Richmond Primary School Newsletter Wednesday 24th September 2025

Principal's Address

Dear families,

Bravehearts Visit

Last week the students from Kinder to Year 2 received a visit from Ditto. 

Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Program is a fun and effective personal safety education program, curriculum-aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum.

Bravehearts Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Show is underpinned by the principles of personal safety. Evidence suggests that teaching young children these principles can help to increase resilience and reduce the risk of child sexual abuse, as well as other forms of abuse including family violence and bullying.

The show helps children to

• Differentiate safe and unsafe feelings
• Recognising the body’s warning signs
• Body ownership and that it is ok to say no
• Helping children name public and private parts using anatomically correct names
• Reinforcing that there is no secret that children cannot tell someone
• What to do if you feel unsafe or unsure

This is an important message for all students to receive and understand and it is advisable that families have these conversations on a regular basis.

‘Ditto’s 3 key messages are:

• We all have the right to feel safe with people.
• It’s ok to say NO if you feel unsafe or unsure.
• Nothing is so yucky that you can’t tell someone about it.

And now for several reminders

Thank you to all our families for finding hats.

With the UV increasing as the weather warms, students need to wear a clearly named hat when playing and learning outside (including before school when the UV rating is 3 or above). Students who do not have a hat will be asked to play in the designated shaded area outside the 3/4 classrooms. Sun protection needs to be used until the end of April next year. Students are encouraged to bring sunscreen to school (please clearly name the container), and sunscreen is available for those who don't have their own in all classrooms. Sunglasses are optional (again, please clearly name these).

Student Free Day – Term 4

A reminder to parents that the student-free day is on Friday, October 24th, following the Public Holiday for the Royal Hobart Show on Thursday, 23^rd making a long weekend for students and families. The student free day allows teachers and T.A’s  to engage in detailed planning for 2026 and to review the school's strategic and operational plans.

Class Placements for 2026

As a staff we will be working to build our class groupings for 2026. If as parents/ carers you would like to have some input, sharing important information about your child/children, please email me directly at clare.mcvilly@decyp.tas.gov.au

As we are fast approaching the end of term, I would like to wish all families a safe and happy holiday. Hopefully the holiday break will allow time to recover from the many illnesses we have experienced this term and time to recharge the batteries.

School resumes on Monday 13^th October.

Regards, 

Clare McVilly

Term 4 Dates for your Calendars

5/6B News

   Festival Of Bright Ideas

On Friday, 22nd of August, both of the 5/6 classes went on an excursion to the festival of bright ideas. The festival of bright ideas showcases heaps of innovation and technology through hands-on activities and presentations, such as getting to stamp our fingerprints on a piece of paper at the police workshop, getting to hold starfishes and hermit crabs in the marine animal’s section, and getting to mix some chemicals together, and so many more exciting activities.

When our class arrived, there was heaps of other kids from other schools already crowding around the entry, and lots of other busses arriving as well. The first exhibit we went to was about food science. In front of us were small breadcrumbs, cut up pieces of tiny cheese, egg whites, food colouring etc. We were able to create some “liquids” with the food provided in a long glass tube, but we had to put on safety goggles when mixing the ingredients together. After we were finished with that, we were moved over to the sea life. There were small fish tanks with starfishes, hermit crabs, and sea urchins, and we got to pass them around to have a closer look. We had to occasionally dip the animals back into the water to make sure they could breathe, while we learnt about them by the employee who ran that exhibit.

 After that, we were allowed to go and roam around freely with teachers and T/A’s. The workshops varied extremely: some were about special rocks in a tub that we got to pick up and have a look at, and some were about insects and animals, to electricity workshops. Some of the workshops provided something to take home like seeds to plant, tattoos, and even some stickers with the “Festival of Bright Ideas” print on it. Our stay was only about 1 hour and 30 minutes before we eventually left and headed back to school for winter sports.

By Claudia.

Kitchen Garden

With winter slowing things down in the garden, this term in Kitchen Garden we turned our attention to the freezer.

We discovered a stash of bread made by students in previous sessions—perfect for making the ever-popular bread and butter pudding. This gave us a great opportunity to talk about food waste and how you don’t need fresh bread for this dish. In fact, slightly stale bread or leftover crusts (the ones no one wants to eat!) can be saved in the freezer until you have enough to use.

We served the pudding with fresh homemade custard, which was a hit on its own. Even better, we used the same custard base to make ice cream—a fun and delicious way to extend the learning.

Brixhibition 2025

This year’s Brixhibition competition was a huge success, with around 50 entries submitted from across all age groups. There was a lot of imagination and talent demonstrated, it was a shame to not have multiple winners.

Congratulations to our category winners:

• Kinder/Prep – Dakota D
• Grade 1/2 – Teddy C
• Grade 3/4 – Maggie P
• Grade 5/6 – Walter M

A special congratulations to Maggie, who was also named our overall winner! Maggie has been invited to showcase her entry at the Brixhibition event in Hobart – an exciting opportunity and a well-deserved honour. Well done, Maggie!

Assembly Awards