At Royal College Colombo there is much encouragement for the formation of institutions of extracurricular activities since its early days. This was marked with starting of the college magazine and the library in 1837. Today there are over 60 clubs and societies of different kinds. Following are descriptions of several of them;
| Broadcast area | Sri Lanka |
|---|---|
| Format | Contemporary & educational |
| Owner | Royal College |
| Website | www.fmroyal.info |
The Radio Club of Royal College is probably one of the oldest and most senior clubs at Royal College. Established in 1925 as the Radio Listeners Club by the college prefects during the tenor of principal Major H.L. Reed. Today the club is responsible for many pioneering initiatives such as the FMRoyal radio broadcast, web cast, and pod cast. Members of the club maintains and operate much of the Audiovisual assets at the college, including the sound systems and the schools PA system, it also provides services to other Clubs and Societies on a frequent basis on matters which concern electronics, audio or video, and liaise with other schools on these matters as well.
FMRoyal has been one of the most innovative undertakings of the Radio Club. The service has the distinction of being the first ever school radio station in south Asia, the first ever 24 hours radio station in Sri Lanka, first ever radio station in Sri Lanka to have a wap-enabled website, first ever school radio station to start a webcast and the first ever school radio station in Colombo to have a relay transmission in Kandy.
The Sinhala Debating Team of Royal College has a proud history of 73 years which was established under the former principal Mr. Lionel Henry Samson in 1934. Gaining numbers of victories in inter-school debating competitions Sinhala Debating Team of Royal College has earned respect among other leading schools in Sri Lanka and is renowned as the number one in school debating field. Royal College Sinhala Oratory and Debating Society were formed in year 2001 to gather all the debaters under one student body. The Sinhala Oratory and Debating Society have been able to improve the oratory skills of students of the college and contributed to benefit students of debating teams from many schools island wide by organizing tournaments.
It is identified as one of the most active student bodies of Royal College and also the most dynamic debaters' league among other such in Sri Lanka. The Sinhala Oratory and Debating Society annually organize the THARKA National Level School Debating Tournament under the patronage of Ministry of Education. The Royal College Sinhala Debating Team is a parallel body to the Society and has gained a prestigious name as the number one school debating team in Sri Lanka.
Tamil Literary Association is one of the oldest and active societies of Royal College and it has actively organized various activities for the past 70 years to help young Royalists to build up themselves with confidence, leadership qualities and mould their character and all-round personalities. Tamil Literary Association is also making an effort to improve and expose the talents of the children by conducting language training campaigns and cultural events which will help to understand and appreciate each other and the cultures of various ethnicities that are prevailing in the school.
The association has made this service available for other school students by organizing Inter Schools Competitions annually. It has also taken the responsibility to encourage young talents by staging creative ideas of the students through the "Kalai Vizha" (Tamil Cultural Day) which is held annually and publishes its annual magazine Thamizh Nayam.
The Philatelic Club of Royal College is one of the senior clubs at Royal. It was founded in 1944, as the first Philatelic Association in Sri Lanka. This was even before the establishment of the Philatelic Bureau under the Department of Posts. The first student secretary of the club was the late Hon. Lalith Athulathmudali the former Minster of Education. The philatelic club in 1981 started The Royal Philatelist, the first Philatelic Magazine in the country and it has been the longest continually published Philatelist Magazine in South Asia. Sir Ernest de Silva, considered to be the greatest philatelist in the history of Sri Lanka, was a student of Royal College.
The Astronomical Society of Royal College was established in 1964 is the schools society for amateur astronomers. RCAS member’s participation in programs held by Sri Lanka Astronomical Association, Astronomy & Space Study Center, Colombo Planetarium, Arthur C. Clarke Center.
The Interact Club of Royal College is the oldest functioning Interact Club in Sri Lanka and is also the 3rd oldest in Asia. It was established in 1965, and since has been serving the community and school. The Club publishes the Bradby Shield souvenir annually to commemorate the second biggest sporting event of Royal College. Talent search, Drama comp, Abstract and fun DUH mental are other annual projects done by the club, of which the latter two are joint projects done with the Interact Club of the Interact district 3220. The club is hoping to celebrate its 42nd year of success this year and will strive to keep the motto of the club 'making a difference' true as has been in the past.
The Royal College Art Circle is one of the largest clubs in the school, with a member base of over 1000 students. It helps in decorating events such as the annual sports meet. "Beyond the Horizon" art exhibition, which has been held annually for 12 years at the Colombo Art Gallery is the clubs main event of the year. It's not only a school art competition, but also an island-wide competition where some of the paintings on display are the creations of children coming from the war torn north and east of Sri Lanka. Water colour painting, oil painting, glass painting, pottery painting.black and white (pencil sketch), fabric painting, papercut design and sculpture are the fields of art in which students compete. Winners get gold, silver and bronze medals, merit is given to the non medalists whom have done well and participation certificate for participants whom are not medalists or who have no earned merit awards. Students of ages from 5 to 18 compete. Each participant receives a paint box and a drawing book. This is especially useful to the needy children from rural areas and help develop their skills to the next level. The art circle has also engaged in many humanitarian work as well.
The 2007 Beyond the Horizon Art Exhibition held on November 2,3 yielded more than 4000 works of art.208 schools (including war torn areas like Jaffna) competed excluding Royal College. This year was one of the most successful events of the clubs history. Foreign art enthusiasts were also on attendance marveled by the genuine creativity of the Sri Lankan Children.
The Royal College General Knowledge Club is one of Colombo's premier co-curricular student bodies. It is a leading Quiz Club in Sri Lanka. The Club has a proud history of over 30 years that dates back to 1976 when it was initiated as General Knowledge Society. In 1981, under the guidance of teacher-in-charge Mrs. Padmini Rajapakse, General Knowledge Club was established.
General Knowledge Club plays the major role in organizing and conducting inner-school & inter-school quiz contests for Royal College. The Club is well known for the "Blue & Gold All Island Inter-school Quiz" which is organized annually earning the participation of over 40 schools every year including a large number of outstation schools. Currently, "Blue & Gold Quiz" is Sri Lanka's longest running uninterrupted quiz contest.
The Royal College Quiz Team, affiliated to the Club is considered to be the Best Quiz Team in Sri Lankan school quiz arena. Over the last 3 decades, it has won numerous quiz contests including the prestigious Rupavahini-Walls Discovery Quiz in 2000, Hatton National Panamuthu Quiz in 2000 and Sri Lankan Masterminds overall championship 5 times (in 1994,1995,1997,2000 & 2009) and The Management Club-Wisdom Quiz overall championship in 2006. Royal College Quiz Team members have represented Sri Lanka in SAARC Radio and Television quizzes.
The Royal College Computer Society was inaugurated in 1982, by Mr. W.A. Wickramasena as the first school-level computer society in Sri Lanka. Since then RCCS played major role in college day-to-day activities, such as providing necessary help in college IT Lab activities to publishing the annual Battle of the Blues Souvenir.
The Royal College Tamil Debaters' Council is one of the clubs at Royal. The council annually organizes the Royal Thomian Tamil Debate Encounter in collaboration with the St Thomas's College Tamil Literary Association. This is an annual Tamil debate between Royal College and St Thomas' College for the Kulasekaram Memorial Shield. Held since 1994 longest Tamil debating series in the world. In the contemporary the council along with the Sinhala & English Debating Societies is organising an Annual All Island Trilingual Debating Contest to help & nurture the debating skills of other pupils in Sri Lanka, This event is supported by the Practical Action ITDG & endorsed by the Ministry of Education.
The Royal College Tamil Debating Team is a part of the Royal College Tamil Debaters' Council. The Royal College Tamil Debating Team is the oldest Tamil Debating Team of SriLanka, Gaining numbers of victories in inter-school debating competitions Tamil Debating Team of Royal College has earned respect among other leading schools in Sri Lanka and is renowned as the number one in school debating field.
The Association for Ethnic Harmony was established in 1997 with Mrs. K. R Wickramarathna as the Teacher in charge and Mrs Muthaliff, Mr S. Rathnasabapathy acting as the Assistant Teachers in charge. The society was the first of its kind and was the first Students movement to hold a "Peace Day". The first ever peace day was held in 1997 with over 700 participants. In 1998 a Poster exhibition and a Peace Camp was held together with the Peace day. The uniqueness of the society was also present in the structure of the office bearers, where a board of directors were present instead of a chairman. This was the first society in Royal College history which challenged the typical hierarchy of a students organization.
Formally, the production of Sinhala drama within the college were carried out by the Sinhala Literary Association. This was changed with the establishment of the Royal College Sinhala Drama Society under the guidance of Mrs. Rathna Lalani. The first stage production of RCSDS was Hapannu, after which an inter-house drama competition was held in 2004, followed by a drama competition in 3 mediums in collaboration with the Royal College English and Tamil drama societies. RCSDS is noted for organizing Harasara Pranama an annual award ceremony and in 2007 RCSDS held an inter-school drama competition.[1] [2]
The Library Readers Association of Royal College is a student body involved in the maintenance and development of the College Library. It is considered as one of the most active societies in the school since the new members are admitted not only by a common written application procedure, but an interview from a non society officials (school administration - vice principal, librarian, etc) after a year of performance analysis and academic evaluation. The Library Readers Committee is selected each year by a vote and the officials are responsible for the fund raising events as well as the general day to day chores of the library for the whole year. The focal point in the society calendar is the library week, which is organized toward the end of the year. During the library week, book exhibitions, educational seminars, film shows and talent shows are held. At the end of the week, the Library Day is celebrated with an all island inter-school quiz which will be participated by at least 100 schools island wide and many other items by college students.
In addition, the Library Readers help the Librarians on the day -to-day tasks. Readers are recruited every year from Grade 10. These readers arrange the books in correct cupboards, assist the students, prepare Catalog information and most recently, help in the Computerization project.