To your RAAF School Penang site where your memories come alive.
RAAF School Penang was uniquely for RAAF Butterworth personnel and teachers families with pre-schools, primary and secondary schools from 1958 to 1988.
Read why below, sing the School Song, watch the School Closing Ceremony or check out our history.
The RAAF School was truly a school which aimed to instill in its students, sound principles and an intelligent turn of mind with a broad and tolerant outlook, within the boundaries of sound social and moral attitudes.
RAAF School lives on for us today as we remember it the way it was. It is a special part of our memories, as it has harnessed the affection and spirit of all who dwelt within its walls.
Most noticeably, it managed to foster a happy and normal school life for us as children, amid the very real responsibilities of the reasons the RAAF was there.
In spite of the turmoils of the surrounding racial tensions, the aftermath of The Emergency, possible outbreaks of terrorism, the riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 and curfews in Penang and the Indonesian confrontation problem, we as students felt safe and protected, therefore being able to look back today and say in all honesty, "Those were the best years of our lives".
Cynthia Matuschka 2001
The school fulfilled a most important function in the history of RAAF operations in Malaysia from the mid 1950s to 1980s, and also played an integral part in the lives of those students and teachers who attended it during their stay in Malaysia. Without it, children would have been forced to board at home or be educated remotely in other local schools in Malaysia or Singapore.
The provision of the school, teaching staff and associated facilities in Penang provided a central structure for the families, with children able to be educated locally and maintain the desired academic levels with the excellent educational standards. The opportunity for students to live and be educated in a country other than their own for that short time, enabled them to receive an uncommon education and to see, at first hand, a different way of life. This must have had an enriching effect on them and also would have broadened their outlook on life and tolerance of the different customs of other peoples in the world we all share. Here are some of the reasons RAAF School was unique:
The ocean's at our doorstep, the mountains too are near.
We still can see the Southern Cross at night when skies are clear.
The seasons too are different, the monsoon and the dry
And though our lessons are the same, beyond our classrooms lie,
A world of many languages, so rich in history.
A world of different people, like us both proud and free.
Our RAAF school's like Malaysia, made up of many strands.
Of interwoven loyalties to States instead of lands.
From all points of the compass, we've travelled here to find,
A country to be learning from like that we left behind.
Our school book is the whole wide world, may RAAF School be one page,
We will remember gladly, when we are come of age.
RAAF school Penang closed in 1988, but the memories last forever! Read the history, peruse student and staff biographies, attend reunions, see class photos, subscribe and enjoy a trip down memory lane!
To find the main resource area for history and photos, go to 'Photographs' from the Photos menu item above.
"....our school book was the whole wide world
And RAAF school but one page
We all remember gladly
Now we are come of age."
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