Prep is the first year of school and provides the foundation for your child's education. From 2017, it is compulsory for Queensland children to undertake Prep prior to Year 1. Prep is a full-time program in primary schools. Children attend Monday to Friday from 9am-3pm. Children must be 5 by 30 June in the year they enrol. You can check your child's eligibility for Prep on the Queensland Government's prep ready reckoner website.
Curriculum
The curriculum in the Prep year is based on the Australian Curriculum and the Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (PDF, 2.6MB). Both guiding documents enable our young students to:
- take on responsibilities
- become more independent
- respect other people
- cooperate with others
- make sensible choices about their health and safety
- develop their physical skills
- develop their oral language
- develop their understanding of literacy and numeracy
- learn how to be thinkers and problem solvers
- use their imagination and creativity
- learn about their environment.
Specialist lessons
All Prep children participate in the following specialist lessons and school activities:
- Library
- Music
- Visual Arts
- Drama
- Physical Education including swimming in Term 4
- Fortnightly Parades
- ANZAC Day
- Remembrance Day
Prep information videos
Information videos to help you with Prep have been added to our website under the Pre Prep tab. Please take the time to look at these videos as they provide you with some excellent recommendations for starting school and being well prepared. There are videos from our very experienced Prep teachers, our principal, P&C, KOSCH and tuckshop.
Pre-prep visits
We also offer a Pre-prep opportunity for your child to come along and experience the prep environment first hand. Held in Term 4, your child will spend a morning in our Prep rooms with our Prep Teachers following a typical prep morning program. A school tour and a morning tea will be provided for attending parents. A notification for this event is sent to all of our feeder Kindergartens and Child Care Centres. Please refer to the letter below or under the Pre Prep tab for dates and more information.
Pre-Prep Parent Letter re Event for 2022
Special events: incursions and excursions
Prep children will participate in the following special events throughout the year:
- Easter Bonnet Parade
- School photos
- Prep Pantomime
- Prep Christmas concert
- Under 8s Day
- Mothers’ Day pampering
- Fathers’ Day celebration
- Art Gallery/ Library excursion
- Theatrical productions- Alpha Show & Nexus Art
- Railway Workshops Museum excursion
- Grandparents’ Day
- Junior Athletics Carnival
- Interhouse Cross Country Carnival
- Karalee’s Got Talent
- Life Education incursion
- PETPEP
Buddies
Prep students participate in our School Buddy Program with students in Year 6 and sometimes Year 5. The program utilizes the potential of students to support and befriend other students. Through a series of structured meetings and activity sessions the children share friendship, responsibilities, knowledge and trust. The program develops and improves student assertiveness, confidence and tolerance.
Preparation for Prep
Parents can do a great deal to assist with this transition process and to help a child be ready to learn at school. The following are suggestions of desirable skills and abilities to work towards, before your child begins school, that should help your child settle into school more easily and provide a solid foundation for future learning:
- Does your child know his/her first name? Can he/she recognise and write first name?
- Can your child say "excuse me" and confidently seek assistance or further information?
- Can your child go to the toilet independently? Rearrange clothing? Wash hands after using the toilet?
- Can your child dress independently? Turn clothing the right side out? Put on shoes and tie laces? Recognise his/her name on clothing?
- Is your child able to be responsible for his/her own belongings?
- Does your child go to bed early and get plenty of sleep? It is best to establish consistent early-to-bed routines long before school begins.
- Can your child distinguish between lunch and afternoon break food? Open own lunch box, unwrap food (especially things wrapped in glad wrap), put straws into poppers? (we highly recommend children practise eating lunch from their new lunchboxes several times at home, before school starts, so as to identify any potential difficulties that may arise.)
- Is your child encouraged to use correct English and discouraged from using "baby-talk"?
- Do you and your child share regular reading and story discussion times?
- Does your child have an alphabet chart that you regularly draw his/her attention to by singing or saying the alphabet while pointing to the letters?
- Has your child had plenty of practice at handling pencils/crayons etc?
You can assist your child to have an easier start to their school life by ensuring that every item the child brings to school is named and by keeping toys at home to avoid breakage or loss.