Executive Principal's Report

It is hard to believe that we are already about to head into the final term of 2026. At the same time as preparing for everything still ahead of us this year, we are also beginning to turn our attention towards 2027.

Now and Next

This part of the year always involves plenty of now and next thinking. What are we doing now? What are we learning from it? And what does that tell us about where we go next? I thought that would make a nice theme for the newsletter this week... 🤔

Now: A staff room worthy of our staff

One of the highlights of this week has been seeing the dedication of a group of parents who have been working hard behind the scenes to begin upgrading our staff room.

The Richmond West staff room has, it seems, always been one of those forgotten priorities. It is not particularly difficult to understand why. Whenever there is a spare bit of money floating around in a school, or resources become available, almost invariably they go towards something that directly benefits our students and their learning.

Over the years, that has meant our staff room has become something of a museum of hand-me-down furniture, donated odds and ends and, I suspect, the occasional hard rubbish contribution.

While the room itself has sometimes felt a little unloved, it certainly hasn't reflected the committed and caring group of educators who use it every day.

Giving ourselves permission to prioritise this space, with such generous support from our parent community, is about more than a coat of paint, a newly tiled splashback or the arrival of some desperately needed furniture. A staff room is more than somewhere to heat up tuna and rice, grab a hurried coffee and sprint back to class as the bell goes.

It is a shared space for people who give a great deal to our students and our school every day. Investing in it is one small way of recognising those contributions, both from our current staff and from the many people who have worked at Richmond West over the years.

A big thank you to the parent volunteers who gave up their Sunday morning to help begin our staff room transformation. Particular thanks to Marika & Tom for taking on the project, Helen for leading the team, and to Trevor, Lini, Carl, Maureen, Yan and Rosalie for their painting efforts.

We are also very grateful to RWPS parent and former student Will Lay from Victory Tiling Service Richmond, who has very generously donated his time and skills to install a new splashback behind the bench top.

There are still a few pieces to come, but the transformation has already given us a great springboard for thinking about how we want the room to look, feel and function. 

Now: Science Night

Thank you also to all the families who came along for our Science Night and roamed the halls to see what our students have been exploring in Science this year.

Courtney has done an outstanding job supporting our students to develop their scientific thinking, and that was evident in the experiments taking place across each learning area.

Perhaps even more impressive than the experiments themselves was hearing students explain the thinking behind them. Students were able to pose questions, make predictions, describe observations, discuss results and use increasingly sophisticated scientific language to explain what they had discovered.

That ability to explain the why behind an experiment is where the real learning sits.

The turnout was fantastic and our students were very proud to share their learning. Thank you for helping make the evening such a successful one.

Now: Sporting success

Our sporting success has continued too.

Last Friday, 24 of our Year 5 and 6 students represented Richmond West, with a number progressing through to the next stage of competition.

Congratulations to every student who represented our school, and an extra special congratulations to those moving on to the next round.

Our newfound sporting prowess still seems to be surprising everybody slightly. It is a surprise accompanied by a fairly substantial amount of pride.

Once again, thank you to Jacqui for pulling everything together and somehow making the organisation of these events appear effortless.

Now: Have your say

Our Parent and Caregiver Opinion Survey remains open for just a few more days.

We have had an outstanding response so far, and this year's survey is particularly valuable because it will provide our School Review panel with the most current picture of how families are experiencing Richmond West.

If you haven't yet completed it, please take five minutes to do so. The results genuinely help us identify what is working well and where our next areas for improvement should sit.

Which brings us rather neatly to the next...

Next: School Review

The first few weeks of Term 4 are shaping up to be busy ones.

Our Year 3/4 students are heading almost immediately off to camp, sporting events are already appearing on the calendar, and we will also begin our formal School Review process.

Our first review day is scheduled for Wednesday 7 October.

Across three review days, our School Reviewer and Review Panel will take a detailed look at Richmond West. This includes classroom observations, discussions with students, staff and families, and examination of a wide range of student learning, wellbeing and school performance data.

It can be easy to think of a School Review as putting a school under the microscope. In reality, its most valuable purpose is slightly different. It gives us an opportunity to identify what is working well, understand why it is working, and then narrow the enormous number of things a school could focus on down to a small number of priorities that matter most.

Those priorities will form the foundation of our next four-year Strategic Plan.

Parents and carers will be invited to participate in focus groups across the review days. Once the dates and times for these sessions are finalised, we will send further information to families.

Next: Sustainability across the school

Behind the scenes, staff have also been building the learning programs that students will return to next term.

Our whole-school Discovery focus will have a sustainability lens, with each learning area exploring ideas appropriate to the students' age and curriculum level.

Our Prep - 2 students will explore caring for the places, living things and resources around them, and begin to notice how everyday choices can make a difference. In Years 1 and 2, students will extend this thinking by considering how people use and care for resources and environments. Years 3 and 4 will investigate connections between people, places, resources and sustainable choices, while Years 5 and 6 will begin looking more deeply at consumption, systems, environmental impact and the actions individuals and communities can take towards more sustainable futures.

Having a common theme running across the school has already had benefits far beyond simply organising curriculum content.

It gives students, staff and families a shared conversation. It allows teachers across year levels to compare how ideas have been approached with different ages. It encourages students to see connections between subjects rather than viewing everything they learn as belonging in a separate little box.

Importantly, these units are being designed by our teachers around the Victorian Curriculum, the students in front of them and the interests and needs of each cohort.

That matters.

When teachers have genuine ownership of what they are teaching, they are able to respond to students more effectively. In turn, we see students wanting to showcase their learning, take action, investigate further and apply what they have learnt in new situations.

I continue to be struck by how quickly our staff have embraced this shift during the year. Building something new while simultaneously teaching, assessing, supporting students and completing all the other work that happens in a school is no small undertaking.

Their willingness to reflect, refine and continually improve what happens in our classrooms is something worth recognising.

And the most immediate next...

Before any of that, however, comes two weeks away from school.

The break has arrived at exactly the right time. 

People sometimes describe a school as being like a family. And, much like any family, occasionally the healthiest thing we can do is spend a little time apart.

The holidays give students, staff and families the opportunity to slow the pace, change routines, reconnect with the people and things that can become squeezed out during a busy term, and return with a little more energy in the tank.

Term 4 will bring plenty with it: camps, celebrations, learning, our School Review and the inevitable acceleration towards the end of another school year.

For now, though, the next can wait for a fortnight.

Have a safe, restful and well-earned break. We look forward to welcoming everyone back for the final chapter of 2026.

Trevor.