8th December 2020
Dear Fellow Thomians,
Greetings from the School by the Sea.
As the year 2020 draws to a close and we look back at what can best be described as our annus horribilis, I felt I should write to give you an update of how things have been for us here at S. Thomas’ as well as to send you wishes from all of us as we celebrate Christmas and look forward with hope in our hearts for a better year in 2021.
The College remains closed along with all other schools in the Western Province due to the Covid-19 pandemic that looms like a spectre over us, as it does all over the world. We were in lockdown from after the Royal-Thomian Cricket Match in March till July when we reopened in stages for different Forms with all the recommended mandatory health and safety measures and protocols in place. We embarked on remote learning through online classes during lockdown from April and have continued same to date since schools were closed again in October. The Michaelmas Term will officially end on 18thDecember 2020 and we hope, God willing and the authorities allowing, to reopen for the Lent Term with physical school on 5th January 2021.
With regard to online classes you may be interested to hear how we have transitioned from physical classes to remote learning and blended learning. Having first experimented with Microsoft Teams we found that it was not suited for our particular needs and so we began using Zoom as the online teaching platform from as early as April. Having been granted full free access to Google Suite for Education, we are now using Google Classrooms as our Learning Management System. We have registered students and teachers on the system and have provided them with individualised College based email addresses to use Google Classrooms for document sharing and assignment submissions et al. We were even able to complete Term Three assessments using the same system. Remote learning however, has not been without its problems and we continue to monitor all online classes to ensure that the quality of teaching is ensured and that the disciplined attendance as well as full participation of the boys is maintained. All the teachers who conduct online lessons have stepped up in their own way and are handling things well. Many parents have contacted us and said that the presentations are very professional, and having conducted two online surveys to get the opinion of the parents, we have received much positive feedback on the way our lessons have been delivered. It has been a tough task and I acknowledge the work put in by the Sub Warden and the Academic Heads who have borne the heavy burden these past months of monitoring and evaluating online learning in the midst of so many obstacles, not excluding problems of data and connectivity. I want to also acknowledge every member of my tutorial staff who have displayed patient endurance and dedication to the task before them.
We have all learnt many lessons this year, not only as a human family, but also as a school family and while we continue to adjust to the demands of the ‘New Normal’ we are confident that when we do reach the other side of this storm, as we surely will, we will be better equipped and be a far more modern and efficient school than we were before Covid-19 struck!
While the academic side of things continued through remote learning and even most of our clubs and societies managed to function in one form or another using the online platforms available, our sports programme took a bad hit this year. After the 1st XV Rugby match against St. Joseph’s College for the Lady Jayathilaka Shield, which we managed to win after a lapse of 4 years and the successful conclusion of the 141st Battle of the Blues at which we retained the Senanayake Shield, we were not able to have organized sports of any kind to date due to the ban on school sports by the Ministry of Education necessitated by the pandemic situation. However, under the direction and supervision of our dynamic Director of Sports all our coaches conducted online physical training and motivation programmes to ensure that our sportsmen remain physically fit and mentally agile for when we recommence sports. With the guidance of the College Sports Council we also took the opportunity to plan for many changes to the way we offer our sports programme when we return to some measure of normalcy and sports recommence, including significant but very necessary reductions in the sports budget that for some years has been quite high. We have recognized the need to trim the frills and get back to some of the basics in terms of what we offer our sportsmen free of charge. All the sports Advisory Committees were also reconstituted under new guidelines and terms of reference drawn up by the Sports Council.
We were very sad to have had to cancel all our usual end of year activities such as the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (given that we can only have a maximum of 25 persons in the Chapel at any one time) and also our Colours and Sports Awards Ceremony. We have also had to postpone the annual Prize Giving from the 1st week of February 2021 to later on in the year. Needless to say that all this has undoubtedly greatly affected the morale of our boys particularly the seniors and the outgoing batch who have always looked forward to their final year in school with so much anticipation. With the announcement that the GCE Ordinary level Examination usually held in December has been postponed for March 2021, the Royal Thomian Cricket Match will also now have to be postponed till the end of March or for after Easter. The disruption caused to the education sector by Covid-19 has been unprecedented, as even in the worst of times in our history we have never had to forgo some of the things we have had to in this time of national and indeed international crisis.
Resilience and resolve are part and parcel of what it means to be human and to be Thomian! Just as the human spirit is capable of overcoming the worst of times with faith and hope, so have we. We have experienced new meaning to the hackneyed cliché ‘Thomian Grit’! Our boys, despite the limitations imposed due to the pandemic, have been engaged in many innovative activities, also entirely online such as:
- Virtual Camp, Online Escapade (Senior / Junior), Beach Cleanup, Marking 1m distances at the gates for the students and virtual badge work – The 16th Colombo Scout Troup.
- Virtual talent competition titled Eclipse – The Commerce Society
- Virtual Inventions Exhibition, Designed and developed pedal operated washing stations for the College – The Senior Science and Technology Society
- Petrichor : Virtual Environment Day Commemorations – The Senior Environmental Society
- Online seminars – The Junior Environmental Society
- Recording of It is well with my soul & the Christmas song Do they know it’s Christmas time which is to be released in the coming days – Canto Perpetua choir
- The Ternion Newsletter – The Thomian Union
- Speech Writing Competition – The Media unit
- Digital Pantagraph – Junior English Literary and Debating Society
- Weekly online prayer and worship services, discipleship programmes and webinars – The Student Christian Movement
- Educational Seminars on Trojan Horse malware, Technology used during Covid-19 and Quantum Computing – The ICT Society
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- Members shared common recipes after preparing various dishes at home – The Culinary Arts Society
- Globalization Challenges (Online Quiz Competition) – Geography Society
- Seminars on Aviation and what the industry is going through during this Lock Down – Aeronautical Society
- Participated in an online debating competitions – Senior English Literary and Debating Society
- Online webinars were organised about Sri Lankan Biodiversity and Tuskers of Sri Lanka – The Wildlife Society
I am grateful to the Prefect of Clubs & Societies for having coordinated all these activities and monitored the clubs and societies during this time.
Pastoral Care and Counselling have played a very crucial role and have been more important than ever over the pandemic period. The chaplaincy team has been engaged in-home visits to students and staff in any form of need and have coordinated the material support we have been able to offer those in our school family who have been affected in one way or the other due to the crisis. The Counselling team too have been working overtime due to the huge increase in parents, boys and even some staff requesting emotional support and a listening ear and have also been engaged in a telephone ministry to every child of the School and their parents too. This has been a crucial aspect of the ministry we have extended to our school family at this time.
In connection with running the School virtually during this challenging time I must mention that one of our efforts has been to ensure the long term financial viability of the School through the collection of school fees that sustain our regular monthly operations. Thankfully due to the majority of parents paying the fees as required and so many old boys responding to the special Covid Scholarship appeals made by the STC OBA and myself with which we have assisted those parents who have found paying fees challenging due to the Covid-19 situation, as well as very stringent controls on expenditure we have been able to manage our finances in order to pay all our staff and even our sports coaches without any cuts up to date and we hope to continue doing so. In this connection I must also record my appreciation to those members of the academic and administrative staff and all the sports coaches who volunteered to donate one day’s salary per month from April to date towards a special fund from which we were able to offer financial support to all our Support Staff and some others closely connected to the school community. Some old boys also supported this special Solidarity Fund with contributions for which we are very grateful. I wish to place on record my thanks to the Sub Warden, the Chief Operating Officer, and the Financial Controller for their assistance in managing our financial situation. The COO, an old boy with considerable experience in the field, helped us during his one year stint that ended in August to put in some very robust systems and fine tune existing procedures to reduce expenditure. We are prepared with necessary contingency plans for situations that may arise in the coming months that would require even more cost cutting measures.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every old boy in Sri Lanka and overseas, who either on their own or through their Class Groups or their OBAs donated towards the Covid Relief Fund set up by the STC OBA and by me for boys and staff who faced economic hardships due to the pandemic. I must also thank those old boys and old boy groups that donated devices for our staff and boys who did not have devices or could not afford to purchase them, in order that the process of online teaching and learning could go forward unhindered. Many old boys also contributed towards the cost of installing the infrastructure required for the health and safety protocols and on behalf of us all here at Mount Lavinia – I thank you one and all for your generosity at this time, which is a difficult time for all everywhere. As always our alumni have not let us down. The repayment of the nurture fee we all owe our alma mater continues unabated in the worst of times as in the best of times, for which we are all extremely grateful.
I write this to you at the special time of the year when we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ. That most holy birth ushered in faith, hope, love, generosity, forgiveness and reconciliation. These timeless and eternal truths of Christmas take on a whole new meaning for us all this year. One of the themes of Advent and Christmas is the victory of light over darkness. For those of you in countries where there is winter and where the nights are longer at this time with darkness dominating life, the power of light will be more poignant than for others. Just as faith overcomes doubt, hope trumps despair and love wins over hate so even a little glimmer of light in a dark place serves a great purpose. The smallest light can penetrate the deepest darkness!
This year for perhaps the first time since it was started in 1947 we were unable to have the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols of our Chapel, which for many heralds Christmas. Yet we decided that staying within the parameters required by the health and safety regulations we should produce a short video of a few members of our Chapel Choir singing a small selection of carols together with some of our servers reading selected portions from the Scriptures to encourage our Thomian Family around the world, hopefully to help us keep faith and hope alive at what will undoubtedly be a very different Christmas celebration this year for many if not most. This short video, “Carols from Mount”, will be God willing released in time for Christmas and is our gift from the very heart of the Thomian Family, our glorious Chapel, to you and yours in your homes to help you celebrate the fact that as St John reminds us each year: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1: 5) This is the hope that must surely sustain us as we continue our journey through the pandemic.
May the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the perseverance of the wise men, the obedience of Joseph and Mary, and the peace of the Christ-child who by his incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly be God’s gifts to and yours this Christmas.
With fraternal greetings, peace and blessings to all,
The Rev’d Marc Billimoria
Warden
