Preparing for Prep

In the year before starting at school:

• Talk about school in a cheerful manner, read books and watch the story time videos and other Essex Heights videos below.
• Encourage your child to ask questions about going to school. What do they want to know? How are they feeling?
• Help your child stay healthy. Talk to them about the healthy food they eat. Make sure they have regular health and dental checks and keep immunisations up to date.
• Encourage your child to do things on their own. These include dressing (including doing up zippers and buttons, and putting jumpers, shoes and socks on), going to the toilet, washing their hands, using a pair of scissors, unwrapping their food and opening and closing their drink bottle and lunchbox.
• Parents/guardians attend a school tour in Term 1 or 2 and the first Information Evening in the year prior to your child commencing at primary school. 
• Child enrolled for Prep at EHPS should attend the School Transition Program.
  

We offer four Prep classes at EHPS each year (about 80 students). Parents/guardians interested in enrolment at EHPS are encouraged to attend a school tour in the year prior to entry (March to May recommended); a tour is recommended, but not compulsory. An information pack, including enrolment forms, will be provided at the conclusion of a school tour, or can be collected from our School Office from the beginning of March.

Enrolment documentation is lodged in the year prior to entry. For consideration in the first round of placement offers, we welcome lodgement of documentation by the last Wednesday in May from all families interested in enrolling their child at EHPS. These families are advised in writing regarding placement in June by the end of Term 2. After May, please contact our Office to discuss placement. 

There will be two Information Evenings for families enrolling

their child in Prep. The first session is for all families interested in enrolment at EHPS. This is about getting ready for school, emotional wellbeing, learning and development and the programs we offer at Essex Heights. The second session held in November is for parents of enrolled students who will commence in the next school year, and is about what to expect in the first few days of school, what the children will need to bring to school, and a day in the life of a Prep student.

CLICK HERE for presentation slides from the Information Evening held on Tuesday 3 May 2022.

Prep Transition Program

Children must be five years of age by 30 April of the year they start to be eligible for enrolment in a Victorian government school. A child must be at school in the year that they turn six years of age (the compulsory school starting age).

Starting primary school is a special milestone in your child's life. It is an exciting time for your family transitioning from kinder to the primary school setting.

At the beginning of their Prep year, students attend their School Entry Assessment (one hour interview between the child and their classroom teacher) during the first week of Term 1. Their first day at school in week 2 starts at a nominated time between 9am and 10am and finishes at 1.30pm. Depending on the date of the first day of Term 1, Prep students attend school for about a week from 8.50am to 2.30pm. They usually commence fulltime (8.50am to 3.30pm) in week 3 of Term 1.

Our comprehensive School Transition Program is offered for our incoming Prep students and their families. 

The School Transition Program for children offered a Prep placement occurs during Terms 3 and 4.

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Details about our School Transition Program for children commencing Prep in 2023

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A Parent Session will be held concurrent to the children's Transition 1 session. All  parents/guardians are welcome to hear our First Aid Officer discuss health matters. This is also a great opportunity to meet other families with a child starting in Prep.