More Information About Regent International College, Gampaha

Q: In Which month does the academic year begin?

A: September

Q: By when are parents required to finalize admission?

A: In the month of July

Q: Is it possible to view the school to makeup our decision?

A: You can call the Personal Assistant to the Principal (0094 33 467 0352) and arrange to come for an individual tour with or without your son.

Q: Are there any scholarships for the students?

A: We provide 6 annual fee scholarships 3 for internal and 3 for external students entering upper grades based on all round performance in Sports/Education.

Q: Is there any assistance for those who cannot afford the fees?

A: Yes, we are the only International School to have a Program to absorb the school fees up to A/L in case of the death of the sole breadwinner or guardian of the family.

Q: How many pupils are there at Regent?

A: Over 500

Q: What is the average class size?

A: Twenty

Q: Why did you decide to open an International school in Gampaha?

A: The Management has its roots in Gampaha. Therefore they wanted to provide an opportunity for children from the region to obtain an international standard, all round education to be future leaders of Sri Lanka. Until we opened our school we did not have such a school in this area. The Management has been well established in business since 1947.

Q: What is the academic syllabus you follow?

A: We teach the University of London / Edexcel O/L and A/L syllabus. This syllabus is taught by mostly all international schools. Our classes range from Nursery to London A/L.
The London O/L is a universal exam. The papers are of the same standard globally.

Q: Today the age safety and security of the child is a big concern. How do you look after this aspect?

A: Fortunately our school is located away from the busy main road with secure parking and a child drop off area.
The security guards provided at the gate prevent outsiders or parents without prior appointments entering the school or approaching the children. During after school sports practices, the master – in – charge is responsible and is around till the child is picked up by the parent. Two permanent female attendants are on duty to look after the small kids. We are in the process of recruiting a qualified nurse to be in charge of the college sickroom.

Q: Some people criticise international schools saying that students passing out of these schools do not have any knowledge of who the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka was or when the Independence Day is or what the country’s longest river is or what Sigiriya is?

A: We understand the value of knowing ones History and Geography. At Regent contemporary Sri Lankan History and the Geography are subjects taught in the curriculum.

Q: Some believe international school students have false values and know little of any of the local customs and culture. How do you mould your students to fit into local society?

A: We teach religion and one's mother tongue as class subjects and this is compulsory. We celebrate Vesak with a Sil Programme in school. In addition the Vesak lanten competition is held, similarly at Christmas we sing carols, Sinhala Avurudu is celebrated with all the traditional games and food. We use these events to inculcate the Sri Lankan culture and customs. We also celebrate some foreign events as well to familiarize the students with international customs/events. Eg. Mothers Day / Teachers Day / World Environment Day.

Q: What is this parent teacher partnership you talk about?

A: As you would appreciate educating the total child is not the sole responsibility of the school. Parents have a very valuable role to play. A meeting is presided over by the Principal and is held for parents of all new students. At this meeting parents are informed about the role of the school and the expectations of the school from the parents. Parents are requested to ensure that the home work is done, encouraging the child to participate in sports. To maintain a proper parent/child relationship from infancy through teenage years to adult hood, we arrange regular workshops on topics like Good Parenting. We also provide English and Computer classes for parents at discounted rates to improve their knowledge to enable them to interact better with their children and also to be able to help in their home work.

Q: Regent International School is a purpose built school. What do we understand from this?

A: A reputed Architect drew up the plans for the school. The buildings are all purpose built. The infrastructure comprises of science and computer laboratories, Library, Music Room and kiddies play area. As we concentrate on building the whole person, extra curricular activities play a major role. We have a 25 meter swimming pool built to International specification and a kiddies pool. Swimming is a class period in the weekly timetable. We also have a basketball court and a tennis court. Qualified and experienced coaches some of whom have reached national level, train our students. All sports programmes are structured and parents can see the level of attainment of their children from well maintained records.

Q: How do you manage to get good dedicated teachers?

A: We advertise, we offer a competitive benefit Package and we concentrate on teacher’s attitudes when recruiting, which we believe is the single most important aspect.
We have ongoing educational programmes for all teachers to train them in our methods of teaching. Regular teacher development and training workshops are conducted to sharpen skills. When we cannot find good teachers in and around Gampaha we bring them from Colombo. At present we transport around 15 teachers from Colombo.
A teacher performance evaluation system is in place to recognize and reward good teachers by maintaining objectivity in performance, evaluation & increments. Annual increments are based on merit.

Q: PASTORAL CARE: you say is a new concept in Sri Lanka and is operated at Regent. What is this?

A: As a school we do not confine our duties to teaching and classroom activities. Our care extends to the student outside the school too. If a child is absent from school for more than three days (often without informing) we take it as our responsibility to follow up the student status. We visit the home/hospital etc. to ensure that the child gets the necessary attention to resume classes as soon as possible. We help a child to catch up work by arranging extra classes / notes.

Q: What differentiates Regent International College from the rest?

We run small classes (limited to 25 students) to provide individual attention.
Lower grades, even with the small number of students have two teachers per class.
All teachers have lesson plans for the whole year/term this assists the teachers to prepare for the class and Principal to monitor syllabus coverage. Further if a teacher is on leave/absent this assists another teacher to take over smoothly and continue.
Children's workbooks are corrected by the Principal on a regular basis.
Remedial English and support Math Classes are conducted parallely to help weak students to reach the required standard at the earliest. Then they are transferred to main stream class.
A Special period after school is set aside to help children to do their homework in school itself; to help parents with little English knowledge who find it difficult to help with home work.
For term exams each teacher in parallel classes submits a question paper to the Principal who then collects questions to form a new paper for each grade. The Principal herself introduces one question from her question bank for each paper.
Term exam answer scripts are interchanged among parallel class teachers so no teacher marks her own set of papers.
The curriculum is updated promptly when university of London/Edexcel, London O/L and A/L syllabus is updated.
We stand for “Excellence in Education Complimented with life skills”. From elementary classes we teach the use of fork and spoon/knife, proper use of toilets, hygiene, dress etc.

Q: What are the Financial Benefits/Scholarships available for the students?

We provide 6 annual free scholarships 3 for internal and 3 for external students entering upper grades based on all round performance in Sports/Education.
We are the only International School to have a programme to absorb the school fees up to A/L in case of the death of the sole breadwinner of the family or guardian.
Easy payment scheme is arranged with financial institutions to assist pay fees/admission fees etc.

Q: How do you know whether you are doing well? Whether parents appreciate what the School is doing?

A: As the school is new, our first batch are sitting for the A/L exam in June 2006. The O/l results are good and we are happy considering that the students have been with us only for two years coming from a Sinhala medium / local syllabus back ground.
One of the major factors is that the few students, who left to other schools thinking that they were better have returned to our school after one or two years!
There are students who have moved to schools overseas with parents moving and we have feed back from their parents how well they have fitted into and are performing at these new schools.

Q: You say you do your part in being socially responsible cooperate?

A: We are probably the only school in the Gampaha District having a 25m swimming pool built to international specification and the related infrastructure. With the intention of developing swimming as a core sport in the Gampaha District and to provide an opportunity to students in less privileged schools we organize and conduct an annual swimming meet for the district. There were over 600 swimmers participating in year 2005. This year we expect a larger number. SLNA was impressed with our organizational capabilities and requested Sri Lanka National short course meet to be held at our pool in 2005.

Q: What are your future plans for the school?

We are working on developing a very detail structured life skills curriculum incorporating social graces, hygiene, dress sense, grooming, to writing a C.V. that bring results. This will be introduced as a class subject/period from young age going up to A/L’s
A fully integrated computer software programme named “School Online” developed on the principle “any time any where” is to be implemented by the end of 2006. This will enable parents to monitor a child’s progress in school through the internet from home.
Once this fully integrated software programme is completed we plan to go-in for ISO certification to ensure that we maintain quality standards in everything we do.
Master plan for the school has been finalized. It includes a one 4 storey and one 3 storey building to cater to the development of the primary and the middle school, 3 more science laboratories, junior library, another computer laboratory, day care center, gymnasium, handicraft room and an auditorium.
We are in the process of setting up a “Parent, Teacher Management Committee (PTMC) with one parent representing each grade level at the PTMC with a view to maintain good relation between PTM and to develop the school.