RPS Chatter February (2) 2026

For those that haven’t met me, my name is Hayley Coates and I am a leading teacher at Richmond Primary School.

This year, I am taking on a slightly different role, leading and supporting teaching and learning across the school. I feel privileged to be spending time in classrooms, coaching staff and supporting effective teaching and learning at RPS. Through the Chatter, I look forward to at times, highlighting what teaching and learning looks like across our school. This week, we are sharing specific information about phonics instruction across the school. I hope you find this information informative and helpful, particularly when supporting your child in the early stages of reading.

We are also excited to be working closely with Dr Ryan Dunn in Mathematics this year. Our focus will be on explicit teaching, responding to students’ needs, checking for understanding, and differentiating to effectively cater for all learners. Staff will have their first professional learning day/curriculum day with Dr Dunn on Tuesday 10 March, which falls after the long weekend. As a result, students will enjoy a four-day weekend.

From 11th to 13th March, our Year 3 and Year 5 students will participate in NAPLAN assessments. NAPLAN is just one snapshot of your child’s learning. It is designed to assess literacy and numeracy skills developed over time, and there is no special preparation or cramming required. The best support you can provide is calm reassurance and normal routines. Remind your child just try your best. Encourage a Positive Mindset and if your child feels nervous, you might say:

“Feeling a little nervous means you care.”

“Take your time, read each question carefully.”

“If you get stuck, move on and come back to it.”

That’s it from me. Have a wonderful last weekend of Summer!

Hayley

We are pleased to let you know that our school will be moving into our new building at the beginning of Term 2. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we awaited final approvals. We intentionally delayed this announcement until all arrangements were confirmed so we could provide accurate information to our families.

To support a smooth and well-organised transition, the School Council has approved two student-free days. These days will allow staff to safely relocate furniture, learning materials, and equipment, and to prepare classrooms and specialist areas for students.

Student-Free Days:

• Monday, 20 April
• Tuesday, 21 April

All students will return to school on Wednesday, 22 April, to begin Term 2 in our new learning environment.

Upon commencement of Term 2, year levels and specialist programs will be located as follows:

• Years 5/6 – Top Floor
• Years 3/4 – First Floor
• STEM and Performing Arts – Ground Floor
• OSHC – Ground Floor
• Foundation and Years 1/2 – Will remain in current spaces
• Art – Will return to the original art room near the basketball courts
• Library – Will return to the original library near the courtyard
• Clear signage and staff support will be in place to assist students during the first week.

The new building is looking great. Here is a little sneak peek….

At Richmond Primary School, we teach explicit synthetic phonics in a systematic and structured way. Phonics helps children understand the relationship between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) — the essential foundations for learning to read and write. Phonics supports both decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling). For example, when children know that m–a–t represents the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/, they can read mat independently. When spelling, they can hear the sounds in a word, break it into parts, and choose the matching letters. Example:  “ship” → /sh/ /i/ /p/ → sh-i-p. This knowledge empowers students to tackle unfamiliar words with confidence.

In our Foundation–2 classrooms, phonics is taught during the first 25-minute block of each day using UFLI Foundations. UFLI Foundations is an explicit and systematic program designed to build the foundational skills necessary for proficient reading. It provides a strong balance of structure and responsiveness to student needs, with clear routines, ample practice opportunities, and gradual release to foster independence.

During a phonics lesson, you might see students engaged in:

• Phoneme blending and segmentation practice
• Building accuracy and automaticity of grapheme–phoneme correspondences
• Reading words with previously taught concepts
• Explicit teaching of new sound–letter patterns
• Decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) practice
• Reading and spelling irregular words
• Reading connected text to build fluency and confidence

We are incredibly proud of our superstar Foundation students and the impressive encoding skills they are already demonstrating so early in their schooling.

The School Council election process will open Monday, 2nd of March 2026

 

Richmond Primary School Council consists of:

• 6 elected parent positions
• 3 elected DET (Department of Education and Training) positions
• 1 Executive Office (the Principal)

There are 3 parent vacancies to be filled in 2026.

Parents/carers are encouraged to nominate for a position. You can nominate yourself, or be nominated by another parent at the school.

Nomination forms will be made available through the school office and via a Compass notification that will be released on Monday 2nd March.  Nominations will close on Monday 9th of March 2026.

On the 5th of March, The Resilience Project will be hosting a workshop at our school, which is designed to connect the classroom to home, providing a consistent and common language for your child and family. This workshop will be from  6:30 pm – 7:30 pm at Richmond Primary School and it will be in the 5/6C and 5/6D classroom space (the old library).

This workshop will promote positive well-being and will provide you with:

• A knowledge of The Resilience Project program and how it is run in our school.
• Tips and strategies to support your child’s wellbeing at home through the GEM principles.
• Ideas on how to support your own personal wellbeing.

If you are interested in attending this workshop, please register using this link https://www.trybooking.com/DJSKR

 

At Richmond Primary School, we are proud to be in the process of becoming an Esmart school. We want to empower children with the skills and knowledge to independently manage their digital safety and wellbeing.

Many of our students enjoy playing online games at home, including Minecraft and Roblox. Recently, Roblox has been featured in the news, highlighting the importance of parents and carers understanding how the platform works and how to ensure appropriate safety settings are in place.

The Cyber Safety Project has developed a helpful parent guide that explains the platform and outlines practical steps you can take to help your child play safely and confidently.

Please find the link to the article below:

Keeping Your Kids Safe on Roblox: A Simple Guide for Parents

We encourage all families to take a few minutes to read the guide and review their child’s account settings.

We are excited to announce that we have organised a Pizza Day on the 20th of March.

Please see the details below:

📅 Date: Friday, 20th of March

⏰ Time: 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Teachers will take classes to get pizzas at scheduled times

📍Location: Richmond Primary School

🍕Menu: Margherita & Dessert Pizza

💵Price: $2.00 a pizza (5 Slice Limit per student)

📅 Order Deadline: 12th of March

 

How to Order Pizza Online:

If you are ordering for one child, please use the following link:👉 Individual Pizza Orders

1.   Select the number of slices you would like to order (maximum of 5 slices per student).

2.  Enter your child’s full name and class to ensure the order is correctly allocated.

3.  Choose your child’s preferred pizza type(s) and indicate how many slices of each option they would like.

 

If you have more than one child at our school, please use the sibling order link:👉 Sibling Pizza Orders

1. Follow the same steps above to complete your first child’s order

2. When you reach the checkout page, select ‘Buy more tickets’ to begin placing another order for your next child

3. Repeat the process for each child before completing payment

 

Pizza Orders will close on the 12th of March to allow our team to order ingredients and prepare the correct amount of pizzas for the day. Please ensure that you have placed your order before this date.

 

Foundation: 

• Jemima Ralston-D – For your wonderful enthusiasm and positive energy. You’re a pleasure to teach, Jemima!
• Carmichael S – For being responsible and showing role model behaviour!
• Billy H – He has had a ripper start to Foundation, and he should be really proud of his efforts. Well done superstar!

 

Year 1/2:

 

• Phoebe R – For doing an incredible job with your narrative writing this week, you’re a superstar!
• Teddy A – For showing respect, working hard and being a good friend! Bravo Teddy, you’re a star!

 

Year 3/4:

• Hazel E – Showing empathy and kindness towards your peers. Well done, Hazel!
• Jack C – Dedication to learning

 

Year 5/6:

 

• Charlotte C – Your focus and determination in your persuasive writing this week were impressive. You supported your reasoning with strong evidence. Well done!
• Frankie C – Being super helpful in organising the setup for area sport and PE lessons last week. Well done Frankie!
• Elyse A – This legend has made me so proud already this year. Your effort and drive in your learning has been amazing!

 

Specialist Subjects:

 

• Hugo E – For his enthusiasm and engagement during our session on Mime, and even practising in the yard! Awesome!!
• Jett M – For his wonderful effort in our STEM experiment. Love to see you giving it a crack, Jett!