RPS Chatter March (2) 2026

Hello Richmond Primary Community! For those who don’t know me yet, my name is Sarah Devine and this year I am both a Learning Specialist and a Year 5/6 teacher. I have been at the school for 5 years and love being a part of such a kind, joyful and inclusive community.

Today we celebrated Harmony Day as a whole school. The day was an opportunity for us to recognise and celebrate our country’s cultural diversity, meaning all the different backgrounds, traditions, languages, and stories that make up our community. Many students wore cultural dress or orange as a symbol of kindness and acceptance. As part of our Inquiry Action in Year 5/6 we asked students to consider ‘If Harmony Day is about belonging and respect, what should it look like at our school?’ In groups, students then created lesson plans, shared them with teachers across the school, and some supported teachers in running special activities throughout the day.

Harmony Day is not just one day! It’s a reminder of how we want to be every day. We aim to build a school culture where:

• Everyone feels safe to be themselves
• We celebrate our differences
• We treat each other with kindness and respect

We are so excited to be just weeks away from moving into our new building and can’t wait to welcome you into the space!

Sarah Devine 

At Richmond Primary School, we implement the Writer’s Workshop model to develop creative writers and foster deep thinking through the use of writing seeds. This approach emphasises teaching the writer, not just the writing, with student choice and individual interests at the centre of the process. We place a strong emphasis on student conferencing and collaborative goal setting to support individual growth.

Through the writer’s cycle—exploring and planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing—alongside the use of class exemplar texts and classroom writing resources, we build students’ capacity to become confident, independent writers.

Explicit instruction is prioritised, with mini-lessons targeting both sentence-level and text-level writing, including focused teaching of grammar and punctuation. Over a three-week period, students engage in learning about writer’s craft and specific grammar teachings. During this time, they practise and refine their skills through ongoing conferencing. This is followed by a two-week genre sprint, where students apply their learning to create an independent piece of writing within a specific genre.

Once students have progressed through the full writer’s cycle, they publish their work and include it in a Writer’s Gift, which is shared with families at the end of the school year.

 

 

 

PSW Moving to Canterbury

We have been informed that our school uniform supplier, PSW School Uniforms, is relocating in the coming months to 299 Canterbury Road, Canterbury. This will not affect the uniforms available to our school or the service you will receive. The Kew store will remain open with the same trading hours until they move.

Please see the following link for further details – Kew Store relocation communication to families

New RPS Bonded Jacket

We now have a Bonded Jacket available for our students through PSW.

 

If you are interested in ordering this jacket for your child, please click on the link below:

 

• RPS Bonded Jacket Link
• Current Uniform Items - March 2026

Foundation: 

• Lucy B – For being a responsible and helpful student in the classroom.
• Woody P – For your kindness and willingness to be a friend to everyone!
• Lenny P – For always trying his best, following classroom expectations and being a great role model to others!
• Louis A – For an awesome week in Foundation! He has shown great enthusiasm and curiosity in maths!

 

Year 1/2:

 

• Xavier E – For doing a fantastic job turning your story into a book. Well done, superstar!
• Harriet P – For your hard work, respectful nature, your friendship and your zany sense of humour!

 

Year 3/4:

 

• Toby B – For hard work and a growth mindset
• Jett M – For your wonderful persuasive writing. You should be very proud of your fantastic ideas and persistence!
• Rose F – For Dedication to learning and for being a positive role model in our class.

 

Year 5/6:

 

• Rumi G – For his engagement in his learning, particularly his equation creation task. Well done Rumi!

 

Art 

 

• Tom C  – For persistence when trying to draw something

 

Performing Arts 

 

• Camille R – For her excellent encouragement and engagement in her teamwork during our Buddies PA session this week

 

PE

 

• Naimara N – For her extra help making Seesaw assessments run smoothly! Thanks Naimara