“Creativity is making what you want, with what you have.”
You have unleashed your creativity and now the results are in…
THE WAIT IS OVER
English Day 2020 organized by the the Royal College English Literary Association.
Missed the live stream? We got you covered Watch the English Day down below
“We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.”
CHRONICLES is a series of Exclusive Online Interviews with Leaders & Industry movers on how they navigate a fast-changing landscape of challenges due to the covid 19 pandemic.
Today’s interview will be with the Honorable Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Mr. Namal Rajapaksa who will be sharing with us on how the Covid Pandemic has affected the sports field and youth around Sri Lanka and how he is managing to solve these problems.
Catch us on Youtube
https://youtu.be/4SvCbr5hsbs
CHRONICLES is a series of Exclusive Online Interviews with Leaders & Industry movers on how they navigate a fast-changing landscape of challenges due to the covid 19 pandemic.
This exciting interview will be with the vice president of John Keells Holdings and the head of brand marketing Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts Mr. Dileep Mudadeniya who will be sharing with us about how the Covid Pandemic has effected businesses and what they did to cope with it.
Catch us on Youtube
https://youtu.be/8kCN_7ifM_k
The 3rd Edition of TV Royal, Asia’s premier student-run TV network, ended its two-day broadcast with the resounding sound of success. With the motto of ‘A Story of Change’, this year’s rendition of the project focused mainly on sustainability and responsibility towards the world we live in; an extremely important message to focus on in today’s day and age. With a plethora of programs and new and innovative techniques that strove to bring the viewership closer to the channel, TV Royal has remained true to its legacy of trailblazing, moving forward and originality.
While in the midst of a pandemic, it was no small feat to brew this fresh content and maintain a sense of freshness and originality. However, with shows such as Adieu, Suits, Gastronauts, and many other shows detailing the path to sustainable development and positive growth, TV Royal succeeded in moving from strength to strength for the third consecutive time. Not only the scope of content, the scope and magnitude of how all-encompassing this project was, can be understood by how far the students had ventured out of the sheltered streets of Colombo. Visiting locations such as Yala, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Ampara, Chilaw, Trincomalee and Galle, this project was done on a scale hitherto unheard of. This success was largely bought on by the students who stood behind the camera, the ones who sat hunched behind their computers, the ones who wrote on every surface possible, the ones who spoke and presented the content, as well as every other student that came to support this cause.
Of course, as with any great victory, there must also be a certain amount of sacrifice, to make it unto the very end. This is, and always has been, the recipe of greatness, the formula of success. Sleep was lost, meals were foregone, rest was forgotten and comforts foregone, but at the end of it all, stood a testament to the work and contribution of everybody involved; there stood a testament to the ethos of TV Royal.
This would not be possible without the guidance of our teachers, the contribution of our valued sponsors and the support of our peers and parents; and last but not least, the support of our viewership, who pushed us to do great things, and make great content and be great men. To all who helped us on this journey, a big thank you and more gratitude than we could ever express.
By Charanga Gamage and Lakdinu De Silva
“Studies are the number one priority, the cake itself. Everything else(sports,
clubs,etc) is the icing.”
In the 14th century the society of the world was divided into various social classes. In England there existed many social classes such as the nobility, freemen, peasants and serfs. The general rule in this feudal society was that the son follows in his fathers footsteps and learns his fathers trade. If his father was a king the son would learn to rule, a blacksmiths son would learn to work iron, a potters son will have to learn pottery. There were no crosslinks in this society which enabled a man to change the social class to which he was born. A man born a peasant will die a peasant.
However this all changed as the world progressed into the current society where one giant crosslink joined all of the social classes, this crosslink is education. In the present society if you are born poor it does not necessarily infer that you would die poor, nor will it infer that a rich birth would lead to a rich life. Therefore we cannot forget the fact that it is education that will define our lives and Royal College being an academic institution grants academics a priority over all other activities.
Although academics will help you to earn qualifications and establish a security and stability in your social life. Sports and society activities will enrich your life. Simply said academics will help you to get the job co-curricular and extracurricular activities will help you to do the job. However you must understand that in order to do the job you must first get the job. And for this you need academics. I cannot stress enough upon the importance of learning, as how well you learn will completely change your life. There are very few trees which yield a fruit sweeter than
the fruit of an enriched education.
2. How to set targets and goals.
“A goal properly set is halfway reached.”
a) Grade 6-10
b) G.C.E. Ordinary Level
c) G.C.E. Advanced Levels-
“In all things that you do, consider the end.”
3. Awards and accolades for academic performance.
a) Prize Giving
The first prize-giving of Royal College has been held in the year 1836.
It is a tradition for the ruler of the country to be the chief guest for the occasion. There are one hundred and sixty-five prizes and awards handed out each year.
The most coveted prize at this event is the Dornhorst Memorial Prize , awarded since 1930 to the Most Outstanding Royalist each year, in the memory of Frederick Dornhorst, KC, followed by the Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Prize for the Best Academic Achiever of the year. The Turnour prize is the oldest of the panel prizes, awarded continually from the year 1846 itself.
b) Scholarships
Many scholarships have been awarded for students who have performed
exceptionally well in their academic activities during their life at Royal College. These scholarships are awarded in the hope of assisting students to achieve their full potential. Some of these scholarships include.
Personally we don’t feel that it is required to impress upon a Royalist the importance of academics or force him towards academics like dragging a cow to the butcher shop. It is something that you must know is required for a balanced life. A Royalist should be proficient in working with societies, performing in sports and engaging in academics. Academics was once a ladder to achieve heights, once a mechanism to generate wealth, but actually academics is nothing but the enrichment of life. Wealth, recognition and power are all byproducts.
Charanga and Lakdinu are Prefects of 2019/20, who were excellent students at their time. They got 3As for Biology and 2As 1B for Mathematics respectively at the A/L exam in 2019. What was most impressive was their excellent academic records since the primary and middle school years that show consistency. These were achieved amidst being heavily involved in sports, clubs and societies.
Studied hard, but didn’t get enough marks? It’s a common thing which you hear after results being released. The problem is that all the effort and hard work you’ve been putting in for years will have to be showcased within 2 to 3 hours in the exam. So, it is extremely necessary to focus on understanding the nature of the exam papers. It is highly necessary to analyze the papers and work on it to be able to do well during that short time. For that,the best thing you could do is to do past papers after self-studying.
When you start doing papers for practice it is very normal to get the majority of your answers wrong. So don’t worry! Regular practice will improve your answering capabilities. Doing past papers is not just doing it and counting your marks. That will only help you to judge yourself. So, what should you do?
1) Analyze the paper
You should analyze the paper well. Most of the questions and question patterns get repeated in almost all types of exams, from grade 6 term tests to O/Ls and A/Ls. According to Prof. S.R.D. Rosa, who has experience in making A/L physics paper for more than a decade, the 2009 physics multiple choice question paper has had only 11 questions with new concepts, which means the rest of the 49 questions could be done with the concepts used in papers of previous years. Identify those common questions, patterns and common areas that the examiners used to ask questions. It’ll be really helpful to face exams. It is highly recommended to use the original marking scheme to check the paper. Then not only you’ll be able to correct your mistakes, but also will be able to identify on wordings, specific terms to be used when answering questions. You should understand that you won’t be the one’s marking your own paper. You should use specific keywords and the correct wordings (better to practice the answer patterns in marking schemes), to ignore the slightest risk of losing marks. Always try to be on the safe side.
2) What to do when you get wrong answers?
Find the reason for getting it wrong. There may be several reasons such as not reading questions and instructions properly, a problem with the angle you looked at the question, being unable to understand the question properly, not knowing how to apply theory properly to the question or also, it could be a simple math error. After identifying the reason, concentrate more on improving those areas where you fail mostly at. For example, you could practice more sums if you make more math errors. If you have no idea even after referring to the marking scheme, the best thing you could do is to meet the teacher or a friend as soon as possible and clarify it. Never ever postpone that due to any reason. Don’t be shy to ask a thing which you don’t know. You might forget if you postpone and will have to suffer when such a question appears in your real exam. Next thing advisable to do is to go through your notes and constantly add if you find new things from papers so that you can revise those when you go through the notes again.
3) Focus on important areas
As time is a limited factor for you, concentrate more on important areas. Find the lessons that the examiners are very keen to ask questions based on. Focus more on those areas. Also, focus on areas based on the structure of the paper. For example, the A/level physics or chemistry paper consist of 50 multiple choice questions each carrying 1 mark out of 100 marks. However, since the 2nd paper comprises of 1000 marks which is divided to get 50, each mark carries as little as 0.05 to your final score. So, it is recommended to focus more on those sections. Marks, marks and marks! I hope just like me, all you seek for marks in an exam. So, you should definitely have an idea of how marks are divided for questions. You have to go through answer schemes to find the marks allocated and the types of answers they expect for different questions (for example number of statements required and the key terms).
4) Timing
Next biggest obstacle that you’re likely to face is timing. No point knowing everything if you can’t apply that within the time allocated. So, you have to know the format of the paper well. Identify the format and divide your time ideally according to the question types. When you’re doing past paper questions try to finish within that time limit. The best thing to improve timing is practice. When you’re familiar with question types and know the method, you will be able to finish those soon. Getting used to the exam conditions is another way to perform well in the exam. Once you’re done with the syllabus or majority of the syllabus, so that you can answer full papers, start doing papers with timing. At the beginning, you won’t be able to finish on time. Improve day by day. Try to increase the number of questions you do during that time. This doesn’t mean that you have to leave the other questions undone. Do those as well after the time, but see your timing and try to improve day by day.
Then comes the day!!!
After all the hard work and dedication, the days for the exams will come much sooner than you expect. It will be all about how you apply your knowledge and practice that you’ve been gaining for years. For that, you should have a good mindset. No matter how little you have studied, you should have at least 6 hours of sleep on the day before the exam. This will make you feel really fresh and free-minded on the day of the exam. Sportsmen know how inconvenient it is to use different sports equipment than what they’re used to. Just like that the logic of ‘nothing new’ applies to exams as well. Go with the momentum that you’ve been going with. No matter how others try to convince you, never change the methods you are used to, on the last few days. On the day of the exam, go a little bit early to the exam hall to get used to the hall and the exam conditions. Be relaxed, get used to the setting.
Once you sit down and get the paper, don’t expect 100%. You must set your mind to leave questions if you don’t know the answer. This is really important as past experiences of students reveal that so many students have wasted their time hanging on the same question. Another very important thing is to read the instructions and questions properly. Many students lose their marks due to not reading the questions properly. Sometimes valuable information which will ease you will also be among the instructions. Not only that, reading the whole paper will help you to select the questions which you can score more (better if you can mark the questions that you know). Answering easy questions at first will boost your confidence and also will provide an overview of the test. Another mistake done by students is, they skip questions if they don’t know the answers. Why don’t you try your luck? You will not lose anything, but luck might add you more marks. Especially with MCQs. Use methods such as elimination of answers to increase the probability of getting it right. Try to get every single mark that you can.
Work hard, work smart, get used to the paper before the exam, analyze the question patterns, practice answering questions and face the exam with a good mindset and with great concentration. You will definitely be able to get really good results.
By Nimesh Ranchagoda
Nimesh Ranchagoda is a Prefect, who obtained 3As for A/Ls in Mathematics in 2019 and 9As for O/Ls in 2016. He was also the captain of the College Table Tennis team in 2018, and peaked at the 3rd place in the National Open rankings, with multiple international representations under his belt, while still in school. He is an example of how one can balance extracurricular commitments with academics
My first memories of a Royal Thomian cricket match goes back to 1975, when I was in Grade 1. The match was at the Oval. I went with my father, who was also an old boy. I have distinct memories – not cricket – feeling tiny amongst the dancing revelers, lots of beer being drunk, and singing. The highlights for me – an elephant house ice palam and a necto that my father bought for me, and my brother who is 4 years older, dressed in school uniform of course not looking the same color now as when he had left home in the morning, coming in the lunch break to tap my father for money for goodies. I was jealous, he had a bigger flag than I had and a rattle in hand.
The next memory I still have in my now aging hard disk is the centenary year match. I had graduated, being allowed by my parents to go to the boys’ tent with my friends. I was part of a 1,500 strong cheering squad, cheering for anything that looked like Royal was doing well. This is probably the only match I have some memories left of the proceedings of the game – and this is of Sumith Warnakulasuriya or better known then by his father’s nickname, “Charlie” hitting a double century.
Then came the next faze, the cool faze. The friends were now too cool for the boys’ tent.
Many weeks were spent on shopping for new clothes. This was the stage where we too started singing and dancing like I remember from the first match I went to, but without the substance. We went through it all – one moment we are laughing, singing and dancing, and the next moment we are in a scuffle without even knowing what it is all about.
Then came the serious years. Many of my friends and I were appointed as Stewards. We had to sell souvenirs, maintain discipline in the boys’ tent, distribute food to the VIPs, Prefects and Stewards, prevent drunk old boys from both schools running to the middle of the grounds to pat the batsmen on the shoulder for a good shot hit, and most of all, look cool, important and busy, all at the same time.
The situation got worse when the next year we were appointed Prefects, and I the Head Prefect. We had to carry a fair bit of the match organizing on our shoulders, of course solidly backed by the Old Boys. I won’t go in to names for the fear of missing any out. The souvenir committee started early. We had a cycle parade committee as well. This was the era where the cycle parade was still really a cycle parade, barring a few trucks for the team, the prefects and the bands, and a few private vehicles. But
suddenly, the morning of the parade we were told by the Police that we would not be permitted to proceed. The pressure came on the Prefects. We worked the old boy network to see President J R Jayewardene who spoke very few but encouraging words and the parade was on again.
The organizing pressure was severe. But the Prefects and the Stewards were committed. Everybody performed beautifully. I was able to keep cool through the whole event. Everything went well, except the cricket, but we had a great time nevertheless. The experience I gained still holds me in good stead to face the many challenges in the political arena.
So now out of school, I graduated in to the Old Boy category, where being a little rowdy was accepted. Sadly I missed a few years of the match because I, like many others during that period went overseas for studies – some of us because we didn’t make the mark in to local universities and some of us because we didn’t see light at the end of the tunnel for a local university student of those years, due to the JVP uprisings and disturbance of university studies.
But most of us returned, and looked forward to the match reunions. Those who stayed back
after studies or migrated would also from time to time make an appearance for the match. The events started becoming blurry.
One significantly blurry match was in 2002, when I was a young Deputy Minister and my now Parliamentary colleague Dr Harsha de Silva was on a mission to ensure I had the best flow of the best mixes all day long on the 3rd day. I remember making many stops on Galle Road on my way back to my constituency that night.
The Royal-Thomian is a mainstay in every old boy’s calendar and as busy as we are, we make sure not to disturb those match days in March. My Boss, the Prime Minister, Ranil as he is known on those days, holds it a priority in his calendar. He to date enjoys the Big Match and all the crazy fun that goes along with it including singing completely off tune.
It is a time for friendship; to meet old friends, reconnect with lost ones and reminisce about school antics.
Sagala Ratnayaka,MP
Former Head Prefect
Minister of Ports, Shipping &Southern Development
Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister
Sport; “ for Better or for Worse”, it is a Great Pleasure and a Privilege as the Minister for Sports, to have been invited by the Royal fraternity in penning this brief message, on the occasion of probably the World’s Longest & Most Prestigious Uninterrupted Cricket Match, which is none or a few to compare in exuberance, rivalry and sportsmanship as in event, the school by the “Ladies” den; Royal College, Colombo battle-in with their arch rival, the “school by the Sea”; S.Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, as the “140th Battle of the Blues”, dawns in March 2019.
Royalists! You are fortunate to have been associated with such rich cricketing tradition in this country, as the Royal-Thomian Battle of the Blues has been emulated as a pace-setter in many spheres and for many schools to follow as a prototype throughout the Island, in the month of March.
The “140th Battle of the Blues”, is one of the most sought after sporting events in this paradise and the interest of present and old boys of these two colleges, cricketers young and old and people domiciled in most parts of our Island, will be focused on this event during the coming days. Players from both schools will get prepared for this memorable occasion, to give of their best, but Cricket is a “Game of Uncertainty” and whosoever, Wins or Loses does not really matter, but it is how well you, as players “Learn to Play the Game”, conclusively, while “Sportsmanship” is helmed as the winner, that matters within all walks of life.
In Conclusion; Remember, emulation is one stage in adolescence and the behavior of students in leading schools influence the students of other institutions, hence, it is pertinent that, students of Royal and S.Thomas’ should be of proper character and portray a great sense of responsibility at all times, on and off the field, setting exemplary conduct for others to emulate. Hence, this Sporting Carnival is no better an opportunity to do so, in the building of Generations to come…
May the Royal-Thomian Cricket encounter grow from strength to strength and give us long hours of enriched participation. In conclusion would like to take the opportunity to wish both teams best of luck and may be the best team emerge victorious.
Harin Fernando
Minister of Sports
I must thank you, once again, for giving me the opportunity to write this article on what is a truly memorable experience in my calendar. This year we celebrate the 140th year of the Royal- Thomian cricket match. An occasion to be celebrated, not only because of its long history and shared values, but also as it brings together Sri Lankans from many walks of life and from all over the world, to celebrate students of two of the best schools in Sri Lanka.
The Royal-Thomian is always an exciting part of the year. It is a moment in time where the past, the present, and the future, all come together in the name of the ‘Battle of the Blues’. It is a time where we can reflect, celebrate, and renew our spirit of excitement for the future. As a Mustang, I must once again celebrate the camaraderie which we all bring to the game. Despite our differences, we unite from across the isle in the name of our shared history, traditions, and interests.
Over the past few years, it has also been worth mentioning to note how businesses have got involved in this celebration; sponsoring and promoting the event and their various businesses together in collaboration. This is a true sign of a growing and vibrant private sector, where companies are beginning to notice the value that can be created through this opportunity. The opportunities for such collaboration are endless, and I am sure that as different sectors and industries come together, we can use the various areas of expertise to take this event ever further.
As an alumnus of Royal College, I must take this opportunity to wish them the very best, but in the spirit of camaraderie, which this occasion celebrates, I must congratulate everyone on coming together to make this event what it is today. I look forward to another wonderful ‘Battle of the Blues’.
Ranil Wickramasinghe, MP
Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka