The Magazine | British Council Sri Lanka

THE MAGAZINE Issue 3 April 2016

British Council Arts Reading, Writing and Rocking

STAY SAFE

ONLINE

CREATIVE

News and Updates from around the country

KANDY Scary Stories Poetry Pieces In proud partnership with

www.britishcouncil.lk facebook.com/britishcouncilsrilanka

Welcome to issue 3 of The Magazine in this issue we have lots of information about the work we have done and are doing around the country. From our Arts and Society projects to the Exams Centre and our professional development programmes.

Find out about our Projects team and what it is that they do. Learn about the library and all the great upgrades we have made to your customer journey here.

We also have our regular feature of student selections where you can read students stories, poetry and even a limerick or two.

Finally, we have lots of information about how to stay safe online and the ways in which the British Council Colombo works to ensure that our young learners are in the best possible learning environment.

Contents: Pages 3 - 5

News & Events

Pages 7 - 10

Around the Country

Pages 15 - 20

South Bound

Pages 25 - 27

Student Selections

Editor: James Phillips

Production Team: James Phillips

We are happy to continue our partnership with BMS who have continued their valuable support of this publication and have provided some editorial content for this issue.

As always if you have any feedback, or would like to contribute to the next issue feel free to contact us. We hope you enjoy this issue.

In proud partnership with

ALL ABOUT US

Our Library New technologies changing the customer experience in Colombo.

The library in Colombo is the largest in the network of British Council libraries in the South Asian region. There are over 25,000 members and it is a place that is well known to both young and old.

Members in the Colombo library can now borrow and return books on their own using the self-check-in and checkout machines which were introduced recently. Our operation has changed in recent years due to the newly implemented RFID Technology (Radio Frequency Identi cation Technology) which makes it faster and easier than ever before to borrow and return books.

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New technologies in the eld of Information Technology have immensely helped us in running a successful library operation that can deal with the demands of modern society and the large customer base that we have.

Technology has always challenged differ ent people and different cultures to adapt to new systems and processes.

We hope that our new technologies make your experience of using the library a more user friendly one and one that demonstrates the bene ts of adapting to the new technologies and the changes it brings with it as they arise.

How is your life made easier with our new technology?

Our members are now con dent in using their smart cards to borrow books, although we have our library staff to support them whenever there is a need.

They can return their books at any given time due to the self-check-in drop boxes which are xed at the main entrances which are open 24 x 7. At the same time if members are unable to return their books on time they can now renew their books on-line which allows them to extend their items further. They can also access our on-line library catalogue to see whether we have the books they want to borrow before coming to the library. What could be better than saving yourself a journey by visiting us online @ https://www.britishcouncil.lk/english/ libraries/colombo In addition, On-line membership provides access to our e-library where we have more than 110,000 e-books and nearly 15,000 e-journals. This means you can read anywhere anytime and access new materials at the click of a button making your life easier and our services more available to each of you.

If you haven t visited our library and seen all the amazing services and facilities we have on offer then why not come for a visit as soon as you can. Find out about membership and look at the many wonderful materials that we have to help you learn and enjoy the simple pleasure of reading.

The Importance of reading Reading is a good hobby. Many noble men in the present were ardent readers when they were children. Most of them are still people who love reading. For me this makes the saying Reading makes a man perfect. absolutely true.

Reading has at all times been a great source of Knowledge. It is very important for our society to develop. Reading broadens our minds and, as it is not always possible to travel the world like we want to, it can allow us to go places we cannot travel to ourselves.

A student who is good reader will do well in school and pass exams better than a student who never reads. If you read a lot you learn lots of new and important vocabulary. So I think that reading and book are friends for students.

In the modern world cinema, television and computers take up the time and attention of most adults and children, we must be careful the habit and hobby of reading doesn t die out. So keep reading and enjoy reading at the library.

By Chenara Siriwardhane J4 C1

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BRITISH COUNCIL ARTS: Reading, Writing and Rocking

British Council Arts Manager, Tanya Warnakulasuriya gives The Magazine a quick update on what the British Council is up to when it comes to Arts.

Last year the British Council was pretty busy when it came to Arts. We work in all areas of Arts, looking at ways to support artists work and help them develop.

Last year we started our Artists-in Residence programme with theatre performances in the Library.

These were a great success and brought new audiences to the British Council in Colombo to watch plays by Mind Adventures Theater Group. British Council Sri Lanka is the only British Council of ce in the world to have an Artists-in-Residence programme where we offer our space to theatre groups to write, direct and perform new works to help develop their skills as actors and directors.

We also had Hip Hop Dancers from the UK who participated in the Natfest Dance Festival as part of our Dance for Reconiliation project which looks at how dance can help to bring communities together and build peace.

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Hip Hop dancer Kendra Horsburg wow d audiences with her dance piece Aviary where she magically grows wings on stage and learns to y! The UK dancers also ran workshops with young dancers from around the country to help them improve dance techniques and learn to have fun whilst learning.

We also had lots of free events such as the Bond Binge movie week, showing old Bond movies, just before the release of the latest Bond movie Spectre .

This was held at the new Coffee Bean in Liberty Plaza and there were exclusive Bond merchandise prizes, like caps and key chains to be won if you played the Bond Quiz.

We also have a free monthly lm screening at the Library showing a variety of mainly UK or UK related movies that you don t normally see at the Cinemas. Sometimes we invite special guests to talk about the movie.

This year we will be starting the lm club at the end of March with Rehan Mudanayake s lm Elephant and Rehan will be attending the screening to talk a bit about the making of the lm.

Another free event at the British Council last year, was a performance by skateboarding DJ Sunara who played a music session in the Bamboo Garden behind the library.

Sunara is one of our top new DJ s and she had just come back from the UK where she performed for the BBC and the Alchemy Festival in London.

UK reviews of her performance said that Sri Lanka brought an element of cool to the festival thanks to her performance. It s really great when we can support one of our young artists like Sunara to perform abroad and show just how much creative talent young people in Sri Lanka have. I do hope some of you managed to see her.

This year we plan to have even more events going on both at the British Council and also in other locations in Colombo, Jaffna and Kandy where we also have of ces.

We know students studying English Literature for O and A Level struggle with understanding the texts written by The Bard William Shakespeare. Even some teachers struggle! This is understandable, as the language is Old English that no one speaks in modern times.

To help students gain a better understanding of Shakespeare s stories and have fun whilst learning, British Council Arts will be screening Shakespeare lms and theater performances from April every month for a year.

Elephant a film by Rehan Mudanayake

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We will also, as part of our new Artists-in -Residence Programme, be partnering with the brilliant Workshop Players Theater group who will be performing Shakspeare in the Park for the rst time in Sri Lanka, at the Vihara Maha Devi Park amphitheater.

Performances of Midsummer Night s Dream, Othello and Merchant of Venice will be performed over the weekends at the end of April and the beginning of May. The actors will be rehearsing in our Multi Purpose room over the next few months so don t be surprised if you see mini performances as you head to class!

We will also be having more music mash ups in our library space with young English, Sinhala and Tamil singers, rappers, beat boxers and poets so please do keep an eye out for posters.

Last year 15 year old Tamil singer Kharesma Ravichandran amazed the audiences with her powerful voice, and English rapper Larry T Hill had audiences howling with laughter with his rap performance.

We will also continue to support some of the other great music festivals going on in the country . Last year we supported the Electric Peacock Festival by bringing out music producer Mark Ronson.

As well as theatre, dance and music we know how many of you are book lovers!

So, we will also be looking to have more reading and author interview sessions.

This year we brought out author Kenan Malik to talk about his book Quest for a Moral Compass.

He spoke to fully booked halls in both Galle and Jaffna and well as doing an interview session in Colombo with journalist Smriti Daniels in our Library.

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This year we plan to have even more events going on both at the British Council and also in other locations in Colombo, Jaffna and Kandy where we also have of ces We also had a brilliant (and very scary!) reading session with young Sri Lankan author Devin Jinadasa, who s book Silver Moon: The War Begins has been published by UK publishers Austin Macauley and is doing very well on Amazon.

The author sessions in the library are free of charge and very entertaining so please feel free to join us. We will also be supporting two major arts festivals this year Colomboscope ( Aug/ Sep) and the Colombo Art Biennale ( Nov/Dec).

Both these festivals will be bringing new and exciting forms of visual art to Sri Lanka and looking at the how art plays a part in technology and also in architecture. Make sure you don t miss these!

I hope that I will see more of you at the various events at the British Council and if there are any arts ideas or suggestions that you have, please feel free to come and have a chat wtih me about them.

ELT Projects Who we are and what we do!

The British Council, Sri Lanka engages in a variety of activities some well known and some not so well known. Most people know us for delivering English Courses, for helping students gain a UK quali cation and for providing information and enjoyment through our Library. ELT Projects comprises a small team with a large scope of work most of which is delivered quietly in the background. If you have heard the term ELT Projects and wondered what it actually means then read on.

We are the ELT (English Language Teaching) Projects Department based in Colombo. We help government English teachers across Sri Lanka develop their skills while enhancing their existing knowledge so they are then able to cascade that knowledge to over 4 million pupils across Sri Lanka. We work with the Ministry of Education, the National Institute of Education (NIE) and funders (both corporate and donors) to provide quality teacher training.

To give just one example of our projects: the Council for Business with Britain ELT Project started in 2006 and we have now trained over 1500 primary and

secondary teachers in rural and semi urban areas nationwide. This project is delivered through Regional English Support Center (RESC) mentors who have been trained by us and they deliver the course to teachers in their area. At the end of the course the teachers sit the Teaching Knowledge Test exam and a gain a University of Cambridge quali cation.

The RESCs help to deliver a lot of our teacher training work and are currently engaged in delivering the NDB Teacher Training Project. The project has been planned so that it covers the 9 provinces in Sri Lanka and increases our reach with the hope of one day being able to engage with every single English teacher in the country. This project is funded by the NDB Bank as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. We have been working with the bank since 2011.

The last six months have been busy for everyone in the team. Our teacher trainers have been shuttling up and down to and from Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mulathivu, Vavuniya, Matara and training centers in Colombo on a regular basis to deliver a variety of teacher training projects.

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These projects cannot be done without the support of our generous partners such as GIZ, HSBC, ChildFund, Muslim Aid, UNHCR, SPICE, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and Aitken Spence, to name just a few, all of whom have a keen interest in developing English Language Teaching in Sri Lanka.

If you are a learner of English and are wondering how you can get involved with some of the other work that we do then you should sign up to our Learn English SMS and IVR (interactive voice recording) courses. All you need is a regular mobile phone.

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Once you have signed up you can take part in listening activities and grammar exercise and get SMS tips every day.

For more information on how you can sign up visit our website https://www.britishcouncil.lk/english/ learn-online-mobile/sms So, the next time you visit the British Council in Colombo and if you would like to know more about ELT Projects please talk to our Customer Service staff and they will direct you to us. Meanwhile watch out for us on the roads to our various training venues around the country.

How HSBC Kids Read has gone down in Sri Lanka over the last six months

7 Schools, 4 Community Events and a Very Hungry Caterpillar It s been a busy 6 months in the British Council Sri Lanka as we are nearing the end of the HSBC Kids Read! project.

We ve worked closely with 7 schools across the island and now teachers and students alike love the colourful pages and energetic tales of the Kids Read books! The creative juices of the teachers have been really owing as they produce all sorts of story-related resources, and one school even invited a bunch of parents in for an arts and crafts session. We can t wait to see some of the teacher s demo their favourite stories at the closing ceremony in March. The Ministry of Education is going to be swept away!

Not only have the schools been having a great time, we ve just completed our fourth and nal community event. From Colombo to Kandy, from Galle to Jaffna the Kids Read team has been reading, creating, jumping around and gluing with the 478 children that turned up to the four events. Not to mention their parents and teachers that appeared to enjoy the stories just as much (or maybe even a little bit more!) as the children.

Everyone went home with all sorts of arts and crafts and had an amazing time.

We know there are lots of Kids Read projects running around the network and we d love to hear your stories too.

We re sad it s nearly the end of the road for us, but you never know, they might ask us to do a second round yet!

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S EVERY CHILD MATTER WORLD EVERYWHERE IN THE HOW WE KEEP YOU SAFE

Hi! My name s Georgina Middleton and I am Senior Teacher Young Learners. I am also the Child Protection Focal Point for the British Council, Sri Lanka. It is my job to ensure that this policy is fully implemented in all our work with children in Sri Lanka.

Introducing the Child Protection Policy The British Council believes that you are important, wherever you live, and we take your safety and happiness very seriously. We have a Child Protection Policy describing the steps we will take to keep you safe, in every country we work. This version of the Policy is for you.

How we will work with you We will do what is best for you.

We will involve you in making decisions.

We will treat all children equally.

We will respect and value your culture.

We will work with other people who can help you.

We will take keeping you safe seriously.

We will make sure our policy keeps all children safe.

What we will do when you ask for help There may still be times when you need help. You might want to ask for our help because you are being hurt by a member of our staff or at home, or in school or in your community. Whatever you tell us we will listen and take your worries seriously.

What to do if you want to complain If you want to make a complaint under the Child Protection Policy, you should speak to a member of our staff that you trust or to the Country Child Protection Focal Point or a member of the British Council Child Protection Team.

If you do not want to make the complaint by yourself you can ask a member of your family or a friend to help you.

Children who tell us about their concerns will not get in trouble even if they report a staff member for bad behaviour.

Child Protection Focal Point: Georgina Middleton, Senior Teacher Young Learners Telephone: (011) 4521 6171 Child Line Sri Lanka: 1929 10

Did you know that?

Under an important international agreement, called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child most Governments have agreed that children have a right to protection, and to have their welfare promoted. This means that Governments have a responsibility to keep you safe.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child says that a child is anyone who has not reached their 18th birthday You can read more on our Child Protection Policy here: https://www.britishcouncil.org/ organisation/transparency/policies/ child-protection https://www.britishcouncil.org/ organisation/transparency/policies/ child-protection/keeping-you-safe The Child Protection team is continuously looking for more ways that we can keep children safe. With the rapid growth in technology, an important area of our work involves exploring ways to help create a better and safer online community.

We asked some our students to help us promote safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology by children and young people. A class of Teen 2 students discussed the potential dangers of the internet and they came up with some great tips for staying safe online.

Teen Tips written by: Nethmini Dissanayake, Viradha Sithmanthi, Udani Kithmini, Vinuka Ometh Wanigarathne, Saneru Akarawita.

Stay Safe Online:

Top Ten Tips Keep your passwords safe Passwords should contain at least 8 characters. Do not use your name or birthday. Characters should include numbers, lower and upper case letters and punctuation or symbols. Change your password every month if you can.

Check your privacy settings regularly Restrict access to personal information and make sure only friends can see your posts.

Be nice to people online Be polite and don t send or post mean messages and don t use bad language.

Know how to report posts Report posts and comments that make you feel worried or unhappy.

Take care with what you share Don t share bad photos of you or others and don t give out private information like your address or telephone number.

Never meet anyone in person you ve only met online The person might have a fake pro le... a 13 year old boy or girl might actually be an adult.

Choose your friends carefully Don t accept friend requests from people you don t know.

Know how to block people Block people who are unkind to you or make you feel uncomfortable.

Log out of web sites when you have nished If you don t log out, someone else might access your account. It s really important to remember this when you use a public computer.

If you see something online that makes you feel unhappy or bad, tell someone Tell and adult you trust or ask a friend to help you tell someone.

Learn how to stay safe and have fun online!

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S EVERY CHILD MATTER WORLD EVERYWHERE IN THE HOW WE KEEP YOU SAFE

Championing Child protection: Exam delivery for Cambridge Young learners at the British Council In November 2015, the British Council Sri Lanka was very proud to receive a Child Protection Best Practice Award from the global British Council network Sri Lanka is a challenging context in which to work on implementing child protection policies, systems and procedures. There are many factors in Sri Lanka that contribute to crimes against children including absence of one or both parents who work overseas, strong family units protecting perpetrators, lack of education for children on keeping safe, shame and embarrassment in discussing child abuse issues, increase in the use of phones and the internet, post-war dif culties, such as loss of parents and normalisation of violence and child labour.

Child protection is a high priority for the British Council in Sri Lanka due to the large number of children we come into contact with.

There are over 3500 young learners and more than 1000 young adults under the age of 18 across our teaching centres in Colombo, Kandy, Jaffna, Galle and Matara, the library has around 3000 young learner memberships and that gure doesn t include 15-17 year-olds, approximately 17,000 under 18s take exams with us annually, and there are numerous activities with children happening throughout the year through our schools programmes and English Language Training projects.

The exams team in Sri Lanka have mainstreamed child protection into the process for conducting Cambridge Young Learner Exams. Approximately 17,000 children take exams through the British Council Sri Lanka each year, so this is a momentous task.

Where exams are not conducted in a school, a risk assessment is completed on venues and appropriate safety measures are put in place.

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There is a drop off/pick-up policy for exam candidates to ensure that children are adequately supervised at the venue and that they leave safely after the exams. There are around 300 invigilators and 75 examiners working with under 18s and they all receive training in child protection. Invigilators and examiners who are non-British Council staff have a face-to-face brie ng on child protection and their responsibilities and are given access to the British Council online training course to complete. To monitor this we have nominated members of British Council exams staff who have administrative rights to run training completion reports for the online course.

Every quarter, there is a 5% spot-check of exams by staff and there are also regular checks by external inspectors, which includes checking safeguarding of children. In addition, on our website there is detailed guidance for candidates, from choosing which exam to take to tips for preparing and what to expect on exam day.

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Altogether this helps make study and the exams themselves as stress free as possible and gives students the support they need to perform at their best and achieve success. The British Council is constantly reviewing and revising current practices as exams continue to grow and we engage with more and more children.

Delivering UK quali cations to thousands of people in Sri Lanka is an integral part of our operation. Our work with Cambridge International Examinations, with Pearson Edexcel and with Cambridge English Language Assessment all involves working with children aged 6 and above. Children are a vulnerable group and at the British Council we take extensive measures by training and re-training both our staff and the extended networks we work with to ensure we are at the forefront of best practice in child protection Simon Creasey, Country Exams Manager

The bene ts of internet in education A students perspective by Shahed Jatit

Can you imagine a world without the internet?

A few decades ago, we had to scour the public libraries, newspapers, and old records and les section if we wanted to nd some information. However, with the leaps that technology has taken we have seen the internet has become the main source that can provide the user with an in nite amount of information for whatever they want to nd or learn about.

The advantages of the internet have been so many that lives today are unimaginable without it. Even the sector of education has bene ted in many ways because of the internet. Under proper guidance, the internet can help in many ways to facilitate research and communication.

There is not one eld of study or information in the world of which there is no record on the internet. This is one of the most important advantages of the internet, as it provides an endless library of information to the students from where they can do research for home work, projects and essays without having to spend unnecessary time travelling to the libraries and archives and searching.

Another major bene t of the internet is that you can share information with other people around the world.

Scientists or researchers can interact with each other to share knowledge and to get guidance wherever or whenever it might be.

Most schools provide internet which makes it a lot easier for students and even teachers as they can use it to nd information or practise their skills. A lot of websites, including some great British Council websites, can be used to do exactly that, search away and you ll nd many great resources for all learning needs and levels of English!

Unfortunately people in third world countries aren t as fortunate as we are, they don t have access to the internet some have poorly resourced schools.

Bringing the internet to third world countries would give the teachers and students access to literally every piece of information they would need to teach a class and it would be free, allowing more locals to turn into professionals that the country needs so bad. Can you imagine the impact of having the ability to teach more third world youths the needed skills to become a doctor, engineer, lawyer ...etc, the impact would be huge! All they would need to do is have a computer or two to access this information and share it with the students. Having a printer to print out the information is basically all they would need to make their own text books.

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Want to be better at using English in your job?

We have just the course for you.

Meet some of our current students and see the bene ts that they are getting from studying our Business Communications Course with a specialised trainer.

My name s Ruchira Nimanthi from Horana. I have been working at Mediccon Healthcare (Pvt) Ltd as a secretary for two months. We import laboratory equipment from many countries and distribute them all over the country.

I am following this course because I have to communicate with foreign suppliers. So I want to improve my English and communication skills.

On this course so far I have improved my telephone and email writing skills and look forward to improving my negotiation skills. I like my teacher and new friends very much Ruchira Nimanthi Mediccon Healthcare (Pvt) Ltd

My name s Oshanka Shashini. I work as a Training Merchandiser at Trendsetters Pvt Ltd. Trend setters is a leading garment factory with over 20 years of practice in the garment sector and works with many leading brands in the world such as Debenhams,Tesco, JLP,M & S,Carters and George etc.

My job is to ensure customer satisfaction and return the requested margins of pro t to the organisation. I play a vital role in developing new business as well as managing existing clients. I have to communicate the current status to the client, attend business meetings, go on client visits, deal with suppliers and deliver the nal shipment on time.

My objective for attending the British Council is to learn how to improve my business communication skills. I particularly want to improve my writing and spoken communication skills, including making business calls, replying to emails and improving my presentation skills.

I am glad to say that I have improved much and have learnt a lot. I feel more con dent when I send the emails to clients now and feel more comfortable in business meetings.

I hope to improve my presentation skills as well. I really appreciate and am thankful to the British Council for this opportunity to change my life Oshanka Shashini Trendsetters (Pvt) Ltd

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My name s Ruvini Wickramasinghe, I am from Avissawella. I am 30 years old. I completed my basic degree in B.Sc. (Health Promotion) at the faculty of Applied Sciences, Rajarata University. Currently I am reading for a Masters of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya.

I am working as a project of cer at Ministry of Health and am responsible for the project proposal writing, negotiating with funding agencies, and coordinating and implanting projects.

Currently I am following the Business Communication Skill course at British Council. On this course I hope to improve my interpersonal skills as well as improve my report writing skills, presentation skills and negotiation skills. Ultimately I believe this course will help improve my professionalism and set me up for success Ruvini Wickramasinghe Project Of cer, Ministry of Health

My name s Dasun Maddumage. I am from Piliyandala which is 24km from Colombo. I am a graduate from the University of Colombo and I completed my Masters at Cardiff University in the UK. I have been working for Sewa Community Credit Ltd as the Senior Operation Manager for two years. It is a micro nance company, which engages in micro lending to the poorer people of the population in Sri Lanka. It is a subsidiary of an NGO called Sewa Lanka which is one of the larger NGOs in Sri Lanka.

My company operates in fteen districts with 395 eld level staff. It is an honour for me to be an employee of this company because I am able to support people and help them to improve their standard of living.

I decided to enrol for the Business Communication Skills course because I want to improve my con dence in speaking skills. I feel embarrassed at times when I struggle to speak in English in a business context, especially in meetings with foreign banks, as I feel unable to participate actively which I fear may hold me back in my career. I have chosen British Council to learn the language because of its unparalleled teaching techniques Dasun Maddamage Sewa Community Credit Ltd

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My name s Arosha Solangaarachchi from UAW enterprises. I'm a co-owner of a business with my brother and we distribute goods such as DSI tyres and slippers, Nestle Products, P&G, Hemas and CBL. We buy the products from the parent company and re sell them on the retail market for a pro t. The company has been operating for over 25 years.

I want to learn skills in a business context to expand our business to an international market. After some research, I discovered it is important to learn professional skills in order to build a good relationship with international clients and found the best place to learn Business skills with a specialised lecturer in the right environment.

I want to learn skills in a business context to expand our business to an international market. After some research, I discovered it is important to learn professional skills in order to build a good relationship with international clients and found the best place to learn Business skills with a specialised lecturer in the right environment Arosha Solangaarachchi UAW enterprises

My name s Thanuja Silva. I work for the MAS Holdings Bodyline as an Executive in Supply Chain. I hold a bachelor of Business Administration degree from University of Ruhuna, 2010. MAS Bodyline is a leading apparel manufacturer in Sri Lanka. We serve highly recognized brands such as Victoria Secret, VSX, Pink, Nike and New Balance.

I joined the Business Communication Skills course which is conducted by the British Council, the UK s international organisation for educational opportunities, as it focuses on improving the areas which we experience in our day to day working life such as presentation skills, negotiation skills, meeting skills, telephone skills, pronunciation skills, e-mail and report writing.

So far I have learnt a way of communicating with suppliers more effectively and in very productive way through writing e-mails and telephoning.

Thanuja Silva MAS Holdings Bodyline

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My name s Chandana Wanasundara, Senior Merchandiser at MAS Holdings, Bodyline. I m an Anandian. I obtained a BSc (Hons) Degree In 2007 from University of Kelaniya. In 2014 I completed a Master s Degree in Business Administration from Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. I work for MAS holdings which is the largest apparel manufacturer in Sri Lanka. We are currently working with world renowned brands such as Victoria Secret, VSX, Pink, Nike, New Balance. We produce intimate apparel, sports wear and swim wear.

The British Council is the world reputed professional English learning centre which has professionally quali ed teachers. Business Communication Skills is one of their programmes which is designed for professionals to improve their communication skills. It covers presentation skills, negotiation skills, meeting skills, telephone skills, pronunciation skillsas well as e-mail and report writing which is essential in business. As I work with foreign customers, developing these skills is vital to perform my job well. So far it has been amazing and I feel I have improved my skills, which helps me to communicate effectively and con dently Chandana Wanasundara Senior Merchandiser, MAS Holdings, Bodyline

My name s Hashan Handapangoda and I am a Tour Executive for a travel agency, Lakpura Travels (Pvt) Ltd. We mainly operate as an inbound tour operator and our friendly reliable staff to deliver personalised service to the customers. As a result of the strong relationships with most of the hotels and other service providers we are able to assist our customers to meet their exact requirements on every occasion.

My role as a Tour Executive is to identify my customer s needs and offer them proper arrangements throughout their journey. When I work with international customers it s really important to have sound knowledge in world recognised communication skills. I chose this course conducted by British Council to improve my skills.

I m really excited about the course. It s mainly focused on improving our professional writing skills, presentation skills, meeting skills, telephone skills and negotiation skills. Our class teacher is really enthusiastic and she always gives us lots of advice and practical tips which is very helpful in our day to day work. So I would de nitely recommend this course to others.

Hashan Handapangoda Lakpura Travels (Pvt) Ltd

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CREATIVE KANDY

Special Events in Kandy December 2015 To follow on from the success of British Council s Got Talent held in December 2014, we in Kandy decided to end 2015 with several Big Bangs: the Sri Lankan Winter Wonderland competition and a Christmas Craft Day extravaganza.

Sri Lankan Winter Wonderland The British Council Kandy held a winter competition this year for all of their young learners and library members.

In the competition, the young learners were asked to imagine that this year Sri Lanka would have a winter just like the cold and snowy winters in the UK. The children were given the opportunity to use their imagination and enter the competition in any creative they wanted to.

The response from the children was overwhelming with over 160 entries put in to the special Winter Wonderland post box. Many children drew pictures of Kandy covered in snow and ice, people ice skating on Kandy lake and one of the winners drew the elephants from the Pinnawala orphanage playing in the snow! Some of the children wrote wonderful poems and stories about their Sri Lankan adventures in the snow and some also sent in a few comic strips.

There were a few wonderful models made of Santa, some snowmen and a Kandy park covered in snow.

The staff at the centre found it very hard to choose their favourites and spent a long time looking through all of the fantastic entries. Eventually three winners were chosen from each age category and they received their certi cates and book vouchers at a small ceremony held in the centre.

Nethmi Nimaya Kodipilli J2C2 winning entry 9-11 years

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CREATIVE KANDY

Christmas Craft Day This event drew young learners from the TC and library and some children even joined the library on the day to be able to take part in this special event!

Almost 100 children signed up for this fantastic day. he event involved four creative activities in the four classrooms with each group of children spending one hour in each and rotating round. In the computer lab, children evaluated themselves using a kindometer survey and then wrote to Santa on the exciting webpage writetosanta.com. Two of the classrooms had Christmas dĂŠcor sessions and one room a Twelve-days of Xmas sing-a-long with talented children rewriting and modernising the words to the song:

On the fth day of Xmas my parents gave to me 5 Barbie Dolls 4 pencil boxes 3 CDs 2 teddy bears And a playstation PSP The remainder of the day included a Christmas quiz, Christmas jokes, a Christmas cookie challenge and of course a special visitor dressed in red.

The event wrapped up a hugely successful year and was enjoyed by all, including the teachers.

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CREATIVE KANDY

Winter Wonderland winning entry 12 15 years It was around seven in the morning.

I woke up because I was feeling a bit cold. I looked out from the window and saw white things all over the place.

I grabbed my hoodie, put on my shoes and ran out. It was freezing. Then I realised what the white things were: snow!

I ran back inside and woke my parents and siblings. They were super shocked to see snow in our garden. The news said that it was snowing all over Sri Lanka and that all school had to be closed. I was super happy. We had a snowball ght in our back yard. My dog got really excited and started pouncing on the snow, thinking it was a living creature. My dog came back with bits of snow on her face. She looked adorable.

After breakfast I called my friend. She agreed to come to my house. We had so much fun together. We built a snowman but my dog came and jumped onto the snowman. We got mad and chased her around the garden. My mum made us some hot chocolate.

She wasn t very happy about the snow asco.

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We heard the news that the Kandy lake was frozen and that people were iceskating on it. We begged my father to take us ice-skating and he said he would see to it.

In the evening my friend went back home. We went to Mawanella to visit my grandmother. There is a rock called Devenagala there. My brother had a wicked idea to go skiing on the rock.

Since we didn t have any skates, we decided to climb the rock instead.

It was really fun. We had a huge snowball ght on the top. I sneaked behind my brother and put a snowball in his jersey. He tried to do the same but I ran away. It got colder so we went back home.

I checked the time and was amazed to see it was only 6pm but it looked like midnight outside. I wished we had a replace. We all sat in the living room and watched TV. The night outside was beautiful. When the moon shone on the trees covered in snow, the trees looked like men dressed in white.

Today was really exciting but tomorrow could be even more exciting.

Snow akes slid down my window. I had a lot of fun and I wish it would always snow in Sri Lanka. How great that would be.

Penusha Udapamunuwa 12 years - SYL3/C2

Yasmi Naveesha Mahathathila 2nd place (12- 15 years)

23

CREATIVE KANDY

Interview with Pramodh Bandara (PB) President - BCSU

by Malaka Deshapriya (MD) a class BCSU representative

MD Hi Pramodh. Can you tell us something about yourself?

PB: I m Pramodh and I m 21. I studied at St. Thomas College Matale and now I m studying at SLIIT and the British Council.

I m currently in Intermediate 2 and last term I did the Intermediate Spoken English Course. My professional skills are rugby, cricket and football and I was in the school team for all three sports.

Although it was during a wet rainy period, on that day the weather was good with sunshine and clouds. Our SU worked really really hard to get the grounds booked, teams prepared, trophies polished and refreshments ordered. I was so proud of our BCSU team on that day.

MD Thanks Pramodh. So why did you apply to become the BCSU president?

PB: I thought this will be very helpful for me to improve my leadership skills and also it would be a great opportunity for me to forward my ideas and views about what students at the BC would like.

MD Right. Developing leadership skills is a good thing. What events have you organised so far at the British Council, Kandy?

PB: The students union members and I organised a cricket tournament on Monday 30 November 2015. We had over 60 people playing at the Asgiriya Police grounds in Kandy town.

Man-of-the-match winner receiving a trophy from Sujatha Sumithipala

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MD What events are you planning to have in the future?

PB: It s hard to say because 8 of the 10 members of the BCSU have left to pursue their higher studies so we are currently interviewing for new recruits (at this time February 2016). I would love it if we could have a students talent show because I know there are a lot of people with musical and dancing talents in our classes. Let s see what happens when our new union members have been selected.

MD How has it been working with the BC Kandy staff?

PB: Really interesting. If it hadn t been for the support of the staff, we wouldn t have achieved our goals as well as we did. Mrs. Sujatha Sumathipala is currently the main teacher we coordinate with and she has been extremely supportive and helpful. We were also fortunate enough to get the support and guidance from Mr. Ian Williams, who is the branch manager.

He helped us in being responsible team members and effective researchers with different things at the British Council.

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MD What advice can you give to your successor, who will be recruited in September 2016?

PB: (laughs). That s a good question.

Hhmmm. I would like to tell them that acting in a friendly manner to all staff and students, is important. So you are approachable and can win their hearts.

Then, you can achieve all your targets successfully. The ten of us in the September-December 2015 term had quite a lot of time free because we were waiting for our A level results, so we came almost every day to the BC Kandy to work together on our tasks and approach students in different classes when it was necessary.

MD

Thanks a lot, Pramodh, for answering my questions today.

PB: You re welcome.

Interview

by Malaka Deshapriya