Past principals

She joined the school in 1891 as a pupil, served on the staff and rose to be the Principal in 1902. She was the first pupil to become the Principal of the school.

She devoted her services with much commitment for five years since her marriage to Dr. Edwin Ludovici in 1907. During her period of service new methods of work were introduced to the school that helped the school to develop rapidly over the years. She started a school library to encourage the students to widen their knowledge by improving their reading habits. Physical Education and Western Music were introduced to the School curriculum.

All the principals who succeeded her gave much attention to help, develop and improve the skills of the student in these areas of work. Her wide interests laid a solid foundation to the school curriculum. Even after marriage, she never lost touch with the school and helped the school in many ways. She was the Vice President of the O.P.A. for many years. In 1935, at the Golden Jubilee celebrations, Mrs. M.E. Ludovici was honoured as the Chief Guest for the main event of the school, the Prize Distribution.

Miss Westlake had a missionary training at the Southlands College in Wimbeldon U.K. before her arrival in Southlands. She succeeded Miss Edith de Vos and rendered a very valuable service with much dedication during a period of eleven years. Her years of service could be considered as a landmark in the annals of the school as many important events took place during her era.

Along with the rapid development of the school in the early period of the 20^th century, the management realised that a boarding house was very essential since there was a high demand for hostel facilities for students who traveled from far. Prior to 1914 the Principal had travelled to school from Richmond Hill, but towards the end of 1914, Miss Westlake realised the urgent need for a boarding house, and started a boarding house in Fort close to the school; with one teacher, Miss E.A Jansz and four girls, Miss Westlake too lived there. This became the beginning of the boarding house. When the requests for hostel facilities were in great demand the hostel was moved from house to house until a permanent building was put up in the mid of 20^th century.

Miss Mabel Freethy joined the tutorial staff in 1917. Miss Westlake married captain L Robins and had to leave Southlands in 1918. Miss Freethy became her successor and took over the management of the school in 1918. She rendered a service of 17 long years being yet another dedicated Missionary. She did her best to uplift the school to a prestigious position. She made many changes in the school curriculum and a very rapid growth and development was visible to all.
The most important event during her period was the publishing of the first school magazine Galle, Girls High School Magazine in 1919, edited by a student, Zina Perera. The Magazine published for a very long period of time. It is of value to this day being the most valuable source of information we have to collect data regarding the development of the school over a period of 77 years under the Missionary Management. These magazines provide a detailed account of the programmes which had been carried out over the years. Students were encouraged to widen their knowledge in different areas by being involved in many extra curricular activities. Old magazines reveal that the Southlanders had the rare privilege of learning their mother tongue through many varied activities and programmes. Education seems to have been given mainly in the English Medium.

In 1929, Miss Edith Ridge, a young English trained graduate stepped on to the shores of Sri Lanka to be the Vice Principal of Southlands. She succeeded Miss Freethy in 1935 and served the school with much dedication for more than twenty years until she retired in 1956.
From 1929 to 1935 Miss Ridge worked under Miss Freethy and helped to develop the good work started by her upgrading the school in many more areas. She became Principal in 1935 and continued the great work initiated by Miss Freethy. She introduced more subjects to the educational curriculum upgrading the school to a more prestigious position.

Miss Ridge in her biography states, I am greatly indebted to Miss Mabel Freethy  Miss Freethy was an inspiring Head who gave others confidence and shared responsibility with them.
During the Second World War Miss Ridge faced the major problem of evacuating the school to a safe area and cheerfully undertook the difficulties and discomforts of making a new temporary home for the school. In 1942 Southlands had to evacuate to Inland Hills, a coconut estate in Hirimbura. It belonged to an old girl, Louisa Weerasinghe, and pupils occupied the bungalow in the estate. Miss Ridge had to organise the school at Hirimbura. The school returned to the school premises in Fort in January 1945.

From 1947 to 1950 many ladies devoted their services as Principals of the school since family circumstances kept Miss Ridge away in England to be with her family during this period. Miss E. Hibbard (Mrs. F.O. Peak), Mrs. F.A. de S Adhihetti, and Miss E.W. Paranavithana acted for Miss Ridge until she returned from England in September 1950. Mrs F.A. De S. Adhihetti, a Bachelor of Arts, who was in the tutorial staff, became Principal in 1948 being the first Sinhala lady to be the head of the school. During the very short period she served, she did her best to develop the school and very efficiently steered the school through a difficult period. In order to improve the school finances, a committee was formed at her request. As a result of the effort a considerable amount of money was collected for the school fund. The money collected by Mrs. Adhihetti was used to augment the Ridge Building Fund.

When Miss Edith Ridge left in 1956, the administration was handed over to the then vice Principal Miss Leila Solomon, a qualified educationalist. Though it was not an easy task to succeed a Principal of the calibre of Miss Ridge, Miss Solomon was able to maintain the high standard of education in the school. She introduced changes to the school curriculum and a new method of administration. The Advanced Level Arts stream was introduced during Miss Solomon’s time. She encouraged all extra-curricular activities. The Guide Company and the Brownie Company were revived. In 1958, she succeeded in organizing a Parent-Teacher Association. This was of immense benefit to the school. She tried to educate the child through modern technology, audio and visual media was introduced into teaching during her time.

She also improved the quality of education by introducing general knowledge competitions, spelling competitions and many other competitive activities. Library reading was made compulsory to improve the reading habit. In 1960, she left school as she received an American ”Smithmand” scholarship to further her education in the U.S.A. She could be called the last ”missionary” Principal of Southlands who wished to develop the school in numerous ways.

School was on the verge of being vested in the Government according to the new educational policy introduced by the state. However, Southlands continued as a Secondary school under the management of the Government. Miss Queeni Abeywardena, a loyal past pupil and a devoted member of the staff for many years, was appointed as the acting Principal for a short period. She was the music teacher for many years and a very active member of the Past Pupils Association and also the District commissioner of the Girl Guides.

Miss Abeywardena encouraged all the activities in school initiated by her predecessors. On 5^th March 1962 Southlands College was vested in the government. It saw an end of a memorable era of the school led by the Misssionary management. Miss Abeywardena retired from services as the last Christian Principal of Southlands after staging of the annual play ”Pathibakthi” at the end of the Southlands Week.

Mrs. Rupa Nanayakkara 

This decade is considered a very important period in the history of the school. All schools were vested in the Government according to the new educational policy. A few Missionary schools were given authority to function as private schools.
Southlands successfully managed by the Methodist Mission for nearly eight decades was declared a Government school and it was registered as Southlands Balika Vidyalaya on the 15th of March 1962.

Mrs. Rupa Nanyakkara, a Bachelor of Arts graduate and an experienced teacher with a Diploma in Education, was appointed by the Government as the first Principal after the takeover of the schools. Her period of service should be considered as an era of considerable importance since the administration was changed and the school had to be developed under the regulations laid down by the Government.
During this period, Southlands was a popular school in Southern Sri Lanka as a secondary school. However students had to seek admission to other schools to do higher studies after completing the Ordinary Level examination. Advanced Level facilities were not available for students at Southlands. Even though there were many setbacks, Mrs. Nanayakkara boldly inaugurated an Advanced Level Science stream at Southlands. She felt challenged to help the students who wished to continue their studies in the Science Stream at Southlands. There were no qualified teachers to teach the relevant subjects and no equipment for the science laboratory, but she took a courageous step forward introducing the Advanced Level science stream even though there were no room to accommodate the new classes. Principals of Richmond College and Mahinda College gave immense assistance to Mrs. Nanayakkara to fulfil her desire of upgrading the school with Science Education. The science stream was inaugurated in 1967. Pupils were fortunate to enter the science faculties of Universities as Southlanders in the midst of great difficulties. Mrs. Nanaykkara was able to see the results of her efforts when a student from a difficult area, Hambantota, entered the Dental stream in the Medical College in 1970. She enabled Southlanders to enter Medical College. As a result there are many Doctors who are serving our country as specialists in the field of Medicine today.

Mrs. L. Gunasinghe

Mrs. Rupa Nanayakkara was succeeded by Mrs. L. Gunasingha, who served the school for four years. She endowed the school with a new two-storied building during her short period of service. It was declared open on 11^th July 1975. She was anxious to re-organise the administration in view of developing the school. A Home Science Exhibition was held for three days in the school premises. This brought credit to the school as well as received commendable appreciations from the higher officials in the Ministry of Education.

Taking another step forward to improve the standard of indigenous arts, a Hewisi Band was formed. She encouraged aesthetic studies and students participated in many All-Island Sinhala and English oratory contests and were able to bring credit to the school by winning gold and silver medals. The Girl Guide company activities were expanded and five Guides received the prestigious President badge for their achievements in guiding activities. One of Our guides was fortunate enough to participate in the World Girl Guide Jamborees held in Canada in 1975 and 1976. All these achievements brought honour to the school during the period of Mrs. Gunasinghe and better examination results were shown due to the steady progress of the education systems in the school.

Mrs. G. Daniel

Another memorable period dawned in the annals of Southlands when an experienced teacher Miss G. Daniel assumed duties as Principal of the school in 1976. She devoted her services with much dedication upgrading the school to a very prestigious position during the last quarter of the 20th century and could be recorded as a golden era of Southlands. She did her best for the betterment of Southlands and many significant events occurred due to her capable management of all departments in the school during her stay of 15 long years. Southlands became a very popular school in the south due to continuous academic achievements of the school throughout a long period of time. In 1977 the school was upgraded to an ”A” grade school and further promoted to one of the eighteen National schools in the island in 1984.

The leadership system introduced by Miss Freethy in 1927 was changed by Mrs. Daniels in 1977. Instead of house captains she started a school prefect system and 40 students were appointed as prefects at first and the number increased to 60 according to the needs of the school. Accordingly many students had the opportunity to serve the school as student leaders and they were guided to develop leadership qualities during their school carrier.

Mrs. K.L.S. Rajapakse

Mrs. Daniel was succeeded by Mrs. Rajapaksa. Although she rendered her services for a short period, she was able to serve the school for its development. Mrs. Rajapaksa was fortunate enough to obtain assistance from parents and past pupils association to improve the physical resources that were needed. Accordingly, she was able to purchase the much needed chairs for the main hall and also to purchase a bus for the school to solve the problem of traveling on special occasions. Past Pupils Association used their funds at this stage as one of their main projects. This could be recorded as the first school bus owned by a school in the Southern Province.

She was much interested in the personality development of the child and introduced Karate to the school sports curriculum; she also helped to enhance their skills by giving an opportunity to the child to make announcements in school themselves on special occasions.
She held cultural festivals to collect funds for the school development and continued to keep up the standard of the school by organising the main events in the school the traditional way. She made arrangements to celebrate the Poson Festival with a Bakthi Gee recital and the Esala Festival with a kids pageant. A building which was completed to house the science laboratory was declared open by then President R.A. Premadasa. The room used for computer studies was air-conditioned during this period. She was able to take over the ground floor of the Dissanayaka building which had been occupied by the Education Department for some time to convert it to a dancing room.

She always honoured the services offered by the tutorial staff, gave guidance to inaugurate the “Sanasa” movement for the welfare of the staff and organised an annual trip for the teachers by the teacher’s welfare association. She rendered her services for the development of the school during her short stay and left school in 1995 being promoted as a Deputy Director of schools.

Mrs. N. Kumarasinghe

Mrs. Kumarasinghe joined the tutorial staff in 1978 as a Bachelor of Arts graduate and succeeded Mrs. Rajapaksa taking over the management of the school in 1995. She rendered her services for five years and helped to develop the school with much dedication in the traditional way. During her period, the school uniform was given a new look by depicting the school emblem on the school tie and also with a house badge to identify their houses.
The School’s physical resources were improved and developed, and the school was fortunate to have more buildings to ease out the problem of accommodation. In 1997, Mrs. Kumarasinghe was able to acquire an adjoining building ”Leco” with the permission obtained from the Higher Education Minister. Rooms for Fine Art and Home Economics were housed in it. Another three storied building was constructed and it was declared open in 1997, and the children who were occupying the ground floor of the old building were able to have comfortable accommodation at the new premises.

According to the school development plans, Mrs. Kumarasinghe had to face a major problem of removing the Shrine room to another location in view of constructing a modern Auditorium for the school in that premises. She obtained the permission from Mrs. Daniel to remove the shrine room to another location and new Shrine room was constructed on instruction given by the Architect Mr. Siri Gunasinghe and finances were found from parents.
During her era, children were able to display their creations in “Southlands Singithi Uyana”. The school environment was kept beautiful with the assistance given by the parents and the School Garden Society.

She encouraged children to improve their knowledge in English and Senior and Junior children were given an opportunity to conduct the assembly in English helping them to develop their skills and to improve the language too. The children sang the English school hymn ”Land of our Birth,” the poem written by Rudyard Kipling which was sung during the missionary period at the morning assembly. A song book titled ”Melodies of Southlands” was published which included many songs Southlanders used to sing in the past. Mrs. Kumarasinghe gave much attention to develop extra curricular activities. She encouraged Educational indoor games and children had the opportunity to learn Chess and Scrabble during her period.
She was able to publish a valuable historical school magazine‘s First decade of the Second century before her retirement.

Mrs. Kumarasinghe rendered her services during a long period as a devoted teacher and a Principal who was anxious to see the development of the school and she did her best to make Southlands a great school.

Mrs. Leela Kanthi Gunawardena

Mrs. Leelakanthi Gunawardena, a past pupil who served in the tutorial staff for many years succeeded Mrs. Kumrasinghe in 1999. She became another past pupil who had the privilege of being the Principal of Southlands. During her period, school was able to record many outstanding academic records as well as many achievements in extra curricular activities.
Southlanders were very proud to record the most memorable achievement in the academic history of the school when Anushka Wimalajeeva won the first place in the All-Island Advanced Level Examination in 1999 in commerce stream and Anjali Punchihewa won the second place in the District in the Medical stream. This record was maintained in the following year when a yet another student, Nadeesha Patabendige gained the first place again in the same examination in 2000 in the Arts stream. Such performances of academic excellence seem to be pursued by emerging generations when we proudly record that the 2nd and 3rd  places at Ordinary Level Examination in 2003 were secured by Southlanders.

Physical resources of the school were developed during this period. The modern school auditorium, which was initiated by Mrs. Kumarasinghe, was constructed and was handed over to the school by the Ministry of Education. The ”Resterick” hostel which was constructed during the in 1930 was temporarily closed and was re-opened in 2000. The Ministry of Education gave financial assistance of 35 lakhs towards the reconstruction work of the building. Colombo Branch of the O.P.A assisted to re-furbish the hostel. They donated bed spreads with the school crest embedded in the centre and also some indoor games for the recreation of the boarders. A copper plaque was inserted on the front wall of the hostel on 1st of April 2002, on Miss Ridge’s birthday in honour of her who was a caring mother to the hostellers.
The school library was developed in 2002 with the assistance given by the Colombo O.P.A. on a project proposal submitted to Mr. Neil Gunadasa, Deputy Director of Education (Library Unit). Accordingly, a section of the library was re-furbished with the assistance given by the Ministry of Education to be used as a Reference Library.

Mrs. P.A.D. Suneetha

Mrs. Gunawardena was succeeded by Mrs. P.A.D. Suneetha in 2006. During the short period she served, she made an effort to improve the knowledge in English and also to improve the standard of music in school.
During this period, Advanced Level students of the Heritage of Galle, Educational circle of Southlands, which was started in 2000, created and launched a very valuable historical survey “Lochana” as one of their projects with the guidance given by Mr. Sisil Surasena, the Project Co-ordinator, in 2005. The magazine was published with much dedication by the students in 2006. They should be highly commended for the valuable survey done by them in search of the heritage of Southlands.

Mr. Sisil Surasena was honoured with the title “Prashansathmaka Jathika Sammanaya” by the National Science Foundation with the collaboration with Department of Science and Technology for the services done by him to promote the knowledge of science among the children at Southlands through this educational circle during the period 2002-2006.
This effort and achievements should be recorded as a great historical event in the annals of Southlands.
Mrs. Suneetha left school having being appointed as Principal of Horana Sri Pali after a short period of service.

Mrs. Geethani Wijegunasinghe

Geethani Wijegunasinghe succeeded Mrs. Suneetha as another past pupil who was fortunate enough to become the Principal of Southlands in 2007. During her period, arrangements were made to re-open the Advanced Level Bio-laboratory which was closed temporarily. She introduced the Prefect system for the juniors too, with the intention of guiding them in qualities of leadership. Accordingly Grade nine students were fortunate to be appointed as Junior Prefects.
In 2008 the group of students who won the SLAAS Environmental Award in 2003 and 2007 participated in Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair 2008 jointly organised by the NSF, IESL, INTEL Sri Lanka and the Education Department and was selected the best group for their oil separation project, low cost environmental friendly method of removing oil from surface of the sea. Accordingly, the group of students along with their teacher were fortunate to represent Sri Lanka at the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair 2009 held in Reno, Nevada US.

Mrs. Shanthi Senevirathna

Southlands college is fortunate to have a permanent principal after many years. Mrs. Shanthi Senevirathna took over the administration in 2010 being an experience efficient and courageous principal who had been a director of education in the southern province.

Southlands college celebrated the 125th anniversary in October 2010 with a carnival and hoping to celebrate the event officially in January 2011.

During this period, southlanders are fortunate to record another significant achievement in the academic history of the school. Three students Dinithi Upeksha Ranaweera, Hasitha Hansani Liyanarachchi and Ramesha Samurdhi Karunasena were able to 3rd, 4th and 8th places among the 15 students who had scored top marks at the ordinary level examination in 2009 bringing honour to their Alma Mater when she is celebrating the 125th anniversary in 2010. Besides gaining the highest marks in the island, many students were able to be among the highest marks achievers in all examinations at the island level as well as the District level throughout the recent years.

Mrs. S.I.Pathiranawasam