast on MTV, with three of the cast also being interviewed on Good Morning Sri Lanka. Tight security kept the identity of the murderer secret even after the first night, so there was an audible gasp from a packed house on the Saturday when Ajay Gnanam emerged as the killer at the end of the play, after faking his own death earlier. Other memorable performances came from Katie Renker, who began the play as a cheerful and independent secretary and ended it almost knocking down the set in her desperation to escape the murderer; and Wasim Riyaz, whose lack of ‘class’ was reflected in his terrible moustache and outrageous clothes that attracted laughs whenever he stepped on stage. It was also the last school play for Aaron Tull Dare and Tariq Ur Rahman, who have had main roles in countless productions and will be greatly missed next year.

BLUEBEARD

The Junior School had two full houses in fits of laughter at the Russian Cultural Centre on March 2nd and 3rd. From Bluebeard’s dancing entrance into the ‘damp, deep, dim, dark dungeon’ to the bulging muscles of his bodyguards and the puny King Bobeche repeatedly jumping into the arms of his queen for protection, there were jokes to entertain audience members of all ages. Congratulations to all the cast who showed stage presence and comic timing well beyond their years. Kaavya Gnanam was a brilliant Popolani and Rachel Hayward shone as Franz, while Noah Le Beurre held the show together in the wife-murdering title role.

Another star performer, Flossie the Sheep, was auctioned for charity after the show, raising Rs. 7,000. This has been given to an underprivileged family in Vavuniya to help the husband look after both his critically ill wife and their malnourished 4 month old child.

INTER INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS SWIMMING MEET

Congratulations to all our swimmers who swum for the school in this competition. Well done, in particular, to Chiharu Higuchi, who came 1st in the 50m Backstroke; Junaid Jafar, who came 3rd in the 200m Individual medley and 4th in both the 50m Backstroke and 200m Freestyle; and Sakura Ito, who came 3rd in Backstroke. Bhavik Baruah, Alya Ali Rasheed, Takaharu Higuchi and Swimming Captain Jae June Yang all also won points for the school, while twelve of our relay teams won points as well.

PROJECT ‘CHANGE’

Mrs. Janaki Gunawardene, Chairperson of Business and Professional Women Sri Lanka, came to speak in Assembly at both the Junior and Senior Schools about the organisation’s Project ‘Change’. Since then, both schools have raised funds to support the project’s work with under-privileged children in rural communities.

Junior School students gave school bags filled with stationery to the children of Sri Siddhartha Kanishta Vidyalaya, Boralugoda in Hanwella for their Christmas charity gifts. The Junior School Prefects also raised Rs. 41,000 from a bake sale to sponsor three children’s education at a school in Moneragala. At the Senior School, students have given 46 disadvantaged children the materials they need to attend school: shoes, a school bag and stationery. These children were then invited to a Christmas Party organised by the Prefects, where they were given the gifts and took part in games and other festivities. Earlier in the term, a group of Senior School students had also visited Mrs. Gunawardene’s home to help run a jamboree for some of the children supported by the organisation.

GEOGRAPHY TRIPS

As ever, this term, our Geography students have travelled all over the country on field trips, taking advantage of Sri Lanka’s wonderful geographical diversity. Form 2 students were given a wonderful opportunity to visit Samanalawewa Hydropower Station with its 110m high dam and see how renewable energy is created in Sri Lanka. Form 3 visited the model village managed by the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama, a project to rehabilitate victims of the December 2004 tsunami, as part of their study of tectonics, the impact of natural disasters, and the role of aid in international development. They helped to clean the beach there and also distributed stationery to some of the tsunami victims and played games with them. Both Form 1 and the 6th Form, meanwhile, visited Kelaniya. Form 1 conducted field sketches and environmental quality surveys of the area as part of their unit on ‘Connecting People and Places’ while the 6th Form investigated the impact of flooding on the area, as part of their course on ‘Extreme Weather’, by interviewing people in the local community and studying the area’s topography.

UN DAY

Students from 68 different countries on every continent have attended Elizabeth Moir School since the school opened. Every year, the Junior School celebrates the multinational character of the school on UN Day, encouraging the children to learn more about the culture and customs of the different countries their friends come from. It is always exciting for the students to see each other dressed in their colourful national costumes and try different food from around the world. Highlights this year included a moving portrait of South Africa’s ‘Rainbow Nation’, a very funny version of a traditional Japanese story, an alternative version of the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton by our British children, and a guest appearance by a https://supremeauctions.com/buy-coreg-online/ masked Mrs. Ghouse in the Sri Lankan dance.

IH ART

Inter House Art aims to make students think out of the box and interpret their House’s chosen theme in original, creative and thought-provoking ways. This year, the Houses chose the themes of Perspective, Aqua, Emotion and Fantasy to base their exhibitions around. Some of the many highlights were Rahul Jordashe’s brilliant photographs taken from different perspectives, Fleming’s melting ice sculpture to comment on global warming, and Hillary’s work based on ‘sadness’, ‘happiness’, ‘anger’, ‘fear’ and ‘mixed emotions’. The competition was judged by well-known Sri Lankan artist, Michael Antonisz, who was overwhelmed by the quality and variety of the work on show. Congratulations to individual winners Sara Naseem and https://wescoal.com/buy-silagra-sildenafil/ Jithvan Ariyaratne, and overall winners, Armstrong.

MOIR TENNIS STARS

Sean Sanderson and Sandesh Mendis are currently two of the best young tennis players in Sri Lanka. Sean is the Sri Lanka Under 10 Boys Champion and has won the Under 10 Championship at the SSC, Queen’s Club, Hilton, Kandy, Matale and Bandarawela tournaments. Sandesh is currently ranked 4th in Sri Lanka at Under 16 level in Singles and 1st in Doubles. At Under 14 level, he won the Matale Singles tournament and the Colombo Championship in Doubles, while at Under 16 level he has won the Trans Asia Open Singles and several Doubles tournaments. We wish them well in their future tournaments.

BOARDWALK

The Senior School’s concert, Boardwalk, had the hottest tickets in town in October with both nights playing to packed houses. The show was based around music and dance from different movie genres such as Westerns, and Disney and James Bond films. The cutting-edge ‘mash-ups’ were a particular highlight of the music, giving much-loved Hollywood classics like ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘The Lady is a Tramp’ a new twist and more contemporary feel. The dancing was equally varied and original, ranging from a cheerleading routine in the High School section to luminous spacemen ‘Popping’ and ‘Locking’ in the Science Fiction section.

As ever, the concert was entirely organised by the students, who were responsible for everything from choosing the theme and songs to choreographing the dances and designing the poster and programme. Over half the Senior School students were involved in the production in some way with seventy-five appearing on stage. Congratulations, in particular, to Co-Producers and Directors Shamira Ghouse, Dilroshini Karunaratne and Avishka Mendis.

U19 FOOTBALL TEAM GO OUT ON PENALTIES

Congratulations to our Under 19 Football team, who reached the Semi-Finals of the Inter International Schools tournament in October, before unluckily going out on penalties to the eventual winners.

The team had taken the tournament by storm with an incredible 6-0 win over British School in Colombo, last year’s winners, in their opening match. They went on to score a record 20 goals in their first four games, to top their group and establish themselves as favourites for the whole competition. Unable to break down their defence-minded opposition in the semi-final, however, the match was settled by the lottery of a penalty shoot-out, which we narrowly lost.

Coach Mr. Patrick Van Twest says: ‘Despite being one of the youngest sides in the tournament, the boys showed much courage and skill, and scored more goals than any other team. Their defence was also outstanding, only conceding one goal in regular time during the entire competition. I commend the team for the attractive brand of football they played, and I suspect that opposition coaches feared playing our side more than any other. Captain Arshad Rasheed led by example during both matches and practices and will be greatly missed next year.’

Pool Matches: British School Won 6-0 (Jaah 3, Arshad, Khayyam, Hong)

Belvoir Won 6-0 (Pravan 2, Khayyam 2, Aron, Yohann)

Alethea Won 2-1 (Arshad, Jaah)

Gateway, Kandy Won 6-0 (Jaah 3, Khayyam 2, Arshad)

Gateway, Colombo Drew 0-0

Semi-Final CIS Lost 0-0 (lost in penalty shoot-out 4-5)

DEBATERS PLACED 4TH IN D.S. SENANAYAKE COMPETITION

Congratulations to Nimesha Perera, Asma Reza and Hana Rajap who overcame very stiff competition to come fourth out of sixteen teams, including all the main local schools in Colombo, in the Impromptu Debating Competition hosted by D.S. Senanayake College. The students overcame both Musaeus College and S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia before losing in the Semi-Final.

RECORD IGCSE & A LEVEL RESULTS

Congratulations to all our exam students on their superb results in last summer’s public examinations.
At A Level, over half of all papers were graded A* or A, and 74% A*- B. Out of 29 students, an astonishing 22 students gained an A grade in at least one of their subjects. Of these, 11 students gained 3 or more A grades:

Jameel Ur Rahman 4 A* Vimukthi Caldera 3 A
Nasmal Basheer 2 A* 2 A Alexandria De Lima 3 A
Amani Sahib 2 A* 2 A Reema Mohamed 3 A
Vinura Fernando 1 A* 2A Bilaal Saheed 3 A
Hanako Itsubo 1 A* 2A Hafsa Siddique 3 A
Afeef Sahabdeen 1 A* 2A

Jameel Ur Rahman achieved an average of over 97% across his four subjects, including 99.5% in Physics.
At IGCSE, over 75% of papers were graded A* or A, and well over 90% A*- B, which are outstanding results which compare with the very top schools worldwide. A record 13 students gained 7 or more A or A* grades, with six obtaining at least 7 A* grades:

Shamira Ghouse 10 A* (& 1 OL A) Rahul Jordashe 5 A* 2 A
Yohann Sequeira 8 A* 2 A Pravan Mathew 4 A* 5 A
Shevangi Sadesh Kumar 8 A* 1 A Abhishek Premachandra 4 A* 4 A
Manoj Thogesan 8 A* 1 A Ashaera De Fonseka 4 A* 4 A
Nayasheen Waseem 6 A*(& 1OL A) 4 A Jaishnu Thiagarajah 4 A* 4 A
Dilroshini Karunaratne 7 A* 2 A Voirrey Quayle 4 A* 4 A

Shamira Ghouse gained 10A* at IGCSE, having already achieved an A (the highest possible grade) on one O Level subject last year. She achieved an average of over 90% across her ten IGCSE subjects, including 98% in both Maths and Chemistry. Her eleven top grades are the best ever results by an Elizabeth Moir School student and among the best ever by a Sri Lankan student.

RUMESH RATNAYAKE APPOINTED SRI LANKA CRICKET COACH

Congratulations to Rumesh Ratnayake on his appointment as Coach for the Sri Lankan Cricket team on a temporary basis for the current series against Australia. Rumesh was Coach of our Cricket Squad from 1998 to 2002 and has continued to be involved with the school since, mentoring aspiring cricketers at the school like Gayan De Silva and Hassan Ibrahim. We wish Rumesh and the Sri Lankan team the best of luck for the remainder of the series against Australia.

SRI LANKA UNITES FUTURE LEADERS CONFERENCE 2011

Five of our Prefects attended the 3rd Sri Lanka Unites Future Leaders Conference, which was held at Trinity College, Kandy from 11th to 13th August, with the main events taking place at the Asgiriya stadium. Over 750 students from all around the country (and one from Korea!) were divided into 30 teams to participate in sporting and cultural activities designed to promote team-building and help students to bridge the ethnic and linguistic divide.It was designed so a boy from Jaffna who spoke no English would find himself playing cricket with a Sinhalese student from the South who hadn’t had a Tamil friend before. Speakers included former UN Under Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala and a team of international delegates from countries including South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congratulations to Vimukthi Caldera who won the English Oratory competition at the conference, which had particular prestige as it occurred during the visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the conference.

UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS AND PLACES

Congratulations to all our students who have won University Scholarships based on their outstanding academic performances.

Sabrina Ghouse was offered full scholarships by universities including Harvard, Princeton and Chicago and has now just started at Harvard. Naslam Basheer and Jameel Ur Rahman have both been awarded full scholarships to Hong Kong University, the top ranked university in Asia, to study Biomedical and Electrical Engineering respectively, and will be starting their courses soon. Naslam had earlier been invited to attend a workshop in Hong Kong with Professor Malik Peiris, the world-famous virologist who isolated the SARS virus.

Well done as well to Ahmed Ikram, who has also won a scholarship to Hong Kong University to study Economics; Nadeera Wickramasinghe, who has been given a full scholarship to the newly opened Abu Dhabi campus of New York University to study Biomedical Engineering; and Hanako Itsubo, who was awarded one of only 20 full scholarships to the University of Osaka in Japan to study Biological Sciences.

Four students are about to begin courses in the UK, including Amelia Ball at Durham and Sanduni Jinasena at Edinburgh. We also wish the best of luck to all our other former pupils who are about to start university in countries ranging from Australia to France.

SRI LANKA MODEL UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE 2011

During the holidays, 28 students along with Miss Srimali Fernando attended the 4th annual Sri Lanka Model United Nations Conference, held at Water’s Edge from 8th to 10th August. Among the topics they discussed were the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and multi-lateral approaches to alleviating poverty.

Eight of our students were members of the Executive Committee that organised the conference, which was the most from any school, including Avishka Mendis, in the important role of Assistant to the Secretariat; Vimukthi Caldera, Reema Mohamed and Lukshmee Saravanapavan who were Chairs of different committees; and Junaid Jafar, the youngest member of the committee. Congratulations also to Jameel Ur Rahman who won the award for the Best Position Paper in his committee.

UNDER 15 FOOTBALL TEAM REACH FINAL

In May and June, we hosted an Under 15 Football tournament for eight international schools. High hopes for a strong team were more than justified as the team scored an astonishing 25 goals in their three opening games (ten by striker Aron Rahim) without conceding any, beating Lyceum 10-0 and netting four against Asian International School. One of the strongest footballing schools, Royal Institute, awaited in the Semi-Final but an opening goal by Sandesh Mendis settled the team’s nerves. In the end, the team won comfortably 3-0 with Jang Pyo Hong, the Captain, scoring the last, gaining revenge against Royal Institute who had beaten us in the Semi-Final of the Under 19 tournament earlier in the year. The tournament ended in an anti-climax, though, as a strong CIS team played their best game of the tournament to win 2-0. We can certainly look forward to more great performances from these players as they progress up the school.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE SCIENCE CAMP

Thirteen Lower 6th students, accompanied by Mrs. Sunila Ganhewa and Mr. Patrick Van Twest, travelled to Singapore from 12th to 18th June to attend a Science Camp at the National University of Singapore. They had the opportunity to work in some of the best laboratories in Asia on activities including building a simple motor, handling liquid nitrogen, analyzing air track collisions, and using scanning electron microscopes. They also visited a water treatment plant, as well as other well-known sights in Singapore. The students gained a valuable insight into university life, which should help them as they begin to prepare their university applications.

SPREADING SMILES, BRIGHTENING LIVES

In February, Form 1 students visited the Preethipura Home for the mentally or physically handicapped in Wattala to conduct an art workshop, serve lunch and make a donation of Rs. 20,000 to buy equipment for the home’s physiotherapy room, with money they had raised themselves. This visit had made such an impact on the Form 1 students that we then invited some of the residents of the home to the school on Community Service Day in April for activities including a Paralympics organised by our students. The visit undoubtedly achieved its aim of “Spreading Smiles, Brightening Lives” and will be a day to remember for both our guests and our own students.

Founders’ Day

Elizabeth Moir School’s 15th Founders’ Day Prize Giving was held on Saturday 2nd July. The evening began with brilliant renditions of “Consider Yourself” and “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” by the new Infant Choir and ended with a beautiful and emotional performance by an Upper 6th Choir that included half the graduating class. Serala Ranatunga, the outgoing Captain of School, encouraged the students in her speech not to have any regrets on leaving by taking part in as many school activities as possible and thanked Mrs. Moir for providing a school that had been a “home away from home” and a https://www.hearteasy.com/tramadol-ultram-online-cheap-price/ family for her in her fifteen years at the school.

Congratulations to the new Head Prefects appointed for 2011-2012:

Captain of School : Nafeesa Hamza
Senior School Head Prefects : Avishka Mendis
Sahan Tampoe
Junior School Head Prefect : Sean Sanderson
Junior School Deputy Head Prefect : Rithesh Sathiyanandan