News gallery

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

Aboriginal astronomy

Purple Group participated in a rich cultural learning experience through story, shared viewing, conversation and hands-on exploration. In a fascinating video, Aboriginal astrophysicist Kirsten Banks demonstrated that for Indigenous people the dark spaces between stars are as important as the stars themselves. It shows when seasons and tides change and when certain foods are available. The position in the night sky shows when emu eggs are available for collecting.

Aunty Caroline shared her own story and memories of collecting emu eggs in Walgett, NSW. This personal storytelling created a meaningful connection between the learning experience and Country, family and lived cultural knowledge. Students were invited to hold and carefully explore a real emu egg – Dinawan egg. They observed its size, weight, texture and colour, and were encouraged to think about the importance of the emu within Aboriginal culture and the ways knowledge can be shared through stories and objects.

To conclude the experience, each student was gifted an emu feather to take with them as a reminder of their learning. The feather became a special connection to the story shared, Dinawan and cultural knowledge explored together.

Brilliant Blue

When students arrive in Blue group, their eyes widen with delight and we can see them thinking: where do I begin? Each day Jo and Ella set up the room with different activities to suit the interests of the individual students visiting, plus a few more to stimulate curiosity and imagination.

There are physical activities which help you learn your numbers as you jump from one red circle to another, dress-ups and a whole cafe, as well as hard hats and construction to mirror all the activity on the site next door. Then, when you just need a rest, there's a quiet corner with cushions and lots of beautiful picture books.

Living Our Truth | National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day 2026

Tuesday 4 August 2026 is an opportunity for all Australians to recognise and celebrate the strength, pride and potential of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. This year, we celebrate children as the next generation of leaders; confident, proud and ready to carry forward the strong voices, stories and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities. Ruby reminded the students in Green group that we have the oldest surviving culture in the world - what a great thing to be proud of as the emerging generation of leaders.

National Tree Day

We love celebrating special days at RFWS and Blue group got right behind National Tree Day! After reading the story Last tree in the City, the children learned about the importance of trees in keeping the environment and us healthy. They loved taking inspiration from picked branches and leaves to create their own artworks.

Weaving stories

The Weaving Stories exhibition showcased a beautiful collection of collaborative First Nations artworks and traditional weaving pieces, celebrating creativity, culture, and community. As part of the Northern Beaches Saltwater program, this project culminated in a special exhibition and celebration at the Curl Curl Creative Space, featuring works by local artist Jodie Dowd, traditional weaver Karleen Green along with Bron and SJ staff and students from Stewart House.

The collaborative artworks included stunning stingray, jellyfish, and ghost net-inspired weaves, each reflecting the rich marine environment of the Northern Beaches and the enduring connection between culture, Country, and community. Every woven piece tells a story of learning, belonging and shared experiences.

The exhibition was a wonderful celebration of partnership between Royal Far West School, Stewart House, students, artists, and the wider community. Through creativity, collaboration, and cultural knowledge sharing, Weaving Stories continues to strengthen connections and wellbeing stories of Saltwater Country.

Life in Blue

Our youngest students in Blue group love expressing themselves with all the beautiful resources Jo and Ella make available. In just one morning they were able to run a cafe, dress up in dreamy costumes, paint pictures and decorate them with sparkles and enjoy listening to a story - and they hadn't even reached the playground yet!

SEPLA Conference

Our professional learning this term took place at SEPLA-CON 2026 at ICC Sydney, focusing on inclusive education under the theme Together for Tomorrow: Embracing Diversity, Enabling Success and highlighting the commitment to celebrating the strengths of every learner, fostering inclusive environments, and enabling all students to reach their full potential.

Deb Summerhayes, deputy secretary, Public Schools NSW, highlighted the fantastic work being carried out by schools, particularly SSPs and support classes in public schools. In the photo below she showed the significant number of students learning in regional, rural and remote areas. The students that RFWS supports!

Our teachers and support staff participated in a number of great professional learning sessions to further enhance our skills in the special education context. Already Aunty Caroline, our Aboriginal Educator, has had the opportunity to put learning from the Beyond the Behaviour – Identifying the Influences That Matter session which highlighted the importance of understanding the experiences and circumstances that shape behaviour. Recognising a visiting Mum was feeling overwhelmed, Aunty Caroline created a quiet, culturally safe space for a yarn. Taking time to listen with empathy and understanding helped strengthen trust and support the family's wellbeing, reinforcing their connection with RFW school community.

Bravery and friendship

Purple group joined Jonty, a young gentoo penguin who longs to find his true home at the South Pole. They loved cheering Jonty on his way in a captivating story of bravery, friendship and finding your place in the world. After Rose had read them Jonty's story, they created penguin artwork.

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.