School life in Australia (PART TWO) 🇦🇺

When I first arrived in Australia in 2009, the first thing that came to my mind was school. At that time I was only a nine-year-old girl, excited for my very first time being outside my home country. It was super cold when I stepped out of the airport. The weather was about 5 degrees Celsius, and I was very excited to wear gloves and thick jackets. When I breathe out, there’s vapour coming out from my mouth and nose. I could not believe that I was in Australia!

The first time I breathe in the cold air!

My mother told me that I would be going to school in a 3-week time. I was excited yet nervous as I did not know how the school in Australia would be. Would it be the same as I had in Malaysia? I had too many unanswered questions until the first day I started my school. I was quite nervous and had butterflies in my stomach. I had a mixture of feeling between excited and anxious. 

Clayton North Primary School (CNPS) was the name of my school. It is located nearby the Monash University, where my mother would be studying there. My mother’s friend whom I call Aunty Asrenee also had her three children Afiq, Hazeeq and Aisyah going to the same school as me and my younger sister Hidayah. On that day, in early spring, we met the school principal, Rukhsana. We were warmly invited to the principal’s office. I was quite worried that the principal might be fierce, but it was the other way! Rukhsana was an outgoing person and liked to interact with her students. 

I still remember the day when Rukhshana asked me about my thoughts living in Australia. I was too shy to answer it and only gave her a smile. My mother had to respond on behalf of me. At that time, my English was not good at all.

My family and Hazeeq's family just after meeting the school principal

Rukhsana then showed us our classrooms. Thank goodness that my class was just next to Hazeeq’s class. I felt safe! Brad, my homeroom teacher, then introduced me to my new friends. My classmates were international students from Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Korea, Australia and a few other countries. Brad then asked me to introduce myself, but I was too shy and did not know what to say. As the day ended, I made new friends and learned new things.

We were going to our classrooms for the first time.

Rukhsana was introducing me to the whole class. Look at how shy I was on my first day of school!!

My homeroom teacher, Brad, talking in a friendly style

My new friend, Jamie. She is very helpful and friendly.

In my school, we have sports sessions for about one to two hours every week. In Malaysia, we only have sports for only about 30 minutes. In sports sessions, we played any kind of games with our friends to keep ourselves fit. I was taken aback when I had my first sports session. Edward, my sports teacher, told us to run two laps around the oval (field). Then I asked Afiq “Is this a punishment?” Guess what he replied? He said “Of course not! This is only a warm-up exercise!” Afiq laughed at me. 

I was shocked by Afiq’s answer because I presumed if we have to run around the field, we are actually being punished. This was because I had seen some students at my old school in Malaysia, were punished to run around the big field when they break the school rule. So, when I knew it wasn’t a punishment, I started to run around the oval field but with a different feeling, yes feeling happy! This was something new to me, a different concept and interpretation of why we need to run. After the warming up, we played various kinds of sports with Edward.

During winter and summer, we still had sports sessions. We had sports tournaments with other schools to encourage students to have sportsmanship in themselves. In winter, we have netball, footy, soccer and in summer we have basketball, softball, cricket and volleyball. I took parts in softball during summer and netball during winter.

It was a lot of funs spending every week of the winter and summer seasons having competitions with other schools. By the end of the day, we would all gather up and share what we did during the game, and the teachers would pick the best player of the day from each sport based on their observations. I still remember that I got selected once or twice as the best player of the day in netball and softball. I felt so great that I was chosen over the whole grades and I never felt any prouder of myself before. 

This is one of the reasons why I am actively engaging in all types of sports. Sports have made my confidence level increased! The teachers would share their opinions about the students’ achievement in games with the whole students. They encouraged us to perform better in future. The satisfaction from the teamwork with my teachers and friends could never disappear from my life till this day.

In winter, we were compulsory to take swimming lessons. It was so exciting to be able to have fun with friends in the swimming pool while learning the basic techniques on swimming skills. I still remember that one time when it was the last day of swimming class, my homeroom teacher, Josie got busted by us as we saw her wearing her swimming suits underneath her clothes even though she previously told us that she would not be joining us in the swimming pool with the other homeroom teachers. The whole grade was trying their best to keep this secret until we arrived at the swimming pool but we could no longer hold it! We literally pushed Josie into the pool as soon as they confessed their little secrets in pranking us and took off their clothes and started splashing each other! That was epic, and we all had so much fun until we drained ourselves out!

The teachers in Australia put a lot of effort to encourage their students to be sporty so that we could have great sportsmanship in ourselves. This is something great that I like about living in Australia! To be honest, in Malaysia, the teachers mostly focus on academic and give students a big pile of schoolwork. This can lead to stress which is bad for our health. We have not got much time to play around even though we are supposed to. But look at this fantastic style the Aussies have! Their academic and co-curriculum are well balanced! 

With regards to classroom learning, subjects like reading and math were conducted by splitting up the students into three groups according to their academic achievement level: low, intermediate and high classes. We would be divided equally into each group based on our understanding and knowledge in each subject.

As for other subjects like arts, Japanese language and performing arts, the students were not divided into groups.  During the learning process, we would be engaging ourselves by doing presentations, study groups, projects and playing games based on the things we learn on that day. When we achieve specific criteria, we will get rewards such as getting house points for our house team (sport team), get our names written on the whiteboard for achieving something for the week or if you were lucky enough, you would be awarded as “Student of the Week” by your homeroom teacher for your great achievements of the week! 

The teachers here always praise their students. This praise encouraged students to perform better in the future attempt. There was also an award called “Aussie of the Month”. Students who received these awards, their names would be called upon during the weekly assembly. Their achievements would be explained by their homeroom teacher in front of the whole students and teachers.

“Aussie of the Month” award is basically a reward for students who have an outstanding and excellent achievement of the month, and they would get a certificate with a golden badge as a reward! It is like finding pearls amongst the stones that are scattered by the beach! I got a couple of “Student of the Week” awards, but I was not lucky enough to get the golden badge. 

We also had an art session every week. The art room was full of students’ handworks, and they were displayed around the art room. Students were allowed to paint, draw and create models out of modelling clay. It was a great session where students’ ideas, abilities and creativities were stimulated by using different kinds of art tools. I like arts especially drawing, painting and decorating. Thanks to my art teacher, Jen whom encouraged me to polish my skill until I could get better in drawing, painting and decorating things! Jen would always say “Let out all the creativeness inside of you. When you get back home, you can proudly say to your parents “I did this today during art session! Isn’t it awesome that I could be this creative?!”  Thanks to her encouragement. I managed to refine my skills.

Unfortunately, since the day I started school in Malaysia, I have limited time to spend on my hobbies. There are piles of school works need to be done to make myself well prepared for the scheduled exams. It cannot be denied that I was so stressful during my secondary school in Malaysia.

I missed the days when we were in Australia. Every morning I would walk to school with my sister enjoying the surroundings, the air and the beautiful sceneries along the road. I just hope I could go back in time where I had fun all day long with my friends without worrying about schoolwork or exams.

In a nutshell, there is a significant difference in the education system between Malaysia and Australia.  It is time for a change as we are now in the era of globalisation where information can be obtained at the tip of our fingers. Not all students can outshine themselves through academic but more towards their skills.  I am speaking out my voice that we should imply stress-free material in our education system and take the advantage to use technologies in our studies so that we can be as advanced as they are in the near future.