News gallery

Every day at Royal Far West School is different and fun! Here are some recent stories:

Gratitude

We are very grateful to the many people and organisations who give us gifts and services which enhance the work we love to do at Royal Far West School. Recently we received a magnificent donation of beautiful books which we've distributed through the classeses and SWAY and we have plans to start a library as well. Recently the Fairholme Quilters most generously gave us their prize winning quite A map of memories + imagination which children visiting Blue group love to use for interactive play. We are constantly grateful for the amazing volunteers at Sailability who take our students, many of whom have never visited the sea before, sailing around Manly. We treasure each of these wonderful gifts.

Measuring dinosaur bones

Fosicking through kidfetti sensory pellets, students in blue group discovered dinosaur bones! They were able to match the shapes and sizes on a work sheet and then measured each one. Such a fun maths lesson!

Turtles

With the abundance of marine life 200m away from us in the sea, it was great to celebrate World Turtle Day. Blue group looked at a real green sea turtle egg shell in our nature table and painted turtles as well as learning about animal life cycles.

Hapa zome

Hapa zome is an ancient Japanese technique of transferring natural pigments from leaves and flowers directly onto fabric or paper by pounding them with a hammer. Blue group loved watching the colours and shapes emerge - and we were surprised by the beautiful scent our hammering produced. We used our designs to decorate our take-home bags.

In-community assessment

Each year, we welcome many students from the Broken Hill region to our school. Tom, one of our Assistant Principals, travelled to Broken Hill with one of Royal Far West's multidisciplinary teams as part of an in-community assessment week. Visits like this provide a valuable opportunity to connect with local schools, strengthen relationships, and learn more about the communities we serve. This visit was no exception, with several schools visited and many positive conversations shared. Staff were interested to learn more about the support RFWS provides for rural and remote students and their families.

Royal Far West clinicians, including speech pathologists, occupational therapists and psychologists, also joined some of the school visits between assessment sessions with local children. Spending time in schools helped deepen their understanding of each community's strengths, priorities and local context, while further strengthening partnerships between schools and our multidisciplinary team.

We are grateful for the warm welcome Tom received and look forward to continuing to build strong connections with schools and communities across NSW.

Pop-up character strength cards

Students created pop-up character strengths cards by combining a student's interest in card making with a wellbeing activity focused on recognising strengths. This engaging hands-on task encouraged creativity while helping students identify and celebrate positive character traits in themselves and others.

Weaving stories NAIDOC Week celebration

What a fabulous morning! We welcomed the principals and students from Harbord Public School, Forest High School, Manly Village School and Stewart House to our Royal Far West School Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Weaving Stories Wellbeing day. We were delighted that the CEO of Royal Far West Dr Briony Scott was also able to join us together with Johnny Palmeri, director of staffing and members of the Department of Education corporate team, and members of the Northern Beaches Council cultural and arts team. The morning’s program was facilitated by our Aboriginal Educator Caroline Glass-Pattison, Master Weaver Karleen Green, Noongar Weaver Jodie Dowd and Bron and SJ, Stewart House amazing weavers.

The theme for 2026 is Saltwater: Like the ocean, we are all connected-past, present, and future. Guided by the Wiradjuri principle of yindyamarra, we are reminded to move gently, listen deeply and walk together with respect, humility and shared purpose. As we honour 50 years of the National NAIDOC committee, we reflect on the Mabo decision and share responsibility to answer the call of National Reconciliation Week to be All In, we move forward together.

It was beautiful to see how students from different schools worked together weaving mats, bead making and making badges. Everyone came away with a momento which they had created together in the true spirit of yindyamarra.

Differentiated learning

In our classes, students may be at different stages of learning, so using the song of There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, preschool students learned how to order the different creatures she swallowesd, while the kindergarten student learned about ordinal numbers. The fly pictures are pretty special, too!

Print making

A concept picture, a simple piece of thin foam, paint and imagination were all it took for a student in Green group to create a beautiful print which can be used and reused for all sorts of purposes such as a framed picture and a tote bag.

I spy animals on Country

Our intrepid trackers in Blue group trained their binoculars on the mural on level 2 to discover animals hidden throughout the mural and mark them off on their cards. Aunty Caroline taught them the name for emu - dinewan - and they practised the dinewan dance, much to the amusement of the giraffes looking on!

Feelings and colours with The Colour Monster

Blue group explored feelings this week using our focus story, The Colour Monster. Students loved experimenting with colour during a messy art activity, using paint splattering techniques to represent the different emotions experienced by the Colour Monster throughout the story.

Mathematical sausage rolls

The proof is in the tasting, but there are many steps to creating a delicious sausage roll, as Green group discovered. The students read the recipe, added ingredients and followed the procedure carefully, however it was while the rolls were baking that the hard brain work happened. Each student was given a copy of the grocery docket and had to work out how much each unit cost (it's 81cents!) - much cheaper than buying.

Exploring life cycles through story telling and science

Students in blue group explored the life cycle of a caterpillar through storytelling with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a hands-on science experiment. Through observation, discussion, and creative experiences, students learned about growth, change, and the transformation of living things.

Construction in Purple group

Purple group enjoyed the challenge of Lego Education BricQ. Each kit comes with a step-by-step book to create a complex structure and students have to concentrate hard and use fine motor skills to make sure they don't miss a step.