‘The light of learning’, the dream of an educationist with great vision became a successful reality with the establishment of Royal Institute International School at Havelock Town, fifty long years ago, in 1971. Following the remarkable success of the institution, in 1993, a branch was established in Nugegoda. Subsequently, its network expanded to Maharagama, Maya Avenue and Gampaha in 2006, 2008, and 2013 respectively, offering well-coordinated world-class education. The RI family is blessed not only with modern academic amenities, but also with a range of other latest facilities including a state of the art sports complex situated in Wijerama, which comprises of a gymnasium, swimming pool, badminton court, basket ball court, and a tennis court.
World-class education offered to students from kindergarten to upper secondary level in a significantly flexible and caring atmosphere is the secret to its unblemished success. The school caters to both, the national curriculum as well as the curriculum by Cambridge Assessment International Education. Throughout its 50 years of unprecedented history, Royal Institute International School has produced and gifted the society amazingly competent learners, who have received world prizes, numerous other awards, and international recognition.
Senuri Ratnayake is one of the most exceptionally gifted students to have graduated from Royal Institute International School, Nugegoda. She was well known for her academic brilliance and being a consistent prize winner at school, she obtained 7A*s at her Cambridge O Level examinations. At Cambridge AS Level examination Senuri obtained 4As and received several awards including ‘Top in the World’ prize for mathematics and ‘Top in the Country’ prize for chemistry; she also secured the first place in ‘Best Across Four’. Furthermore, she has demonstrated her leadership traits serving as a senior prefect, while at school.
Another proud alumna of Royal Institute, Nugegoda branch is Gayathrini Premawardhane. Her outstanding academic performances earned her financial aid up to 90% of the total cost of the undergraduate degree programme from Cornell University, New York, USA which is one of the prestigious Ivy League universities. Gayathrini will be graduating in May 2021 with a major in Physics. She plans to pursue postgraduate studies in Theoretical or Particle Physics, thereafter.
Dr. Yugeesh Lankadeva is yet another proud RI alumnus, who obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedicine from Deakin University and thereafter, completed his fully-scholarship funded PhD at Monash University. He currently serves as a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Translational Cardiovascular and Renal Research Group at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia. His medical research focuses on understanding the mechanisms driving cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and kidney diseases arising from severe infections and open-heart surgery. Presently, Dr. Lankadeva holds the authorship of over 40 publications and his medical discoveries have been acknowledged by the award of over $3.6 million of research funding and by over 20 prestigious national and international awards.
Royal Institute constantly believes in producing individuals who are not only academically sound, but equally rich with life competencies, social responsibility, and virtues. For instance, similar to bringing back home world prizes for academic excellence, learners adorn both their alma mater and motherland with international awards for excellence in sports, performing arts, etc. Thus, they uphold the pride of their alma mater.
Vibhath Jayasinghe is such a versatile alumnus who currently pursues his higher education at the University of Colombo following his achievements at GCE AL examination. He is one of the first two President Scouts in the history of Royal Institute and also served as the Director of Administration in Royal Institute Model United Nations; besides, he is a gifted actor, dancer and a stage director. He was appointed as the Head Prefect 2017/2018 of Royal Institute, Maharagama and received the award for the best all round student of the branch in 2018. “Royal Institute is the place where I learnt my policies; this is where I learnt the values that I embrace, built all associations, and mastered all skills,” recalls Vibhath.
Similarly, Chaniru Mirando, the passing out Deputy Head Prefect of Royal Institute, Nugegoda, who joined school in lower nursery and emerged a multitalented young scholar, struck a great balance among academics, sports and leadership.
Serving as the captain of the school badminton team, Chaniru led the team to emerge champions in the inter-International schools badminton tournaments for over 6 years; he won the best player title each time. In 2019, marking the history of badminton in the country, they were the first ever international school team, who made it to the semi finals in an all-island Super A division Championship, again under his captaincy. Chaniru is a junior national gold medalist and in 2016, he was selected to the National Junior Badminton Team of Sri Lanka and represented the country in the Asian Junior Badminton Championship which was held in Indonesia. Chaniru was the only Sri Lankan who made it to the best 16 players of that tournament and was subsequently ranked #20 globally by the World Badminton Federation in 2016. He was a presidential colours awards nominee in 2017 and a national colours awards winner in 2019.
Furthermore, Chaniru obtained best results at Cambridge Checkpoint examinations held at grade 8, 4A*s and 3As at Cambridge O Levels, and 3As and a C at Cambridge AS Levels last year. He is currently awaiting his Cambridge AL results.
The availability of sophisticated and stimulating learning environments and active participation in an array of extracurricular activities enrich students with all skills, competencies, strengths, values, and most importantly, independence demanded by a complex and challenging world.
Furthermore, Royal Institute ensures that a child’s education from nursery to tertiary level is taken care of. Its tertiary education arm, Royal Institute of Colombo (RIC) with over 40 years of excellence in higher education, and in affiliation with the University of London and the University of Deakin, Australia ensures that an undergraduate who enters through its doors to pursue higher education steps out into a bright and tantalising future holding a trove of knowledge, dignity and a world-class degree from the most prestigious universities in the world to confidently meet the challenges that the highly demanding professional world has to offer them.
Evidently, authenticity and the strong desire and commitment to educate and serve the future generations of Sri Lanka have been and will forever be the driving forces behind the unmatchable success of Royal Institute International School.