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Tour Details
Richmond West Primary School (RWPS) is a bilingual Chinese and Vietnamese school. It also has a mainstream English stream should parents not want to enrol their children in any bilingual program. The focus of the tour was on the bilingual Chinese program as it was the main interest of all parents on the school tour.Â
Principal Trevor and Assistant principal Amanda led the tour of six couples on 5th March 2024. It’s the first tour of the year and the first for Principal Trevor who just started in his role since January 2024. The school had no principal for the last two years.
Trevor hails from an Italian bilingual school in Brunswick where he was the principal for about eight years. He wanted a new challenge as he was getting very comfortable in his role. His initial plans for RWPS will be to listen and look at what is already happening in the school and meet their wants as he does not want to disrupt what is already in place. He plans to expand intake capacity to 50 students for the school in the next couple of years. Assistant principal Amanda was the one mainly conducting the tour.
There was no formal presentation; the tour was conducted via a walkabout with ample time and opportunity for questions addressed during and after the tour. There was no chance to speak to the students but mainly because they were engrossed in their independent or teacher-led learning. However, we were able to walk around them and look at what they were doing. I did have the chance to speak to a parent during drop off and she has two children in the bilingual program of Prep and Year 3.
They speak a bit of Chinese at home but prior to commencing the program, her children can comprehend but will reply in English. However, her preppie, within three weeks of starting school can recognise simple Chinese words (e.g., Father, Mother, Brother, Sister etc.) and can tell them how he recognised certain characters – the teachers taught in a fun way that was not dry, as memorising Chinese characters can be.
Vibe at Richmond West Primary School
RWPS is located at 25 Lennox Street, Richmond, VIC 3121. The main school building and furnishings look datedwith some obvious wear and tear. However, what caught my eye was that they tried to uplift it by hanging and pasting student artworks all over the walls right from the entrance, along all the hallways and inside the classrooms.
It was full of colour. In the classrooms, artwork was also hung across the ceiling and posters with big and colourful Chinese characters can be seen everywhere to create the Mandarin immersion. There was no sign of any Vietnamese words around, most probably because they don’t have any students in that program. Gender-neutral toilets are also available.Â
The school is also located right next to the medically supervised injection room, which is a cause of concern in the community. This was acknowledged by Trevor, who had a similar concern before joining the school. However, once you step into the school, it feels like a world of its own and you forget that the MSIR exists. Security gates are in place and gates are locked from 9.15am.
The school upgraded its security a few years ago and now has a video doorbell at the gate, in addition to CCTVs. Parents will receive an SMS at 9.30am if their kids are not in school. There is also a strong parent community Whatsapp group within each year level.
Language at Richmond West Primary SchoolÂ
There are two prep bilingual classes and two mainstream English classes. This is the only year where classes are not composite as preppies are mostly new to the Chinese language and will require more support. Directional and instructional language is being used. Teachers will point at students to get them to participate and practise their mandarin pronunciation. In the mainstream English classes, they were watching a screen/videos focusing on phonics.
There were discrepancies seen between the mainstream English stream and bilingual Chinese program teachers and students. It was vibrant and upbeat in class where there was a lot of interaction and participation in the bilingual Chinese program such that the students were focused and were not distracted by a group of visitors in their classroom, whereas the former was more subdued.
This could be because the children in the mainstream English sessions have a better foundation and do not require as much activity-led learning.Â
Assistant principal Amanda said that they use Science of Reading for their literacy program. Classes are conducted in Mandarin for 2.5 days then swapped to English for the next 2.5 days of the week. Composite classes are in Year 1/2, 3/4 & 5/6. Classrooms are open concept and have a maximum of four classes in any given time for Prep. Prep classes are smaller at about 15 students in each class to one teacher.
The other composite classes have about 2-3 classes in the open concept layout at any given time. Classes are bigger at about 25 students per class to one teacher. I felt it was noisy with the open concept as teachers were raising their voices to be heard They generally have the same teacher throughout the year with a pool of dedicated CRTs who are familiar with the Chinese program to step in when necessary.
Students are also only allowed to enrol for the bilingual Chinese program from Prep. The school does not take in students in other years due to the intensive program requirements and students will not be able to catch up otherwise. However, they allow exceptions if the students have a Mandarin background to enrol in other years, e.g., coming from overseas.Â
According to Assistant principal Amanda, all the Chinese resources including Chinese readers and teaching/learning materials are all made by the teachers as there is no readily available Mandarin resources in the market that is age and content appropriate. Students start guided reading at Year 1/2 and teacher will group students according to their level of reading/comprehension. Teachers will then take turns to get each group of about 3-5 children to sit with them at the front to do their reading together.
The rest of the class will have independent reading and writing to do in the interim. The school also uses IT, in the form of Chromebooks (Year 3 onwards) and iPad (prep to Year 2, but only occasionally) to facilitate the learning process. During the tour, we saw the students independently using Chromebooks to practise reading Chinese sentences. There will be “homework” which comes in the form of English and Chinese readers. For parents who do not have any Mandarin background, the school does have a recorded videos of the teacher reciting the book and parents can choose their learning/teaching style to help with readers.Â
Specialist program, camps and others at Richmond West Primary School
There are four specialist programs within the curriculum which are namely performing arts, STEM, Art and PE. Students do one hour of each in a week from all levels. Students are also brought to the library once a week to read and borrow books. Otherwise, they can still access the library during lunchtime where the Math and Science clubs are held.
The school has a fairly big outdoor area, especially considering the school’s location, with a small soccer field, two basketball courts, around ten ball courts of varying sizes , two playgrounds, and a sandpit. There is not a specifically separate prep playground but preppies will usually play at the smaller playground. Some extracurricular activities include the junior, intermediate and brass band sections which is the main activity which most students participate in.
They also have a kitchen garden program, chess club, karate. No sport program other than PE. There are swimming lessons held at Richmond community pool in Term 4 and cooking classes held for three consecutive weeks yearly for all students. Amanda noted that parents are welcomed to join the cooking classes and are enjoyed by everyone. The school does sleepovers for Year 2s, three-day camps for Year 3/4 and four-day camps for Year 5/6. Recently they held the camps in Philip Island and in Bacchus Marsh.
Enrolment at Richmond West Primary School
They have capacity for out-of-zone enrolments and mentioned that most of their bilingual Chinese program students are from out of zone. They have students from Sunshine and Mt Waverley/Nunawading attending the school. They said it would be tricky to do mainstream English program for out of zone enrolments. Enrolment starts in term two, and it is on a first-come-first-served basis. The current intake capacity is 40, and applications beyond that amount will be placed on the waitlist. Trevor commented that the intake demand has not been reaching the cap, e.g., 38 in 2023.
Bilingual schools post primary school at Richmond West Primary School
Many of their students go on to Richmond High School, Melbourne Girls College and private schools after graduation to continue their Mandarin studies. Amanda noted that Richmond High School (established in 2018) is a natural path for students from RWPS and Abbotsford Primary School else their Chinese competency would otherwise fade off.
Final Thoughts
I like that the school was small with about 340 students in 2023 and student to teacher ratio was low for prep. The diverse nationalities and backgrounds of students and their enthusiasm towards learning Mandarin also appealed to me. Concerns about the injection room dissipated during the school tour due to the security measures and the vibrancy of the students during their learning. The outlook of the school looks promising with Trevor now on the helm after having no principal for the past two years.
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