Lyceum International School, Ratnapura was officially founded on 6th January 2005 in a rented building at Batugedara, with just 200 students. This landmark event in Ratnapura educational landscape took place in earnest request made to the visionary educationist Dr. Mohan Lal Grero, by a group of parents who had envisioned a school, based on an international level education in Ratnapura. From its initial beginning, the school has continued to grow and succeed in the subsequent years.

Within three years, with growing student population of around 675, the school has been shifted to one of the most spectacular locations in the heart of Ratnapura, just 1 km from Colombo-Badulla main road. The setting of the new school is truly wonderful and it offers the space, opportunities and technology that students require for a first-class education.

The buildings of Lyceum Ratnapura offer modern, smart interior and exterior environments, with playgrounds and facilities that are age appropriate, safe and enjoyable. The facilities on offer match that of any top international school, not only in terms quality, but also in how they enhance the education the school provides. In 2011, there were massive developments and the school had grown with the addition of ‘Leotron’, the swimming pool complex.

The school now boasts of a 25metres 6 lane swimming pool and a baby pool. A large playground, named ‘Arena Nike’, which could accommodate various games and sporting activities was declared opened in 2012. The grounds include the main playground, ‘Kleio’ the grassed play area for the nursery school, a basketball court and a tennis courts.

The spacious new Aeolian Hall was inaugurated in 2019, which has a seating capacity of 850. This main hall provides an ideal space for school assemblies, events, minor games and inter-school activities. Our constructive philosophy of education is reflected in the design of our learning spaces such as modern laboratories, specialized rooms for computing, aesthetics, counselling and special needs.

The classrooms are spacious and all areas of the 5-storey building are graced with plentiful natural light. The school has a well-resourced library with a wide selection of books and resource. The library is complemented with comfortable reading areas to encourage a love of books and reading. Lyceum has a strong academic culture where students are encouraged to be ambitious with their aspirations and inspired to be their best selves and open minded in their global outlook.

Thus, the curriculum of Lyceum is designed to provide a continuum of experience and knowledge acquisition from Nursery to Grade 12. Lyceum curriculum from Lower Nursery to Grade 8 is carefully planned through a thematic approach to teaching and learning and designed to support children’s natural curiosity and stimulate their creativity.

It offers students the opportunity to work depth, giving them the time they need to reflect, consolidate and transfer their learning. The school offers Cambridge and National syllabi for the Upper School students and is proud of the stellar results in public examinations as such and our school leavers’ university destinations. Our students have consistently done well and achieved excellent results over the past many years in National and Cambridge examinations.

The school offers a personalized approach to learning enhanced with unique global opportunities that support outstanding achievements. These achievements include top in world, top in Sri Lanka and High Achievement awards for Mathematics, English Language, Accounting, Economics and Sinhala and also the Best in Sri Lanka across seven subjects award at the Cambridge Examinations.

Receiving these awards was an incredible accomplishment of the students which brought glory to the school. Another testament to the quality education Lyceum Ratnapura provides and the dedication of its wonderful students were proved when Gayanga Wijesekara and Rajitha Chandrasekara became the district 1st in the Commerce stream in the consecutive years at the GCE Advance Level Examination national AL.

That glory continued as Pesala Welangalle emerged as the District 2nd in the Maths stream in 2018. Lyceum Ratnapura does not however define its success purely on academic results. It is important that every student is offered the opportunity to discover his talent through a comprehensive breadth of extra-curricular activities where students can shine in the fields of sports and aesthetics.

Sports at Lyceum Ratnapura is about competition, building friendships and developing character. The experience of victory and defeat, playing as a member of a team and respecting officials and the opposition are all part of developing individual character. Good sportsmanship is as important as winning at Lyceum. Experiential learning and outdoor education opportunities have been much expanded during the years with students achieving many national and international awards.

Art, Music and Drama help children to speak in their own special voice. Opportunities for creativity at Lyceum Ratnapura are numerous and the school brings out the best in its students resulting in growing confidence and enjoyment in them. The Annual Music Concert is an eclectic mix of ensembles reflected their diverse musical talents and the choristers have won all island awards for many years.

The cultural dancing troupe of Lyceum Ratnapura has been actively involved in school and outdoor performances with variety of dance styles that it has become the 1st in the All Island Dancing Competitions many times. The maiden production of the English Drama Club, ‘Wicked Hearts’ won the 1st place under the limited category in the State Children’s Drama Festival 2019 and it lead the young dramatist of Lyceum Ratnapura to perform at the 2nd Kolkata International Children’s Theatre Festival held in Kolkata.

The closure of all schools in the country due to Covid 19, has not prevented Lyceum from offering a high quality learning for students as Lyceum has recognized the potential negative impact it could have on students’ education early. To fully prepare for this ‘worst-case scenario’, Lyceum resorted to an online learning platform, which ensured that studies and examinations would not get disrupted or halted.

Along with their normal lessons, all extra-curricular activities, weekly assemblies, competitions and events are conducted on virtual platform giving the student an opportunity to voice themselves from a safe place. In this year, Lyceum Ratnapura is celebrating 17 years of excellence in education. On the occasion of its 17th anniversary, Lyceum Ratnapura has celebrated this remarkable milestone in a number of ways.

As 2021 has been a difficult year for many children, along with the anniversary celebrations, Lyceum Ratnapura planned to help a few needy children receive a gift of hope, happiness and warmth. Twelve children, chosen by the Child Protection Authority, were invited to the school with a guardian. The children enjoyed the day by singing, dancing, playing games and tasting a delicious meal.

At the end of the event, each child received a gift pack. To celebrate the anniversary, series of cricket matches were also organized under three categories: administrative staff, academic staff and support staff. During this celebratory month of January, Lyceum Ratnapura is proud to open its first two Pre Primary Schools in Eheliyagoda and Avissawella in the aim of providing high quality English medium education to the pre pre-primary students in those areas.

These schools will move forward with a dedicated team of qualified teachers focusing on creating a positive and enriching learning environment for young children. From its humble beginning of 200 students, Lyceum Ratnapura has grown to more than 1850 students from Lower Nursery to Grade 12 and has a teaching and administration staff in excess of 277.The objective of Lyceum Ratnapura is to create learning environments which challenge, nurture and provoke its students to be the thinkers, leaders and contributors of tomorrow while achieving the vision of producing global citizens who will reshape the future.