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Great strides of wartime school in the hills
By Santhush Fernando
S. Thomas’ College, Guruthalawa - in the words of one of its former Head Masters Frank Jayasinghe, was indeed a ‘serendipitious outcome of World War II’.

It was 1942. The threat of war had shifted to the Indian Ocean with the advance of the Imperialist forces of Japan. Ceylon as Sri Lanka was then known became a strategic target under imminent attack.

The British forces demanded that the premises of S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia be used as a military hospital and on April 9, 1942 – just four days after the Japanese air raid on Colombo, Dr. R.L. Hayman, the then Sub-Warden, was sent to a farm in Guruthalawa to prepare a branch for the school. A Japanese ‘mosquito’ bomber –had in fact crash-landed on the College Big Club Grounds in that Easter Sunday air raid.

Dr. Hayman came to Guruthalawa, then a small and serene hamlet nestled in the hills in the district of Badulla on the Boralanda- Welimada Road, and founded the Anglican School- S. Thomas’ College, Guruthalawa, affectionately known as ‘STC-Guru’.

The precursor of ‘Guru’- the farm at Guruthalawa had been gifted by Mr. Leslie de Saram, uncle of the legendary Warden Canon de Saram in 1942.
By the 1980s, the school had become 11th in education in the island, as per Education Department rankings and was at one time the most sought after, Rev. Harold Goodchild told The Sunday Times.

Rev. Goodchild, the present Chaplain, who has been with the school since 1964, says that nowhere has he seen so much of peace and harmony between religions and races during his 22 years of chaplaincy as in ‘Guru’.

He shares nostalgic memories of how non-Christians were the ‘greatest helpers in the Chapel and in the College Carol Service’ and of how he as an Anglican minister delivered speeches during meditation classes for the Buddhists.

Rev. Goodchild still conducts counselling for all boys, coordinates dormitories and teaches Spoken English. Guru’s present Head Master Ellis Gladwyn Jebanesan Canagasabey, a graduate in Biology who earlier served in the Eastern University, took the reins of the school in 2004. The indefatigable Mr. Cangasabey, a national athletics champion, has taken great pains to popularize sports among Thomians at ‘Guru’ and spearhead a number of initiatives to improve the academic standard of the students.

He has introduced an Amity programme- to teach Mathematics, Science, Environmental studies, Geography, History and Civics to children in English and a Link Language programme to teach Tamil to Sinhala students and vice versa.
The services of two volunteers- Mrs. Shirley Newell, a graduate in English and History from Canada and Tom Wilkinson, from Yorkshire (United Kingdom) who has a Master’s in Civil Engineering, has been provided to teach English for the students. Mrs. Newell who also is an authority in the Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) said that it was beneficial for the students to learn English from a foreigner since the ‘bulk of our learning of language is by hearing’.

Of the forty members of the tutorial staff around 12 are resident.
An Information Technology (IT) Laboratory was opened last year in January and two periods have been allocated per class per week, the head master says proudly.

A model boarding school, ‘Guru’ offers much to its students in the field of sports and extra curricular activities and since ninety percent of its 323 students are boarders, it continues to accomplish much with its modest number.

Swimming has always been a key sport in the life of ‘Guru’ and its swimmers bagged many trophies in the Inter-Camp Swimming Championship organized by the Sri Lanka Army at Diyathalawa recently, Prefect of Games of the school, Shirantha Madawala told The Sunday Times. The school also has the oldest squash courts in the country.

The Cadet Platoon and the Cadet Band are ever active and are trained by Warrant Officer Ariya Kulasinghe, a former soldier from the Army Band of Diyathalawa.

Mr. Canagasabey had started Scouting and Cubbing in 2005 and said that the scouts would be taking part in the SAARC Jamboree held this year in Nuwara Eliya.

A Wild Life Club is also in full swing with the young Thomians being taken on hikes to nearby hills on Saturdays. A Sports Carnival will be held in April to bring together the ‘Guru’ fraternity to renew their fond memories of the ‘School by the Hills’.

To ensure that the young Thomians get a nutritious diet, Mr. Canagasabey has expanded the farm with the vegetable, poultry and diary produce being provided to the school kitchen.

The boarders are well disciplined to follow the daily routine. They wake up by 5 a.m. and engage in prep from 6 to 7 a.m. on weekdays. Then they attend classes from 8 to 12.20 and thereafter break for lunch. Classes begin again from 1p.m., until school is over and they are free to take part in sports. Daily morning prayers and Sunday communion service are conducted by Rev. Goodchild with the assistance of Estate Chaplain Rev. Shantha in the beautiful stone Chapel of St. Francis of Assisi, an inseparable part of the school life.

S. Thomas’, Guruthalawa, takes pride in its rich traditions and has set up a museum recently to exhibit the ‘Guru’ memorabilia. It has a magnificent collection of personal artifacts of its Founder Head Master Dr. R. L. Hayman including a bust of him and its much-revered first Chaplain Rev. Canon A. J. Foster, both products of Oxford.

A member of the Thomian quartet, along with S. Thomas’ Mt. Lavinia and STC Preparatory Schools-Kollupitiya and Bandarawela, Guru is unique in being the only offspring of STC- Mt. Lavinia to retain the motto, crest, flag and song of its parent school.

During holiday months the school is open for all types of residential sports and recreational camps. The school was selected for the children’s tele-drama “Dangamalla’ now being telecast on Swarnawahini.

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