Larrakeyah Primary School Our school our future

The History of Larrakeyah Primary School

History

Larrakeyah is one of the older schools in Darwin, having first opened its doors in 1963. It was relocated to the old Darwin Hospital during a rebuilding phase following Cyclone Tracy and reopened again on its Packard Street site in 1985. Two additional permanent classrooms were opened in 1997 and these made it possible to accommodate children from the new suburb of Cullen Bay.

Larrakeyah School has experienced considerable growth over the past few years. The continued construction of several new high rise apartment buildings and the completion of new homes on the Larrakeyah Barracks have resulted in increased student enrolments. BER infrastructure funding has provided upgrades to many of the school’s facilities including five new classrooms, a new canteen and an extension to the school assembly area.

The Department of Education has supported the school with further infrastructure development and the design of a Master Plan by Hully Liveris for future development. A minor new works grant was approved last year for a flexible learning area and the NT Government approved the construction of two additional classrooms.

Larrakeyah Primary is a school of high standards and expectations. NAPLAN results this year continue to show school average results in areas of Literacy and Numeracy for Year 3 and Year 5 above the Australian mean. 

Larrakeyah Community

The Larrakeyah Community includes the suburbs of Larrakeyah, Cullen Bay, Myilly Point, Emery Point, Elliot Point, and Doctors Gully. The Larrakeyah Community is home to approximately 4500 people from diverse and multicultural backgrounds. Architecture of the suburbs consists mostly of high density townhouses, high rise apartment buildings and 350 single occupancy low or elevated homes.

Larrakeyah Students

The school has a strength of 482 students in 2022. Approximately we have 46 Defence families from Preschool to Year 6. A changing demographic for the school is that a third of the student population now live in unit developments. 

Highlights

  • 2017 – Our school was invited to present our Visible Learning journey to schools in the Darwin Region as part of a ‘Super Showcase’. Visible Learning has made a significant different to teaching and learning at Larrakeyah Primary School and is now fully embedded across the school. 
  • 2018 – Larrakeyah developed and implemented an inquiry-based program for our Year 5/6 students that brought real life context into the classroom by enabling students to work with industry professionals on various projects. This new program was called QUEST.  
  • 2019 – Our students joined other Darwin City School students in breaking the Guinness World Record for making the most paper aircrafts simultaneously. This world record was set to honour the one hundred years after the winning plane took flight in 1919 for a world first journey from London to Darwin.
    The ‘Larrakeyah Legends’ Tournament of Minds team was the winning team in the Language Literature category. The winning team travelled to Tasmania to compete at a national level and were awarded the ‘Spirit of ToMs’ award.
    Our school entered two teams in the Robocup Junior Competition. One team entered the Rescue section and we had a winning team for the Onstage Dance section. 
  • 2020 – The school had an external school review which is conducted for all NT schools every 4 years. Larrakeyah received a high-outstanding rating in all nine domains of the school review framework and received many commendations.
    From 92 entries submitted digitally for Tournament of Minds, Larrakeyah students were awarded second place in the Social Sciences category.
  •  2021 – Larrakeyah was shortlisted for the International School Awards for the category ‘Pathway to Continued and University Education Award’ for our QUEST program.
    We had 3 finalists in the NT Excellence in Teaching Awards. Principal Fathma Mauger won Principal of the Year and Danni Mattiazzo won NT Leader of the Year. Ashleigh Church was a finalist for the NT Indigenous Educator of the Year.
    Our students entered the Tournament of Minds along with 92 entrants from the NT. The team ‘Wonderland Wonders’ received an honorable mention (second place) in the Language Literacy category.

School hours: Monday - Friday

Primary School: 08:15 AM - 2:45 PM
Supervision is provided before school (8:00 AM - 8:15 AM)
and after school (2:45 PM - 3:00 PM).

Preschool: 08:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Front Office: 08:00 AM - 3:30 PM

Your independent public school right in the heart of Darwin
Your independent public school right in the heart of Darwin

© 2015 Larrakeyah Primary

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