Elizabeth Moir School, founded in 1996, is a co-educational, international day school in Colombo, Sri Lanka.[1] It is attended by children aged 2 through 18, consisting of a wide variety of nationalities. Since its founding, Elizabeth Moir School has enrolled students from over 74 different countries. As of 2024, approximately 45% of students are from Sri Lanka. The remainder of the student body are from expatriate families resident in Sri Lanka.[2]
Elizabeth Moir moved to Sri Lanka in 1982 with her husband and three children. Previously she had been associated with international schools in Hong Kong and New Delhi. She founded Colombo International School months after arriving in Colombo, followed by the British School in Colombo some years later.
Eventually in 1996, she founded the Elizabeth Moir School, where she is currently the principal.
Students
Currently, there are approximately 520 students attending the school. of whom 70% are from Sri Lanka, and 30% are expatriates. [citation needed]
Curriculum
The Senior School Entrance
Elizabeth Moir School makes use of the British education system. Students sit for IGCSE and Advanced Level examinations, set by Edexcel in Sri Lanka, and have had the best results of any international school outside the United Kingdom in both 2015 at Advanced Level, with 38% A* and in 2016 at IGCSE, with 64% A*.[3][4][5]
Senior School
The Senior School classes are: Form 1–5, Lower 6th and Upper 6th. In Form 4, students begin the IGCSE courses and they sit the examinations which are set by Edexcel and are marked in London in usually eight to ten subjects. Courses available are: English Language; English Literature, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Human Biology, History, Geography, ICT, Mandarin, French, Sinhala, Tamil, and Art. In the Lower 6th, students begin the Advanced Level and they sit the examinations, which are set and marked by Edexcel, in three, four, or five subjects. Courses taught at this level are:
Elizabeth Moir School concentrates mainly on team sports which include football, cricket, basketball, swimming and athletics with both boys' and girls' squads in both schools for most age groups.
Football is currently the strongest sport, with the Under 19 Team having been International Schools Champion several times and having beaten many top national schools. Both Boys' and Girls' Squads compete in Malaysia annually.
In cricket, the Boys' Under 19 Team were frequently International Schools' Champion when Rumesh Ratnayake was their coach.
In basketball, there are squads for both boys and girls throughout both schools, and they compete with schools and clubs in Sri Lanka as well as in Malaysia.
Moir School has squads for both athletics and swimming consisting of about fifty boys and girls from ages 6 to 18. Elizabeth Moir School hosts an annual four way swimming meet for the four main international schools in Colombo at the fifty metre Air Force Pool in Ratmalana.
The school has had, and still has, several national athletes and swimmers who train daily. They have also had students who represented Sri Lanka in rowing, cricket and squash.
The Performing and Creative Arts
From an early age, students are encouraged to participate in the performing and creative arts. There are very popular and successful programs in singing, instrumental music, drama, mime, dance, debating, and art.
There are daily assemblies at both schools, and students get regular practice speaking into a microphone and performing in front of an audience.
In the senior school, there are interhouse competitions in singing and dance, drama, debating, general knowledge, film, and art, which enables teachers to select students to represent the school at inter-school events.
The senior school choir is frequently invited to perform at the Royal College Choirs Festival and also for the Edexcel Awards Ceremony at the BMICH. Every other year, they are joined by the Junior and Infant Choirs for Carols at school with Chamber Choirs from Royal and Trinity.
Elizabeth Moir School stages both junior school and senior school plays, musicals, and concerts for packed audiences at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, the top theatre in Colombo. Recent successes include the 12 Angry Jurors, Crucible, A Few Good Men, Annie, Antigone, The Ramayana, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Whose Life is it Anyway, and Footloose.[7]
Both junior and senior schools have annual art exhibitions at the Lionel Wendt and Barefoot Galleries in Colombo.
They have debating and quiz teams who compete regularly with other schools.[7]
The juniors have regular trips throughout the year, primarily in the Colombo area.
There are frequent senior school trips to Paris for the French students, Beijing for the Mandarin students, St. John's College Jaffna for the Community Service students, the Cultural Triangle and Ancient Capitals of Sri Lanka for the Middle School History students, the National University of Singapore for the Advanced Level Science students, and Malaysia for the football, cricket, and basketball squads, with another trip to Thailand being planned. Leadership camps with white water rafting, abseiling and other adventure sports are organized at Kitulgala and elsewhere for students from Form 4 upwards.
In addition, senior students are encouraged to do internships during their holidays and these include: Beijing University, the United Nations in New York, Game Parks in South Africa and Rwanda, a hospital in Colombo for kidney transplant operations, Flying School in Ratmalana, offices of architects, offices of lawyers, and IT firms in Colombo.
All students take part in a community service project with their class every year. In addition, students volunteer to teach English to young boys every week at the Salvation Army Boys' Home. The Sixth Form has an ongoing project with the Foundation of Goodness near Galle, which is also promoted by Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara. The students also work with the boys of Trinity College Kandy in deprived villages between Colombo and Kandy, under the auspices of Sri Lanka Unites, a student driven project promoting unity in the island.
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