[On-screen text: Introducing your new principal]
[We see Barramayil Primary School principal Tami-Jo Richter walking through an outdoor space with plants and school buildings in the background. We then cut to a shot of Tami-Jo sitting in a classroom, working on a laptop. Cut to close-up shot of Tami-Jo smiling directly at the camera.]
[On-screen text: Tami-Jo Richter Barramayil Primary School]
[Tami-Jo enters the frame and sits down in front of some children’s books]
Tami-Jo Richter: Hi, my name’s Tami-Jo Richter and I'm the founding principal of Barramayil Primary School.
Our school is situated on the land of the Wurundjeri people, so our school name is going to be Barramayil Primary School, meaning emu.
Our motto is going to be: “Keelonith Wilam Barring”, which means one path, one place, one community.
Which is an indigenous reflection of the land on which we're going to be learning and playing each day.
I became a school principal, probably because I loved being a teacher. Having a strong moral purpose and being of service to the community was something that was really important to me. I was a Prep teacher for a really long time, then became a leader very early on in my career.
Our school's values will be courage, care, commitment, and community. You know, we're looking for for children who can care deeply, who can act courageously, who can commit wholeheartedly, really feel that they're a strong part of the community.
We want students to be achieving their potential academically. We want them to feel safe and included at school. We want their wellbeing to be taken care of. So we're making really thoughtful decisions about who is in our community and what supports they need, and the resources that we have available to make that happen.
I work really hard at being strategic about, you know, how we do things, why we do things, and just keeping children at the centre for all of my decisions is how I would do that with students, with staff and with families.
A quote or a motto that I would live by is “it takes a village to raise a child.” I think it's really hard for any one person to serve all areas for anyone else. So to have a lot of people who are there to help support people and guide them, I think is really important. And I also think in this world, being able to interact with lots of different people and lots of different situations, particularly as primary students, just helps set them up for later in life.
It's really important that children understand that schools are a really safe place to make mistakes. Mistakes are part of learning. It's how you grow. It's how we get better at different things. I would just like children to to be good to one another, to feel that they can be accountable for their actions—that's a really important life skill. But most importantly, just care for one another and accept those around them.
Our school will have safe, inclusive classrooms. We’re really thinking about how we can cater for the students in our school. Our school has some wonderful spaces and facilities. Our administration building has some wonderful wellbeing spaces. We've also got science and technology spaces and some visual art spaces in there. A wonderful library, a nice student lobby. Our gymnasium has a performing arts, canteen, and a food technology space. Our learning communities have wellbeing spaces, places where the sensory room’s set up. All the classrooms can be shared if they need to be, but you know, most of the time are kept separate.
Part of our mission and vision was it takes a village to raise a child. People are caring for one another, looking out for one another and having a real stake in their community and wanting success for each person in our school.
[We see a close-up of Tami-Jo’s hands typing on a laptop then cut to a shot of the laptop screen showing Barramayil Primary School renders]
[The VSBA and Victoria State Government logos appear, then the screen fades to a black background with white text]
[On-screen text: Authorised by The Victorian School Building Authority, 33 St Andrews Place, East Melbourne]
[End of transcript]
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