Fifteen Years of Excellence - Forging Ahead with Cooperation

In 1993, our founder Dr. Mohan Lal Grero opened the first Lyceum International School in Nugegoda. The name ‘Lyceum’ comes from the ancient Athenian School founded by Aristotle in 335 B.C. 

The student's journey to success at Lyceum is guided by the motto, “Know thyself”. At Lyceum, it is believed that the person must know themselves well, to be part of a successful journey. Those who read our founder's monthly messages in our newsletters will not only find worthy guidance for personal development but also easily recognize the child-centered vision of the school system. It is worth mentioning that our Founder has always said, “It’s the child who should always come first”. We are grateful to our founder for providing the opportunity for all Sri Lankan children around the country to have unstinted access to a complete and comprehensive education. 

Lyceum has performed exceptionally well in both academics and co-curricular activities, and on the sports fields. Opportunities are available for students to excel in many fields. For example, ‘Maathra’, conducted annually with the participation of all branches, provides opportunities for students to display their skills on a grand scale. 

Following the establishment of the Parent School at Nugegoda, bordering Colombo city limits, several branch schools were opened outside Colombo. Accordingly, Accordingly, Lyceum Kanadana was opened in September 1999, and Lyceum Panadura opened in May 2000. In the years that followed, Lyceum Wattala opened in September 2001 along with Lyceum Ratnapura, which opened in January 2005 and Lyceum Gampaha opening in September 2006. Subsequently, Lyceum Nuwara Eliya opened in April 2012, with Lyceum Anuradhapura in January 2013 and Lyceum Kurunegala in September 2016.

Lyceum Gampaha is a proud member of the prestigious Lyceum Family. It was opened with 660 students on 4th September 2006 with roughly 80 staff members and went on to rapidly grow into a reputed center of education in the area. Generally, the Gampaha district is considered as the Hub of Education in Sri Lanka, and the opening of Lyceum Gampaha was a well-timed opportunity for the parents of the area to provide a complete and sound English education for their children.

The present student population of Lyceum Gampaha is over 2700. The school is performing meticulously under the leadership of Ms. Dilmi Rathnayaka, the Director and Mr. Namal Fernando, the Principal.  

The highly competent and skilled staff is dedicated to ensuring that, the students of Lyceum Gampaha excel in both academics and co-curricular fields. A quick glance at some of the opportunities and facilities we offer at Lyceum Gampaha would indicate the comprehensiveness of the education provided for the students. Students can participate in athletics, cricket, swimming, basketball, netball, badminton, table tennis, lawn tennis etc., while other activities include chess, gymnastics, debating, Little Friends, Guiding, Cubbing, Scouting and Singithi Scouting and Karate. Additionally, students can also participate in Senior and Junior Choir, Orchestra, Kandyan Dancing, the Western and Eastern bands, Music, the Speech and Drama Club, Media Club, Model United Nation and Soccer. 

Lyceum Gampaha expanded in leaps and bounds to become a fully-fledged school during the past fifteen-year period, vouched by the performance of the students in examinations, sports and co-curricular activities.

Physical Resources 

The unhindered provision of all the infrastructure facilities to the school is one of the reasons for this success. Some infrastructure developments during the recent past have been cited below -

-   The purchase of 6-acre land for Lyceum Gampaha and the construction of the playground for cricket and other sports utilizing the land. 

-   The school hall, conference halls and classrooms were upgraded with new facilities, such as the installation of state of the art television monitors in Grade 1 and Grade 8 classrooms in order to provide multimedia facilities to the students. 

-   A brand-new badminton court with a pavilion and a new gymnastic room was constructed on the school premises.   

-   A new chemistry lab was constructed, and the existing physics and biology labs were expanded to provide better facilities for students. 

Human Resources. 

While ensuring the provision of physical resources, we never compromised on the quantity and quality of our human resources. We have a qualified and competent panel of teachers and 99% of the Middle and Upper School Teachers possess university degrees. The Academic Staff are assisted, supported and guided by the Management to ensure that the education provided at Lyceum Gampaha has the unmatched academic quality, unique to the Lyceum family. Regular monitoring, lesson observations and needs-based staff development programmes are conducted to assure the professional standard of the academic staff. 

We formed the Lyceum Gampaha Toastmasters Club for teachers to develop their professional and communicational skills. We organize free Teacher development courses and English courses every year for teachers to improve their professional standards. 

Our parents constitute a major part of our stakeholders. The policy of Lyceum is to maintain close and regular contact with parents, with the aim of student development. Parent-Teacher meetings, student development reports and monthly newsletters etc. serve this purpose. The Student Counseling Service attends to issues related to academics and other areas. 

  Facing the challenges of the pandemic successfully 

Extracurricular activities and academic activities could indeed get somewhat affected during the difficult times we are experiencing now. However, Lyceum Gampaha took the challenge and came up stronger than ever, with its dedicated staff and the effective use of online technology. 

The Development of the new School Education Management System (ALEM) is a landmark in the history of Gampaha Lyceum. We were one of the first schools to develop a state-of-the-art system like this to facilitate online teaching, and with this facility, we have been able to carry out online teaching in a well-planned and methodical way. This helps facilitate uploading lessons, videos, correcting the assignments and test papers online, allowing the marks and corrections to be available for students to view, which was unique to our school. 

It is abundantly clear that Lyceum has taken all the steps to ensure that students’ academic activities are progressing without any significant hindrance. It was possible to smoothly and effectively conduct many extracurricular activities such as projects, exhibitions, concerts, competitions, religious celebrations etc. online, thanks to the commitment of the Academic Staff and the efficiency of the Management and the tireless efforts of all staff. Several parents' meetings, including orientation programmes, have been held to discuss many aspects related to students and examinations. Furthermore, the massive strength and cooperation provided by the parents during this period is remarkable. 

Even many teachers development programmes have been conducted, without allowing the difficulties to hamper the normal progress of the school. Such online programmes include the Toastmasters Programme, Special Programme on Online Teaching titled “Let’s Forge Ahead with Lessons Learnt” and “Level Up – A Workshop on Pronunciation Skills”. 

With the lessons learnt during the past few months, we plan to conduct our functions in a more organized and structured manner in the new academic year. 

It is evident that we are performing successfully, without compromising on quality, even during this difficult time. All these are possible because, we at Lyceum are united and forging ahead with Cooperation, Confidence and Trust.