PDO School

I had a complete and utter culture shock when I came back to Malaysia in 2002 after my primary schooling in the middle east. In 1997, my dad was sent to Oman due to his work and the whole family too had to tag along.

I was 7 years old. A very timid and shy girl. The type who hid behind her mother’s skirt when a relative comes to shake hands during raya.

But PDO school was the best schooling time of my life.

I attended PDO (Petroleum Development of Oman) school. My teachers were from England mostly and my friends were children of expatriates.

These are a few things I would like to share about the terrific memorable time I had there:

1. I remember we only had one teacher for a whole year. One teacher for all subjects. Our classes were determined by the teacher’s name. For example, my primary 4 school teacher’s name was Miss Shearman. So our class was called Y4S (Year 4 Shearman). She taught us all the subjects; maths, english, art, science, reading, music, geography, history. So that means we had only one teacher the whole day, and that same teacher for a whole year. I used to be very confused when my cousins back in Malaysia would ask which teacher teaches what. All I knew was that there was only one teacher per class.
   
   
2. We had a theme every year. I entered at the end of Year 2 but somehow I mostly remember year 4. Maybe because I had such a lovely teacher:) We have themes every year; and everything we learn are based on that theme. For example, in Year 4, the theme for one of the first semester was “Tropical Rainforest”. We decorated the whole classroom with papers and cardboards of leaves, tree trunks and animals. Our english essays were about Adventures in the jungles. Geography was about the equator and the countries around it. Science was about plants and trees. Music was about animal sounds. The second semester was about The Egyptians (history was about archaeologists, art was about making plasticine mummies). In Year 5, it was Tudors (in art, we made tudor houses with wood). In Year 6, it was The Victorians (we even had victorian day where we dressed up, wrote with quills, and baked).
   
   
3. We had assemblies once a month. Every assembly, all the students from the class would line up infront of the door and our teacher would be at the front to march us to the Assembly Hall. There, we would sit in rows with our own class. Miss Evans (the headmistress during my time) would give an opening speech and then we’d watch a performance. Every month, a performance would be presented by a class (In Year 4, ours was The Wizard of Oz. Year 5 was Henry VIII and his wives). That particular class would be practicing for this performance. After that, we would have Special Mentions, whereby a person from every class was selected by their class teacher and acknowledged for something they have done. I remember getting a Special Mention for an artwork I did. Then, Miss Evans would call out those who had birthdays that week. And we would get a card and a mug.
   
   
4. I remember a lot about reading. In the corridors, there were rows and rows of books. But they all had levels which students progressed (starting from books with no words, to a few words and books which had full text and little pictures). There would be a time where we would choose our books and we would have to (one by one), read to our teacher. Every two weeks, we had to go to the library and choose two new books and keep them in our special red Library Bag. And almost everyday, we would have reading time; whereby just before we go home, all of us in the class sits together on the carpet and our class teacher reads us a books. I love most listening to Roald Dahl’s stories. I remember being read to about Matilda, about the BFG, James and the Giant Peach...
   
   
5. We didn't have to bring any books. All our textbooks and exercise books were left in our classrooms. All we had to bring were snacks for break time (there was no cafeteria) and for lunch, we went home to eat (school was only 5 minutes away by car and traffic jams were unheard of).
   
   
6. For sports day, we were in different houses every year. Sports shirt? Just wear anything which is a shade of your sports house. Everyone was treated to ice-cream after that.

Education system there and here are totally different. And these are only mild examples of the colossal fun I had. I don't mean to compare; different countries have varying developments and other factors which influence to its current status. But if I could, I would love to relive studying in PDO school again.

I wouldn't mind flying there and getting a look at what the school is developed into:)