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| Saturday, 17 July 2004 |
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Wattala Sancta Maria Montessori celebrates Golden Jubilee
Wattala Sancta Maria Montessori School will celebrate her Golden Jubilee today (17), with a Holy Mass at St.Anne's Church, Wattala, at 4.30 p.m. with Colombo Archbishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Oswald Gomis as the chief celebrant. Archbishop Gomis as Auxiliary to the Colombo Archdiocese was the celebrant of the Silver Jubilee on April 7, 1978. As a part of today's Golden Jubilee celebrations a Souvenir will be launched in recognition of the yeoman service rendered by the School and in loving memory of their 'Loku Teacher', Miss Theodora Jayalath. Full scholarships to five needy children of the Wattala area are also to be awarded at the Parish Preschool today. Rev. Frs. Shanthikumar Welivita, Prasantha Amarasekera and Jude Algama, Bros. Ranjeeva Fonseka, Sujeeva Alexander and Trishan Samarasinghe are the proud products of this school. Within the past 50 years of service, well over 3213 students have gone through the doors of Sancta Maria Montessori. Staff number had gone up to 96 during this period. Theodora Jayalath AMI, the founder of Sancta Maria Montessori School took on rent 'The Walauwa', Station Road, Wattala, turned it to a Montessori and on March 10, 1953, the school premises was blessed by the Very Rev. Fr. D. J.Anthony, OMI, the then General Manager of Roman Catholic Schools. The batch of students enroled were five boys and two girls. They were the first students to have attended the first day of the school. The school hours were from 8 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon and the children would have a snack at 10 and after Angelus prayers at 12 noon would sit for their meal of rice and curry and all the students were taught from their young ages to use the fork and spoon to eat their food. Moving from one place to another within the past 50 years today the school is situated close to St. Anne's Church. From Walauwa, in 1954 August it moved to "Nelun" Bishop's Road, Wattala, the property of late Hubert de Silva. Late Rev. Fr. Nicholas Perera being a supporter of the good work Ms. Jayalath was involved, having sense the need, offered the former Mission House which is very close to the Negombo Road and when late His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Cooray came to Wattala on his Pastoral visit in 1958, he stepped into the Montessori where children were awaiting to greet him. He saw how the children were cramped up in a small place and granted permission to renovate and extend the building. Fr. Nicholas's and his assistant Fr. Charles D'Souza inspired and helped in her work and were towers of strength. In 1987 the school once more had to move out and now it is located very much closer to the former Mission House. The children of all the communities and nationalities at the Montessori had the opportunity of moving with all as brothers and sisters of one family and they had the fortune to go up to Grade Five in the same institute. This enabled the children to be brought up in a milieu where they not only studied secular subjects but grew up in a very religious atmosphere and were taught on good moral values to respect elders, to discipline themselves, to have orderliness in their life, to be neat and punctual and uphold modesty. Classes were also held in Elocution, Drama, Art, Oriental Dancing and Singing. Yolande Abeyweera was in charge of speech and drama in the school and subsequently Daphne Lord and her assistants were entrusted with coaching the young ones in prose and poetry which enabled proper pronunciation and recitation of poems. Exams for the little ones conducted by the Trinity College of Music, London, were held at Miss Jayalath's residence. Music and Dance came under the supervision of Mrs. Lord, Vipuli Perera, Hema Maligaspe and R. Sugathapala. With the passing away of Ms. Theodora, the present Directress Ranmalee Silva, took over the affairs of the school and she added a Day Care Centre to the school in 2002. This helps the parents who are employed and who very often are deprived of the services of domestic help, which is now becoming a luxury. - Wiruma |
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