New school, new country, new life
View(s):Val Wedenayake just wants to make his dad proud. The 11-year-old has just returned with two Edexcel prizes-one a World Prize in English and another for his achievements at the Primary and Lower Secondary exams-and he remains endearingly flippant about his accomplishments. “I just want to make him happy,” he nods towards dad Dishwahn. “He’s my hero.”
Val has lived in Dubai all his life and moved to Sri Lanka for the first time in 2011. They make an interesting pair-Dishwahn happy to be back in the land of his childhood and Val, a wary young boy eager to escape the ‘bubble’ of Dubai living. “I felt like I didn’t know the real world,” he shares. “I wanted to come to Sri Lanka and properly live here. See the real Sri Lanka that my dad grew up in.”
Val a student of the Asian International School he would struggle to catch up with his classmates and their work but soon measured up thanks to a lot of hard work and encouragement from his parents’ end. In the meantime he signed himself up for athletics and swimming lessons-something he very much missed out on back in Dubai. “That’s another great thing about Sri Lanka,” he grins. “Everyone’s so sporty.” When he’s not making a sprint for the finish line Val is a voracious reader and is frequently found with his nose in a book, sometimes getting through a book in one sitting. “Sometimes I have to be strict,” laughs his dad.
“He occasionally needs a little pushing to do his homework.” But Val will tell you that reading (his current favourites are Anthony Horowitz and Suzanne Collins) is what got him through school and even to that coveted world prize in the language. He credits his English teacher back in Dubai (fondly remembered as Miss Melanie) for instilling in him a great love for the written word, but says that it’s his present teacher Miss Kulsum Edirisinghe who’s really responsible for this prize.
This top educational award is still somewhat of a delightful surprise for him-having never imagined he’d perform so well just two years into a new school, new country and new life. “I remember when I was called into the Vice-Principal’s office,” he laughs easily. “I was thinking ‘oh no, what have I done’ and then I was told that I might get this award! I was very excited.”
Val is also in the process of writing his very own novel. He says that of the ones he has started so far he’s never actually managed to finish but then again, he is a dreamer and he just might strike lucky with this one. (DI)