What is Prep?

Queensland's Preparatory Year gives all young Queenslanders the very best start to school by helping them make a smooth transition to Year 1 and sets them on the path to lifelong learning.

Prep is not compulsory and early childhood education and care providers continue to offer programs for children not enrolled in a Prep class.

Prep is 5 days a week and children stay all day. Children must be 5 by 30 June in the year they start Prep.
Students in Prep classes follow the Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (EYCG) published by the Queensland Studies Authority.

It is designed around a framework of six factors that have been shown to influence students' school readiness and future success at school:
  • social and emotional competence
  • health and physical wellbeing
  • language development and communication
  • early mathematical understandings
  • active learning processes, with a focus on thinking, investigating, and imagining and responding
  • positive dispositions to learning.