From the Leadership Team

End of Term 3

It has been a rapid-fire term this one, perhaps more so for staff than students as the Term 3 curse of cramming everything into the 'empty term' has taken hold. 

However, with parent-teacher conferences in July, Production, Athletics, and Book Week in August and School Review in September there have been some big items on the calendar. 

Today (Thurs Sep 18), staff will be following up from the School Review and mapping out what the next few years of focus look like for the school. Everything has been on the table as we consider what we have done that has worked, not worked, or needs some refinement. 

This term we have been piloting two new learning resources that we have decided to implement from 2026. These include a literacy resource called 'Word Origins' in Years 3 to 6. A lot of schools have been looking at what their literacy programs should look like to build on the early literacy skills built in programs such as UFLi (that we run in Prep to Year 2). Word Origins is, from our perspective, a great opportunity to build on the language understanding we establish in the early years and extend them into much more mature and adaptive language study. It focuses on the morphemic and orthographic components of our language and will, we believe, expand students vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and improve their spelling. As we have been trialling it, other schools have started to take an interest and have been learning from our wonderful curriculum leaders, Mark Pryde and Pip Vera, about how it can be used in schools. 

Similarly, in mathematics, we have been working with Scholastic to explore the use of a resource called PR1ME, which is an explicit instruction program for mathematics. Later this year, you will notice these books listed in the parent payment notices for 2026 but there is also a significant amount of teacher professional learning that runs alongside the program to support everyone in progressing mathematics learning. One of the key outcomes from the trial of this has been the great enthusiasm students have shown for the resource. Students report feeling more confident and challenged when using the books, which has been a big focus for all schools over the last few years. 

I thank the staff for their unending openness to moving forward and improving our practices with the students at the forefront of their mind. We have a culture of support among all staff, which allows them to take chances and be open to change; something that is not common in schools and was identified in the School Review as being a key strength of the school. 

I encourage you to ask your children who may have been using these approaches in class already (Y3-6 for Word Origins and Y2-4 for PR1ME) about them and what they've enjoyed about the changes. 

This comes in the context, I should note, of some extremely positive results this year. I have included 2 snippets of our NAPLAN results but I think they back up everything we work towards at RNPS and the excellent progress we enjoy. These snippets show a comparison of growth from Year 3 to Year 5. The results speak for themselves but they also validate the wonderful work our staff have been doing, as a collaborative effort, for years. 

IMPORTANT: Change of Technology For Years 4-6

For parents of current Year 3 students, please note that following the parent feedback survey in June and significant discussion with Staff and School Council, we have made the decision to change our BYOD program (for Years 4 to 6) from iPads to a Windows Laptop. We will distribute through Compass the JB Hi-Fi Portal link that will give parents a selection of recommended devices at different price points and there will be parent information sessions to follow in early Term four. 

If you have already made arrangements for an iPad for your child next year, that is okay, we will accommodate any iPads for those students next year. If you have a child who is already using an iPad in Years 4 or 5 but would like them to use a laptop instead, you are welcome to make the change and access the portal, too. However, any current iPads being used will be accommodated through to the end of Year 6 for those cohorts. 

This decision has been a topic of keen discussion in recent years and after being an Apple school for decades and one of the first schools in Australia to trial iPads on their release, there was a lot of tradition and established routines to work through to reach this point. However, we feel that for student wellbeing especially, the change will be a positive one that further delays or reduces students' negative online experiences while still teaching them critical skills for the future. Please see the Compass feed for further information or contact Merryn Platt, Chantelle Trend or Mark Pryde for further details about the change. 

Bike Safety

As we head into the school holiday period, I would like to reiterate a discussion I had with students at assembly last week. We have had a number of local residents express concern to multiple schools about the safety of children when riding their bikes on the road. I know that I have come across two groups of children around Year 5-8 that I have encountered when driving home who have been doing wheelies down the middle of the road, deliberately swerving late and generally riding in an erratic and dangerous manner. Residents have expressed concern of a similar nature. 

We always use Bike Education as an opportunity to teach and remind students of the road rules but obviously it is critical that as students become more independent and ride around local streets, they are reminded frequently of the importance of following the road rules and being conscious of the safety of themselves and others. 

I encourage all families to reinforce these messages with children who have started riding independently in local streets and reminding students who have become very confident of the dangers present on our roads.