Lyndale is a vibrant and interesting school situated in the City of Greater Dandenong and is part of the Dandenong network of fifteen schools.  Within the network we belong to a cluster of schools in close proximity of which we have the largest primary enrolment.

Enrolment is quite stable and enrolment at the February census was 424.  Transience can have implications for improved student learning outcomes with movement in and out of the school during the year 2006 of  29%  ( excluding initial prep enrolment and year 6 exiting end of year).

Lyndale was opened in 1956 when the first wing was built. The school consists of three detached wings running parallel and the school is surrounded by three roads, with two of them quite busy ones. The building is being well maintained on a consistent basis. We are presently running with nineteen classrooms, Art, Music, ICT double room including a film studio, ESL (1.5 rooms), Library, hall and storerooms and some small spaces for specific purposes.  We have received another round of funding from Investing In Schools and look forward to the provision of more spaces that meet the needs of our children.

Lyndale has a diverse student and family population.  We have children speaking 37 languages at home with an increase in new arrivals, markedly refugees from the Sudan and Afghanistan.  Consequently, one of our more recent challenges is to ensure effective transition of students and parents into our school community.

The school has maintained a combination of full and part-time teachers consisting of 22 full time and 10 part-time teachers.  We have an expert team of 10 School Service Officers whose roles include administration, teacher aide, multi-cultural aide, integration aide and literacy intervention.

All staff are very committed to our school, putting in lots of extra time and taking on many and varied roles and responsibilities. Truly dedicated and reflective, the staff are very professional  and are responsible for the dynamic nature of the school.
Staff have the following forums / meetings available for professional development, communication and input – Leadership/Consultative, Management (Team Leaders), Staff , School Service Officers , Area , Curriculum ,  Literacy , Student Engagement/Welfare  and short term teams set up with a discrete purpose.

We have specialist programs in E.S.L., Literacy intervention, Visual Arts, Performing Arts (Music), Physical Education, Information and Communication Technologies.  Our children also partake in many extra curricular opportunities that are offered to them including, sporting activities, environmental groups, creative design and academic pursuits.  These opportunities are offered before school, recess and lunchtimes as well as active school community programs after school. Many staff are involved in and committed to, the delivery of these opportunities for the students.

In addition to School Council we have a Friends of Lyndale group consisting of a core group which has the support of other parents when special events and activities occur.

The school continues to welcome and include all members of the community and often the most successful means of drawing them into the school is when the children are directly involved in a specific activity particularly those held after school hours.  We therefore aim for a whole school community event each term as well as individual year level events.  We are also alert to targeting our new arrival families to assist them with their transition into our school and to begin to develop an insight into and understanding of, Victorian education and the parent/school partnership.

To support the families within our school community we work with our cluster schools in the provision of psychological and speech therapy support. We have extended this support by purchasing extra time in both areas to enable more access for our students and families.  We continue our relationship with external agencies such as DHS, Dandenong CAMS, paediatricians etc, so families can be fully assisted when required.