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General Rules of the college

Daily Routine

Primary School

Lower Secondary – College Forms

Attendance

  • Every boy must be punctual at Roll- Call. Those who come late regularly without an adequate reason are liable to face disciplinary measures. Entrance to school after 7.30am will be from the pool gate.
  • School days are normally Mondays to Fridays. If school is to be held on a Saturday for any reason, parents will be given adequate notice.
  • If a boy is absent from school for more than two (2) days due to illness, he must produce a Medical Certificate on his return to school. If a boy needs to be absent from school for any reason other than illness, permission for such an absence should be sought and obtained in advance. Medical appointments and family functions should as far as possible be arranged outside school hours. A day boy who is taken ill while at school can get medical attention from the College Sick Room.
  • Leave of absence during term time will not be given for long periods and in any case will not be allowed for more than one month except in the case of illness. Any boy who overstays his leave or is absent from school without adequate explanation may have his name taken off the roll.
  • Any boy who is absent from school will not be permitted to represent the College or his House in any activity, except with the prior permission of the Warden. This also applies to practices which take place before the start of school.
  • No boy will be permitted to leave the school premises during school hours unless permission has been sought and obtained in writing from the Warden or Sub-Warden. Where such leave is not for a school activity, permission must be requested in person by the parents or guardian.
  • Leave to travel abroad must be obtained from the Warden in writing at least two weeks prior to the date of departure. Please note that such travel during term time is VERY STRONGLY discouraged. Parents may take their children overseas during School but they will be marked absent.
  • Poor attendance by some boys continues to cause serious concern. We adopt a policy of minimum attendance of 80% requirement for all boys. Boys who fall short of those minimum standards other than for reasons of genuine illness will not be readmitted to the school at the start of a subsequent term and their names may be removed from the Roll. Minimum attendance to qualify for readmission will be set at 80% of the sessions for the term, in accordance with the government guidelines for qualification for entry to a public examination.
  • Non-attendance of any kind will mean that a boy is excluded from all sport and other extra curricular activities.

Homework

Every boy is given lessons to prepare at home, and parents are urged to see that their children spend sufficient time on their homework. In the Primary School, such work should occupy at least 60 minutes; in the Lower Secondary School it should occupy at least 90 minutes; in the Upper Secondary School it should occupy 2 hours or more. Every boy in the Primary School is expected to keep a homework book wherein letters of excuse, and the home-work that he has been given, are entered. Parents are expected to sign this book on a daily basis.

College Uniform:

PRIMARY AND LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Blue shorts, white short-sleeved shirt, black leather or artificial leather shoes, plain white socks free of any markings.

UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

White longs, short sleeved shirt, shoes as mentioned for Primary/Lower Secondary School. Please note that canvas shoes and trainer shoes are not permitted.

General Restrictions

  • The following places are out of bounds to all students of the College.
    • a) All tourist and guest houses and the railway line at all times.
    • b) All shops, boutiques and eating houses during school hours.
    • c) The Boarding House to all boys during school hours, and to day boys and visitors at all times.
    • d) The library and College Hall to all boys during school hours, except to those forms which have classes as indicated in the Time Table and those boys who have obtained the written permission
      of the Warden or Sub Warden.
    • e) The Chapel gardens.
    • f) Tuck-shop during class hours.
    • g) The staff resource centre.
    • h) The student resource centre without prior approval from to Warden / Sub. Warden.
    • i) Internet Cafés in the vicinity and in all locations during and after school.

 

  • No boy should walk on the lawns of the Quadrangle or the lawns in front of the main Classroom Block, Boarding House or Centenary Block.
  •  No boy, while in College, will be permitted to represent outside organisations or associations in any activity without the explicit written permission of the Warden. Students are not permitted to appear in any advertisements, programmes, photographs or films in the media without prior written approval of Warden. Photographs of boys should also not appear in any electronic data form or on the Internet.
  •  It is forbidden for boys on the College roll to enter the school premises during school time dressed in any attire other than College Uniform.
  • Students will not be permitted to attend school with very short or long hair. Haircuts must be taken in a decent manner acceptable by the standards of the College. Where a boy has failed to abide by this rule the school will take steps to send him home and the parents will be expected to ensure that he returns only after having had a proper hair cut. Students should always be clean-shaven.
  • Students should not wear chains or medallions to school except for religious purposes with the approval of the Warden. If worn they should be made of inexpensive metal and unseen. Friendship bands and the like are forbidden to be worn to school. A maximum of two strands of white thread may be worn for religious purposes only. All forms of body markings and piercing are strictly forbidden.
  • The following items are forbidden to be brought to school, and will be confiscated if detected.
    1. Mobile (cellular) phones.
    2. Toys of any kind including playing cards
    3. Video games, DVDs and Video cassettes.
    4. Music CDs and audio tapes.
    5. Magazines/literature of pornographic nature.

As per the College Hand Book, and the law of the land, students are not allowed to bring mobile phones or any other similar electronic devices to school. All confiscated mobile phones and other equipment will be with the Warden’s office and could be collected on producing the leaving certificate of the student. Please ensure that your son strictly adheres to this rule. Arrangements have been made at the security guardroom at the pool gate for mobile phones to be stored during school time. We are aware that parents may need to contact the students from time to time after school to ensure their safety especially if they travel alone. The phones would have to be handed at the time of entry and collected only after school. A token will be given for the phones which is stored, and it is the responsibility of the student to ensure the token is not lost or misplaced. Phones will not be returned without the token. Parents are advised to only buy a basic phone to be contacted on, and not an expensive phone which may get lost or stolen or broken.

  •  Visits to the School by Parents/Guardians Visits by parents, guardians or friends of students are not permitted during school hours. If for any urgent reason a student has to be contacted during school hours, he should be contacted through the Warden, Sub-Warden or the appropriate Head of section. Such visits are restricted to parents and legal guardians only. Access to the school will be permitted through De Saram Road gate near the swimming pool on producing the N.I.C. or Driving Licence to the security. Parents should refrain from speaking to teachers on the phone or interviewing teachers and coaches at their homes. Parents who wish to meet teachers officially should do so on Parents’ Day or on any convenient school day after prior appointment through their headmaster. With regard to sports and games parents should only communicate with the MIC or TIC, never the coaches.

 The Computer Network

  • The school, in partnership with Dialog Axiata plc, has installed a campus-wide wi-fi system that enables anyone with a suitably equipped wireless device to connect to email and the Internet. We shall be introducing this facility to boys slowly and in a phased way, starting with the Senior School.
  • Parents need to be aware that although the College gives permission for boys in the Senior School to bring expensive electronic equipments such as laptops to school they do so at their own risk. The School cannot accept responsibility either for loss or for breakage.
  • Use of the school internet facility will carry with it the condition that it will be used responsibly. A detailed “protocol” will be published in due course on school websites, and all boys will be required to sign an “Acceptable Use Policy” (AUP) before they are given a password. Breaches of this AUP will carry serious disciplinary consequences like any other breach of school discipline.

Computer System

  •  AKURA Management System Plans are underway to initiate the use of an online management system for the school as designed and set up by Virtusa. More information on this will follow in due course.
  •  Online Web Calendar : The school will publish in early 2017 an online calendar accessible to the public which will announce all events and as many school sports and extra-curricular events as possible. This calendar will be regarded as definitive, and will be accessible through the College, the OBA and the PTA websites, as well as the college App which could be downloaded for Android Windows and Apple devices from their respective App stores.

General Conduct and Discipline:

8.1 Boys travelling to and from school by any method of transport, private or public, are expected to maintain the highest standards of behaviour, and not to cause any annoyance to members of the public. Walking along the railway lines is expressly forbidden.

8.2 Any boy whose work or conduct is found to be unsatisfactory or who by his actions inside or outside the school, during term or vacation, brings the school into disrepute, may be discontinued from school at the discretion of the Warden.

8.3 Boys may be placed ‘on report’ or given ‘detention’ for bad work, bad conduct or bad attendance. The purpose of placing a boy ‘on report’ is to try to correct a boy who is slacking in his work or misbehaving and to keep his parents informed of his progress. Boys may be detained after school or on Saturdays at the discretion of the Warden, Sub Warden or headmasters.

8.4 No student should sit for any public examination or register as a student in any other institution without the Warden’s permission.

Serious Indiscipline

9.1 The school is committed to the elimination of all forms of corporal punishment. The parents of any boy who believe that he has been subjected to corporal punishment should write to the Warden, who will investigate and, if the case is proven, take the matter extremely seriously.

9.2 Lack of corporal punishment does not imply lack of discipline or reduction of our values or moral standards. Quite the reverse: refusal to endorse corporal punishment is an enhancement of the moral standards of the school. However, in the absence of corporal punishment we need other methods of sanctioning boys who persistently offend. In particular, there are various kinds of offence which will attract the severest penalties, amongst which are:
Behaviour which disrupts or prevents the education of others.
Behaviour which endangers the health or well-being of others.
Disrespect for teachers or other officers of the school including prefects.
Deliberate and malicious damage to school buildings and property.
Any behaviour within or outside the School, in term or in vacation which brings the school into disrepute.

9.3 Boys found guilty of these or other serious offences which threaten the traditions and well-being of the school will be subject to the following sequence of disciplinary sanctions:
On a first offence an oral warning confirmed in writing: the boy’s name will be entered into a confidential “Warden’s Warned List”.
On a second offence a written warning confirmed in writing; the boy will be required to carry a “Conduct Report Card” and have it signed weekly by his Headmaster and his parents;
On a third offence a final written warning confirmed in writing; the boy will be required to carry a “Conduct Report Card” and have it signed weekly by the Warden or, in his absence, Sub
Warden and his parents.
On a subsequent offence, immediate and permanent exclusion from the school. The boy’s school leaving certificate will state that he was permanently excluded.

9.4 Where severe breaches of the school’s rules arise the Warden reserves the right to omit any or all of the stages of this procedure.

Complaints Parents are asked to note and follow these procedures if they wish to make a complaint about anything to do with the school:

10.1 Complaints must always be addressed, preferably in writing to the Warden or the Sub-Warden. They should not be addressed directly to the person about whom the complaint is being made, whether it be a member of staff, a prefect or a boy.

10.2 Parents may not under any circumstances approach or write to either a teacher or a prefect directly with the complaint. This includes the Head Prefect, who is not authorized to deal with such matters.

10.3 The person receiving the complaint will report it to the school authorities, and the person making the complaint should expect to receive an acknowledgement within five working days.

10.4 Depending on the nature of the complaint, the investigation may take some time.

10.5 In some instances the person making the complaint will receive an explanation of the action the school has taken, but in many cases this is not possible for reasons of confidentiality. In those cases the complainant will simply be told that the matter has been dealt with and the reason for the complaint should then stop. In those cases the complainant will simply be told that the matter has been dealt with and the reason for the complaint should then stop.

10.6 If the reason for the complaint continues to trouble the complainant, they should write directly to the Warden.

10.7 The school will not pay any attention to anonymous letters, emails or telephone calls.

10.8 Sports Ombudsperson For all complaints related to Sports, and Ombudsperson from outside the School has been appointed to deal with such matters. 7.10.10 Parents or boys who wish to discuss a confidential matter urgently are always at liberty to contact the School Counsellor whose telephone is 0777710510 or the Chaplain on 5739686. They will direct the next course of action to be taken.

General Information & Correspondence:

Parents who wish to speak to the school authorities regarding academic matters should first meet the respective Sectional Head, then the Head of the section and only then the Sub-Warden or Warden. Parents should not come to school expecting to see a member of the school staff without a prior appointment.

11.1 All correspondence with the Warden regarding any boy in school should state the boy’s name with his initials, form and admission number, and should be signed by the parent or guardian. Parents and Guardians are advised that teachers are not permitted to give private tuition to any boy of the school without the prior written approval of the Warden/SubWarden. Neither are coaches contracted to the school permitted to give private coaching to any boy on the School Roll.

11.2 Information regarding a boy’s extra-curricular activities will be included in his report. All boys should collect reports on their activities from their house master or master in charge of a particular activity and hand it in to their form masters at least two weeks before the end of each term.

EXAMINATIONS AND PROMOTIONS:

12 .1 Promotion to higher grades is not automatic. Students are expected to reach the required standards set by the school examiners in order to be promoted.

12.2 It is compulsory for students to sit for end-of-term examinations. Leave during examinations will be granted only in very exceptional circumstances.

12.3 All students are issued termly reports following the term examination. Parents should ensure that they collect reports on the days assigned and ensure that the reports are duly signed and returned to their son’s headmaster during the first week of the following term.

12.4 In order to be eligible to apply for public examinations as candidates of the College, students will be required to meet the standards set out by the examining board.

Leaving the School:

13.1 Parents are requested to give as much notice as possible whenever they intend to remove a boy from the school other than at the end of his career. The minimum period of notice is three months. If such notice is not given, three months’ fees in lieu of notice will be deducted from the refundable deposit.

13.2 No student will be allowed to remain in College after he has reached the age of 20 years. If any boy reaches the age of 20 years during the course of a year, he may be allowed to stay on in the College until the end of that year at the discretion of the Warden. Students who have completed the Advanced Level Examination and wish to continue to participate and/or represent the College in extra-curricular activities, must make a written request to the Warden seeking permission to remain on Roll. Such requests should be submitted through their Heads of Section.

13.3 Before School Leaving Certificates can be issued, a special ‘AC’ form needs to be completed by the student and countersigned by the Bursar and by the masters in charge of the various activities that the boy has taken part in while at College. All such requests must be made during term time. Because this can be a lengthy process, it is not possible for School Leaving Certificates to be issued during the holidays unless a boy has already obtained this form, completed it, had it countersigned and filed in the Registry.

13.4 No School Leaving Certificate will be issued unless these ‘AC form’ requirements are fulfilled and any outstanding fees are paid.