The English Department of Alethea prides itself on encouraging each individual student's talents while at the same time working positively towards generating an upliftment of language, literature and a multitude of other achievements that go into the holistic education of an Alethean student.
The Department comprises of eight extremely qualified and enthusiastic members working towards the ultimate goal of exemplary examination results and producing future adults who are not simply competent in language but can boast of having mastered every nuance of this great entity.
With this goal in mind many innovative schemes have been introduced. Firstly the book lists for English were overhauled at every level and a new dynamic, more demanding syllabus was introduced this included a
reading programme that incorporated two readers per class, one based on language and one that concentrates on literary values of characterization, technique, forms of writing, identification of the new genre of Sri lankan English and story development. This in turn has yielded amazing academic results. Students have achieved 100% at A/Level Edexel English and numerous A's and A*'s at Cambridge O/Level English.
The Department is also proud to note that the local English stream yielded 100% A's at O/Level's 2009. This is an All Island ranking. Further this medium also achieved 4 A's in English Literature that are extremely rare in Sri Lanka.
Secondly competitions have been introduced at all levels of learning to help propagate the basis of all effective English communication; writing, listening & speaking. Some of these were,
This competition was introduced in every class, conducted under exam conditions. A list of words was taken from the syllabus of each grade and included an
input of the British Spelling Bee 2010 Lists. This competition yielded winners in the Junior, Intermediate and Senior Categories.
This creative writing competition was judged by the award winning author Ameena Hussein and the Perera .
Hussein Publishing House. The winners in all 3 categories won the judges approval as being potential future writers
This competition too was judged by an accredited speech and oratory professional together with the school's
directress and while winners were elected in all 3 categories, new talent was identified as well.
The game of scrabble was introduced in all classes and used as a tool to enhance vocabulary of both the active participants and the on lookers.
The competition was held at inter house level and junior, intermediate and senior students represented their houses in competitive spirit.
Perhaps the happiest moment of the English Department is the announcement of the results of the Commonwealth Essay Competition. Alethea won 2 bronze medals in Classes A & B respectively and a Silver in Class D.
Knowing that English necessitates all round skills the Department introduced Debating at the highest level. Alethea joined the Sri Lanka Schools Debaters Council
and our more adept speakers were trained by the founding president of the Debater's Council who is also the present director and Head of Training and his colleagues, all of who have represented Sri Lanka at International level. They spent much of their valuable time instilling basics of Debate in Alethea students.
Ms. Ellen Kumarasinghe / Ms. Anusha Rambukwella
The students actively took part in all the activities organized by the association through out the year. The students participated in the essay competition organized by the Divisional Secretariat and obtained the first Shafni
Rahman and third place was Sewandi Wimalasuriya and they also participated in the Zonal Sinhala Competition organized by the Department of Education under the categories of Reading, Recitation and Oratory. Many competitions such as Oratory, essay and spelling competitions were organized at school level to promote the usage of the language.
