A day in a classroom begins with the teacher standing in the front and going on and on about the subject matter. And once the lesson is over teachers ask students if they understood the topic and if not they try focusing on those particular individuals who did not understand. Does this sound familiar? This was one of the most commonly practiced teaching techniques all over the world.
However, over years teacher-student relationships and the role of an educator in the life of a student has changed. Instructions do not primarily consist of lecturing to students who dutifully listen and record what they hear. Today, education is about offering a rich, immersive, and unique learning experience. Teachers and educators are bringing in innovation and entrepreneurship in education to ensure that students have a rewarding educational experience. They believe that the educational environment isn’t confined to the classroom; instead, it extends into the home, the community, and around the world.
Having such innovative and forward-thinking teachers at schools helps schools believe in a purpose bigger than just educating their students. Such schools believe that the right education is an integral part of the healthy growth for students to come out as better versions of human being.
With a zeal to create such vibrant educational experience, MySchool Oman has worked hard to achieve the best nurturing environs for its students. The school goes beyond the classic approaches of education and offers the most innovative and latest international curricula. The school’s end goal is to develop critical thinkers and responsible citizens in a peaceful world.
History in Making
MySchool was founded in 2012, led by experienced Omani leadership, and is adopting the Primary Years, and Middle Years IB programs. Fundamental to its teaching and learning approach is the recognition that children are natural inquirers who will develop socially, physically, and academically at different times and different speeds, as the school believes that education is a process, not a race.
Owning a Tradition
Adhering to the aforesaid principle, the school successfully nurtures an Omani learner who believes in the hopes of the homeland, meets the aspirations of the progress, and bears in mind the international changes. The students of this school are deep-rooted in the Omani values and heritage, familiar with all the methods enabling to be an inquirer and a lifelong learner.
Pious and Value-based Education
To achieve the aforesaid goals, to cope with the international approaches to education, meet the IB requirements and respond to the learners’ needs, MySchool has adopted the inquiry-based & concept-based approaches to teaching and learning. It allows students to develop as critical thinkers and problem solvers. Here, students own their learning, inquire into, investigate, take decisions, transfer, and apply what they are learning in school to real life.
The inquiry based-learning is encouraged particularly when students are investigating and developing an understanding of the central idea (PYP) or the statement of inquiry (MYP) in a unit of inquiry but also when they are learning about any subject outside the written curriculum. In this approach the teachers encourage the students to work collaboratively, discuss, ask questions, and reflect on their learning.
The second approach followed by the school is concept-based teaching and learning. The key and related concepts scaffold the learning from a 2D shape form to a 3D one promoting a deeper understanding of the topic. Through the concept-based approach to teaching and inquiry, teachers become facilitators allowing students to think and express themselves authentically and creatively. Teachers also use a range and a variety of strategies to meet students’ learning needs and styles, engage students in reflecting on how, what and why they are learning.
Consequently, using the subject’s concepts and related concepts, the teacher’s instructions would take the students into a journey beyond the expectations of the curriculum moving away from a content-based approach to a transferable, timeless and universal teaching and learning.
Advocating Education beyond Classrooms
It has already been established that MySchool aims to educate its students by not just mugging up the textbook lessons. It believes that classroom education alone would not be sufficient for the overall development of a student. Learning outside the classroom is essential as it would expose young minds to various other subjects and develop skills, passion, and other needed humanitarian qualities. Thus, to achieve the same, the school offers the below-mentioned programs:-
- Literacy planet: Part of the school’s commitment to providing high-quality literacy education, MySchool students have a school subscription to this fun and engaging online resource. LiteracyPlanet is designed by educators to support the curriculum and the comprehensive development of key literacy skills. Suitable for children of all abilities , it features thousands of exercises to cover pre-reading, reading, phonics, sight words, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation. It delivers the proven requirements for effective learning in an engaging, fun-filled environment. This provides children with a literacy learning experience that is interactive, motivational, rewarding, and fun.
- Matific is a secured educational platform that provides online mathematics activities to teach problem-solving and critical thinking skills through discovery. It uses game-based principles to encourage students to learn through inquiry. Matific’s content aligns with the IB curriculum that is to support students’ classwork.
- The Cursive Handwriting Program: Write right! Some may wonder why students should learn to write in cursive in the age of tablets and iPads. While electronic devices have added an element of convenience to the writing process, the evidence is mounting that putting pen to paper has benefits that typing cannot replace. The school believes that ‘when students write confidently and legibly, their academics as a whole seems to improve.’
A Place To Belong
We have seen how MySchool offers a transformative educational experience with its unique teaching strategies and programs. Completing this academic environment is the school’s community. The school has cultivated a diverse community that helps students develop skills needed to thrive in this changing world.
Developing international mindedness among the school community has always been an integral element of MySchool philosophy. It focuses on the global concepts that allow students to think deeply. It encourages investigation, research, collaboration, and communication as key elements of the teaching and learning practices. As a result, students are motivated to think independently and critically to take the responsibility of their own learning and to raise a sense of awareness towards the human condition through their personal experiences and those of the others in their national and international communities.
Being an IB World School, MySchool attracts more international learners in addition to the Omanis who represent approximately 90% of its student body. MySchool is also trusted by many Omani parents returning home from foreign countries. The school welcomes students from South Africa, India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Syria, Philippines, Bahrain, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, USA, Sudan, Iran, and Tanzania.
Furthermore, the teachers also come from different countries including Oman, South Africa, Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, India, Philippines, Sudan, U.S, Syria, and Jordan. The school believes that having this heterogeneous environment is fostering open-mindedness and encouraging empathy and mutual respect among the school’s community members.
A Forever Promise
MySchool understands that children have an array of differing needs, both educational and emotional, and also have an exciting assortment of dreams, hopes, and aspirations. Hence, it is safe to say that the holistic growth and success of these students is at the heart of this school. It strives for academic excellence in a well-disciplined, friendly, and supportive community that empowers and encourages success.
