Starting Prep

Your child is about to begin an exciting new chapter of their lives. Primary school will provide them with many exciting challenges and opportunities for which they are ready, within a structured, safe and secure environment.

All children enter school with varying degrees of experience and levels of maturity. Many of them have already been exposed to school-based activities at home or at pre-school; others have not. It is important that parents avoid comparisons in the early stages and allow their children to develop at their own pace. You need to be patient at times.

The transition from preschool to a more structured school setting is challenging for many children so please be aware of this in the first six-week period when the teacher is setting clear boundaries. Look for signs that may indicate that your child is having difficulty adjusting and discuss this with their teacher. Be guided by their advice in how you can best assist your child during this period of change.

This is an exciting and sometimes daunting time for you as a parent and we look forward to welcoming you as an active member of our school community. There are many ways for you to be involved in your child’s education, and in our experience, children do best at school when their parents take an active interest in what they are learning and doing.

The Preparatory Year or ‘Prep’ is about preparing children for formal schooling. Research has identified the following indicators of preparedness for school which we aim to develop:

• Social and emotional competence with a focus on social learning and independence
• Health and physical well-being, particularly in making healthy choices and gross and fine motor development
• Language development and communication focusing on oral language and early literacy
• Early mathematical understandings with an emphasis on early numeracy
• Active learning processes with a focus on thinking, investigating, imagining and responding; and
• A positive orientation to learning.