Lyall Bay School opened as Maranui School on 1 February 1909, with a first day intake of 178 pupils.  The two main teaching blocks date from this time. 
The roll peaked in 1926 with 844 pupils.

Following a gradual decline in numbers over the next 60 years, the roll reached an all-time low point of only 216 back at the start of the 1989 school year.  However, since the advent of Tomorrow’s Schools, the roll again flourished.  After rapid growth in the 90’s the roll has now stabilised and the school caters for between 350 and 400 children.  This makes Lyall Bay one of the largest contributing schools in Wellington.

Since 1990 more than $600,000 has been invested into major ongoing playground re-development.  Once a “concrete jungle”, children now play on both grassed areas and all-weather playgrounds, including two netball courts, an astro-turf space and a range of other recreational zones.  Your Board of Trustees continues to strive hard to provide modern, safe playground equipment.  Play-structures include a junior platform with various events attached, and more senior pursuit type course adjacent to the Dental Clinic.  All equipment has been safety standards approved and compliant safety matting is installed under fall areas.  Other recent projects include the provision of "shade sails", new fences, and a covered walkway between the two main buildings.

The Board has initiated several other major property projects since 1990 including a new school hall and administration centre (completed in 1995, with a value of around one third of a million dollars), a new staff-room and school library (completed in 1999 - $220,000).

The Junior School received some upgrading and additions in 1998 and 2000, and a further $180,000 upgrade of toilets and 3 classrooms was completed in 2006. The junior department has a total of 9 teaching spaces, including 2 separate New Entrant rooms adjacent to the school office.   A modern, computerised library is situated adjacent to the New Entrant complex.

The Senior School, which is linked to the school hall, library and administration centre, has 6 teaching spaces, a well-equipped resources storage room and a multi-purpose ICT room.  Upgrades to this building include the installation of tinted aluminium windows in 1996, a $75,000 toilet and corridors upgrade in 1999, and a major classroom refurbishment (costing $130,000) was completed in 2004.  

In 2005 the Ministry of Education completed a major upgrade to school-wide computer cabling and our central server as a one-off pilot project.  Costing around $90,000, we now meet the latest ICT standards set for new schools.  There are now well over 100 classroom computers on this network.

In one corner of the northern playground is a small Dental Clinic that is staffed for approximately half of the year.

The school also has a heated swimming pool with changing rooms, but no toilets attached as yet.  Further development is planned for this valuable facility in the future.