This year [2008] signaled a grand return to past OSC tradition; from the January 15 to 18 , the Overseas School of Colombo re-established its “Week Without Walls (WWW)” programme.

Designed for the secondary school, WWW is an "out of classroom" experience for students that is designed to enrich them with a better knowledge of their host country and its environment.

WWW an effort to develop and enhance greater social and cultural awareness. WWW emphasizes holistic learning, intercultural awareness and communication. It helps students to bond with their peer groups in environments outside of school.

At the Overseas School of Colombo, WWW this year was an exciting time for all students participating.

Eco Team was the obvious choice by the OSC and their appointed travel coordinator – United Holidays, to be the service provider for 2 wilderness camps in Singharaja Rain Forest and Hatton. Singharaja camp was coupled with a rainforest exploration  programme conducted by Eco Team's expert naturalists whilst the Hatton Camp coupled with an Adam's Peak expedition backed by Eco team Trekkers & Guides.   

One of Sri Lanka 's least known mammals, the mouse-deer found in the highlands of Sri Lanka has been photographed in the wild. This may well be the only occasion in which it has been photographed to a 'publishable standard' under truly wild conditions. . For many years it was believed that Sri Lanka had one species of Mouse-deer, which was shared with Southern India . Colin Groves a British Taxonomist in June 2005 published a paper in a special supplement (No 12) of The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology whereby he distinguished three species of* Mouse-deer from Sri Lanka and India. The Indian Mouse-deer (Moschiola indica) was, split, as a new species and is now- considered .endemic to the Eastern Ghats of India. The Mouse deer found in Sri Lanka was split in to two new species. The White spotted Mouse-deer found (Moshiola meeminna) in the dry zone of Sri Lanka and the Yellow-striped: Mouse-deer (Moschiola kathygre) found in the wet zone of Sri Lanka. Both species are endemic to SriLanka. Presently this raises the number of endemic mammals found in Sri Lanka to eighteen species.

Colin Groves in his paper on mouse-deer from India and Sri Lanka also stated that 'a single skull from Sri Lanka 's Hill Zone may prove to represent a fourth species'. The 'Mountain Mouse-deer' is evidently a very scarce animal. Many of the field staff Horton Plains National Park had not seen one although they regularly encounter other nocturnal mammals including leopard.

A Mountain Mouse-deer was seen under quite dramatic circumstances on Monday 25th February by wildlife populariser Gehan de Silva Wijerathne & Nadeera Weerasinghe Naturalist St Andrew's Hotel. With the permission from WLDC it was temporally held captive for research and observation  purposes and released back in to the wild on the 27 th February.

The Tour Leader visited Sri Lanka , a couple of weeks before the Student Group arrived for a Preliminary Tour & after visiting the areas concerned with the tour , which included Wasgamuwa , Polonnaruwa , Anuradhapura , Sigiriya , Dambulla , Kandy & the Hill country & observing the prevalent situation in those towns , he had no hesitation in giving the go ahead for the tour – proper.

The group of nineteen (19), comprised sixteen Biology Students, their Professor, his wife and Tarek – the Tour Leader. Out of the sixteen students, thirteen (13) were girls. The tour was mainly directed at environmental and cultural education. Hence rather than mere sightseeing the tour was mostly centred in Cultural as well as nature based areas such as Singharaja & Belihuloya , where our main activity center is located .

The Tour Starting from the Western Province encompassed visits to the North Central Province , the southern part of the Eastern Province , the Southern Province and the Central Province . Out of the Thirteen Nights they spent in the country, camps were set up at various locations for Six of the Nights.

The success of this tour can be epitomized by the concluding remarks of the Tour Report written by our Naturalist – Nayana Wickramasinghe – “ I conclude this tour report with much happiness in my mind for the sole reason that the student group was so taken up about the whole tour, they promised that they will definitely be promoting Eco Team & Sri Lanka in the future “ . And further more, a student named Michel said he will be sending his Resume to Eco Team next year, after his examinations. as he wanted to work in Sri Lanka for our Company as a Naturalist!”.

"The team worked very hard for us in Sri Lanka and really made our time in your beautiful country a real pleasure.  The food in Camp was excellent and the staff could not of been more helpful. Raj and Nayana were prefect hosts and could not do enough for us they are star employee's.

I would have no hesitation to recommend you as operators in Sri Lanka to any other company or firm here in the UK, you all did a fantastic job and I hope to do work with you in the future"