130th Celebration of St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Milagiriya
St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Milagiriya is a government National school which was established on 14th January 1887 as a Parish school attached to St. Paul’s Church Milagiriya, Later it became a multi- religious school where Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are equally recognized and catered by its community and the principals who administered the school. The school flourished and became larger under the reigns of the committed and dedicated principals and teachers. Today the school comprises 160 in its academic staff, 40 in non- academic staff and 4000 students.
The present principal Mrs. SumedhaJayaweera assumed duties in 2015 April and continued to take the school to the new heights where it stands today. There are lot of projects introduced by the new principal where some have been already completed and some projects still in progress.
There are some important educational projects implemented under the guidance of Mrs. Sumedha Jayaweera. One is the Advanced Level unit test Program which was introduced to all three streams; Science, Commerce and Arts in order to increase the percentage of results. The other program is the introducingof the monthly tests from Grade 6 to 11 students to motivate the students gradually in their studies. There is another program introduced to Ordinary Level Students to uplift and increase the Ordinary Level results which is called the feedback and feed forward program. It starts 6.30am in the morning for a period of 6 months. It helped in increasing the 2016 Ordinary Level results in 3%. It is very important to state that the students are very enthusiastically getting engaged in these activities. Since there is a noticeable development in the Ordinary Level results, students stopped leaving the school for their Advanced Level studies. A new software was developed in order to analyze the cross section of the improvement of education in the Ordinary Level and Advanced Level results and it has become a great help for the tutorial staff to get the feedback.
The school has more than fifteen clubs and societies and more than ten games for the students to develop their skills and talents. The English Debating Society was reinstalled in 2016 and conducted the first Inter-School “SPM Debating” competition. It is worthy to mention that the English Debating Team is going its path day by day to success. The new Navy Cadet Platoon which was established at the beginning of 2017received the 3rd place in the All Island competitions. They also participated in the De Zoysa challenge trophy after several years. St. Paul’s Senior Prefects’ Guild was selected as the best Prefects’Guild in the Island at “Impluse” o r g a n i zed by VisakaVidyalaya, Colombo. The short drama named “Hackers” which was produced by the Drama Circle of the school won the first place atthe short drama festival organized by the Ministry of Educat i o n . M r s. Sumedha Jayaweera was awarded the “Service Excellence Award” as the best principal serving equally to school and the community, by the Rotary Club of Colombo for the year 2015/2016.
There have been a lot of infrastructure developed inside the school premises from 2015 under Mrs. Jayaweera, the present principal. Installationof a new public address system, Renovation of the library, establishment of the flash light system to the school garden, renovations in the grade 9 and the commerce sections,re-installation of the LP gas line in the chemistry lab,renovation of the poly-tunnel, completion of the toilet Project in primary and upper school, painting of the school buildings, completions of the gardening project, re – construction of the primary play area and the Zero Garbage Project are few of the projects. All these projects have been initiated by the funds by the Ministry of E d u c at i o n , Past Pupil’s A s s o c i at i o n and S ch o o l Development Society. Foundation stone for the four storied sports complex was placed by the Hon. Minister of Education on 10th July 2017. Main hall renovation will be starting next month under the government funds.
St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Milagiriya produced and is in the process of producing smart and elegant intellectuals to the nation. The journey continues for many years!
Long live St. Paul’s, Milagiriya….