Richmond West Primary School

Many Languages – One Voice

Richmond West Primary is a multicultural school of over 230 students, located in Melbourne’s inner east. The students come from as many as 23 different cultural backgrounds.  With highly experienced and dedicated teachers we are well-resourced offering small classes and a range of specialist and intervention programs. Our school culture emphasises kindness, cooperation, doing your best and the celebration of diversity.  We focus on student engagement and a differentiated approach to the curriculum, building on students’ strengths and scaffolded learning. The school has 20.5 equivalent full-time staff; 2 principal class, 14.6 teachers and 3.9 Education Support staff.

Since opening in 1975 the school profile has changed reflecting the broader demographic of the surrounding Richmond area. Many students start school from a family life where English is not widely spoken at home, but this does not compromise the school’s academic performance: by Grade 3 children at Richmond West meet or exceed state standards in literacy and numeracy – and are usually fluent in more than one language!

Richmond West has a well-established immersion bilingual program, offering two highly-regarded programs (Mandarin and Vietnamese). For some, Chinese or Vietnamese is their home language and others will be learning Chinese or Vietnamese for the first time. In 2012 we will be embarking on ‘Leading 21^st Century Schools Victoria: Engage with Asia’ studies to complement our Asian languages by embedding Asia Literacy across the curriculum. At Richmond West Primary School we celebrate diversity, bilingual learning and have a strong commitment to continued improvement, maximising students’ potential through excellence in teaching.

The school’s core values are care and compassion, respect, doing your best, responsibility, co-operation and honesty and trustworthiness.