Our Students

Every week at OSC, students are actively immersed in service learning. Embedded into the curriculum, students identify specific needs within the community and then design relevant actions to meet the needs of the community. With protected service time, OSC students work together to support the community. We believe that student leadership, regardless of age, is essential when proposing and conducting service projects.

OSC students have been actively involved in the following service-learning projects:

Eco-Schools

Utilising the seven-step Eco-Schools programme, the club decreases the School’s environmental impact through education, awareness, and action. After the successful completion of the two-year process, OSC has been accredited by the Foundation for Environmental Education with the Eco-Schools Green Flag. The club is now into its second two-year cycle and has begun the seven-step process with an environmental audit that will guide its actions over the next two years.

Justice and Equality

The Justice and Equality Service group envisions a future where menstruation is destigmatised, where consent is understood and respected, and where every individual, regardless of their background, is empowered to thrive. Through the members’ combined efforts, the club aims to create lasting societal change and contribute to a more just and equitable world. Last year, the club’s name and logo were changed (from Girls for Girls) to encompass its inclusive mission. The club raised funds to provide sanitary products in the bathrooms at OSC, gave presentations raising awareness about harassment and consent and organised football matches to show that whoever we are, we can work together to play fair and have fun. The group is open to anyone passionate about justice and equality.

Housing and Habitat

A practical and hands-on service group, this club works to improve the School and local communities, using collaborative skills to achieve goals. Due to its involvement with the Eco-Schools group, last year the club built school gardens in the Kindergarten, Primary School, and Secondary School. The club is financially self-sufficient through its annual Home Run fundraiser, with a large turn-out of runners from throughout the community that helped the club purchase necessary equipment to proceed with ongoing projects.

Recycling and Sustainability

OSC’s Recycling and Sustainability group has the overall goal of working to reduce the ecological footprint of the OSC campus. The club continues to coordinate weekly recycling campaigns, manage the biogas plant, and work to raise awareness in the community about what it means to be more sustainable. The club has campaigned against plastic waste on campus, promoted composting and is working to encourage the use of renewable energy at OSC. Recycling and Sustainability members collaborate with other service groups to achieve their goals.

Care for Paws

The club works with two local community groups; Adopt a Dog in Sri Lanka and the Association of Veterinarians for Humane Management of Animal Population to provide local free sterilisation camps at least once an academic year. Funds are raised through T-shirt sales as well as an Annual Cookie fundraiser to cover the fees of these camps. The costs of the sterilisations and immunisations for families who bring their pets to the camp, as well as local street dogs, is covered by these camps.

Hope for Kids

The club supports children and their families at the Maharagama Cancer Hospital. The club ran public awareness campaigns, food ration drives, the OSC community cricket game, and the collection of educational resources during the last year. Visits to the hospital, which were not possible during the pandemic, were resumed last year.

OSC’s Room to Read

Room to Read helps develop libraries in the local communities, making reading for pleasure and learning available to all, while spreading the club’s passion for books. The club has developed a strong partnership with two schools in the community; Vidyaloka Maha Vidyalaya and Vidyawardhana Maha Vidyalaya. The recently opened second hand bookstore near the reception is one way that the club continues to raise funds for supporting these two libraries for building and furnishing their library buildings. This academic year, the club plans to organise literary afternoons, community book sales, and other events to continue our support to these two schools.

Cultural Exchange programme

Students from four schools in Colombo meet with OSC students on Thursdays to discuss many elements of their cultures and lifestyles. The participants’ schools are attended by Muslim, Tamil, and Sinhala groups. With the aim of enhancing students’ English proficiency and building bridges between the various communities, the club meets each week with local students to discuss cultural elements of their lives and enjoy time together on the OSC school campus, where special activities and games are organised to bring the participants closer together.

Local students improve their command of the English language and all students develop their understanding of different cultures and lifestyles while being provided with a unique opportunity to make connections.

SOS Village

By working with children living in the SOS Village in Piliyandala, for whom SOS has become a home and family, the club’s service opens the minds of everyone involved. The primary goal is to connect with friends from SOS (middle school students) through the use of English, but these connections are supplemented with shared physical activities such as swimming and trips to the playground and library for games. SOS Village breaks down language and social barriers, nurturing a safe environment for the children with whom the club works. In doing so, we create shared OSC-SOS memories that are mutually enriching.

Gecko Network

Gecko Network is a student-initiated service group which supports, shares, and celebrates OSC’s numerous events and activities that take place throughout the School year, with the wider community particularly focusing on the service programme. The group also aims to provide support to its service members by helping them to learn, acquire, and develop their broadcasting skills and through using many different media tools and platforms.

Gecko Inc.

The club focuses on helping disadvantaged Sri Lankan children to develop basic water safety skills. Considering that Sri Lanka is an island, a child’s ability to feel safe around water is critical to preventing drownings. Gecko Inc. works with a group of students from a local school who are very keen to learn and improve, visiting OSC every Thursday.

Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE)

YRE is an international journalism competition. Forty-three countries participate with 500,000 students involved. The club reports on local and global environmental issues and publishes their articles on the Eco-Schools network. Each week, YRE focuses on environmental stories happening right here at OSC, in the local area, or anywhere in Sri Lanka.