Lyons Bilingual Primary School

Lyons Primary School teaches the ACT curriculum in both English and Italian. Students at all year levels are taught half of their class time in English; the other half in Italian. The key learning areas (KLAs) are divided between each language. In 2008, in KIndergarten to Year 2, literacy, numeration, visual arts, singing, health & P.E. are taught in Italian.  In Years 3 to 6, numeration, the arts, Studies of Society and the Environment, Science and a smaller language component are in Italian.

Children of all backgrounds are welcome at the school. The vast majority of students start at school with no previous knowledge of Italian. For students entering the school later than kindergarten, extra specialist support is provided to help them integrate into the bilingual environment.  Generally speaking, it is difficult for a child to enter the programme after the end of Year 2 unless he or she has some knowledge of Italian or very strong English literacy skills, or has sound first language skills in a language other than English or Italian - that is, Italian would be their third language.

Because the school employs an immersion teaching model, when a child speaks to an Italian teacher, that teacher will always respond in Italian, regardless of the language in which they have been addressed.

The Italian Government supports the school through the Centro Italo-Australiano Canberra (CIAC).

We have links with a school in Schio, located in the north-east of Italy. Teachers from Schio have come three times to Lyons to do theatre workshops with the students, which culminated in a performance and production of a calendar in Italian.

Students and parents participated in a community trip to our sister school in Schio in October 2006 and another trip is being planned for later in 2008/  In 2006 students stayed with their email buddies and their families for 7 days, which was the highlight of the trip for them.  they went on whole class excursions to Venice, Vicenza and Verona.  The group then travelled south, sightseeing and practising Italian, via Florence, Lucca and Orezzo to Rome, where they visited a school.

The bilingual programme has many supporters in both the Italian and wider communities, including university linguistics and second language teachers and researchers, politicians, the Italo-Australian Club, the Modern Language Teachers Association, Centro Italo-Australiano di Canberra, bilingual schools in Victoria (Huntingdale, Camberwell, Bayswater South), Telopea French-Australian School, Dante Alighieri, Mawson Primary (Mandarin programme), Chinese Australian Early Childhood Centre, Canberra German Australian Playschool.