Dandenong North Primary School enjoys a long-standing reputation as a family-friendly and academically successful school. While the school was once North of Dandenong it has to be considered closer to the heart of Dandenong in modern times. In keeping with the re-generation of Dandenong as a thriving multi-cultural hub, the actual buildings of Dandenong North Primary School have undergone a transformation to bring the facilities into the 21st Century. Superb, new learning spaces provide a wonderful learning environment for over 800 students.
Our wonderful and vibrant students come from a wide diversity of cultural backgrounds and provide a model for the adult Australian society of how diversity can deliver a fantastic team and family approach to learning.
Because of the ideal size of our school with over 800 students we are provided with the resources that allow us to offer an ideal mix of specialist programs that include: Physical Education, Art, Library, English as an Additional Language, Extension activities in English Writing, Information Technology, and a number of voluntary lunch-time programs. We are also in a position to provide intervention programs for any student who may need additional support in the key areas of reading and mathematics.
Our school prides itself on the successful development of a family feeling and atmosphere among the students and staff. We believe that when students feel happy and relaxed, as they do at “home”, they will be able to make the most of every available learning opportunity. We strive to give students and their families a strong sense of belonging to a very large family! All of our staff believe in the school philosophy of “treating children as if they were our own”, and a tour through the school is all it takes to experience the feeling of a positive and supportive atmosphere.
We expect that all students should be able to achieve National and State benchmark standards in literacy and numeracy. We direct enormous resources to make sure that our students will perform at expected levels and we are most fortunate to have a team of highly skilled , capable and experienced teachers and support staff working together as a committed team to ensure every child can achieve to as high a level as possible and that no child gets left behind in their learning.
Our school has a consistent record of achieving strong academic outcomes, reflecting the high quality of the teaching and the programs that we deliver in core curriculum areas. We know and understand that children need to develop a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy to guarantee life-long learning success.
We are proud to be able to provide outstanding specialist programs for many students who enrol in an Australian school for the first time after arriving in Australia from overseas. We are highly skilled at providing smooth transitional pathways into the Australian Curriculum for all of our International students. We operate an innovative two-week Reception Program for newly arrived students and an outstanding, three-part English as an Additional Language program (EAL).
Our school encourages and provides pathways to excellence in artistic and sporting fields because we believe that our students should have a love and understanding of the Arts as well as being fit, skilled and healthy in body, mind and soul. We know that fit and healthy children learn faster than those who are not, so we make sure that our physical education and sport program delivers levels of fitness and preparedness that are well above average.
Our School Council and Staff are absolutely committed to delivering an environment where students will be encouraged to be totally engaged in learning, fearless in expressing their creativity and confident in pursuing their personal goals. We want them to grow and develop as happy, independent, confident and resilient young people who will be in the best possible position when they leave us to make the most of the next phase of their education and life journeys.