View Full Version : The new prep year
How does everyone feel about this? I personally cant stand the idea of it:( Millar will be eligible to go in 2009 and he will be 4.5 (his birthday is 23rd June). IMO and for our family that is too little to be away from home in a school environment 5 days a week. It doesnt feel right to me. I heard that you dont HAVE to send them to prep but if you do,it HAS to be the year they are eligible, does anyone know if that is true?
If you can send them a year late, then I guess that is what we will do. If not, we may homescool for prep? Not sure yet. WHat was wrong with preschool??? It was 2.5 days a week and just lovely. I personally wish they could do 2.5 days until year 5 or so!
How do others feel about it?
Not about the prep year in particular, but I was 4.5 when I started kindy (in NSW, and my bday is 18th June) My mother had to fight for me to start, the public school didn't want to know me but the Catholic school took me on. I know it's a personal choice and each child is different, but at 4.5 I wasn't too young for "big school"...and I'd been going to preschool 3 days a week for 6 months before that.
Yup, every child is different. I just wish we had more choice yk? It will suit some people.
I was 4.5 when I started year 1:eek: I wish I had been held back as I was only 16 when I finished year 12. I dont think being younger did me any favours.
I would just rather my kids be at home just a little longer, I dont see what the rush is.
Ffrenchie - I can understand your fears.
Prep is taking over the preschool program. So it's non-compulsary however if you want to send them it does have to be that year.
I'm not sure on what the take is on older entries... i think with the new age system they're wiping that out maybe?
What really gives me the pip is that (hopefully) Nugget will be eligable for prep the year AFTER she turns 5.. so she'll be one of the oldies in her class and all through school.
I know it sounds shallow but it means I'll have to have her in childcare for another year as well... she'll be going to school with me and I'd prefer that. I hope that by that age they have some systems in place to allow early entry. :)
You can maybe send Millar to an independantly run Preschool instead
:)
I don't see what the rush is either. Some kids need more mental stimulation than they're getting at home, so big school is great for them. But some kids need that extra time at home to get used to the idea of the big bad world.
Ah yes, an independantly run one...thats a good idea. Its just a shame that the public ones will be gone:( Tobys preschool was lovely.
It seems crazy....A friend of mine's little boy will be 3 in August and Millar will be 2 in June. They are worlds apart, and they are going to be in the same grade.
Do you reckon there wil be aloophole to allow them to go a year late? surely...
I'll ask at work. At the moment I know you HAVE to stick to the age guidelines.. previously you could send them the next year if they were born late in the year or been 'kept down' in preschool.
I don't know what'll be happening now...
MrsMiggins
18-03-2006, 16:39
I moved to QLD from NSW 3 years ago & having been schooled in the ACT & overseas, I have to admit I am thoroughly confused about school years in QLD!!
What I am familiar with & what makes sense to me, is that there is Pre-School which is a half day thing for children who turn 4 years of age in that school year (I'm not exactly sure of the birthday cut-off points), then the following year, they go to Kindergarten, which is full-time the same as primary school. Then you go into year 1 etc. How does the prep year fit into school here?! I know that kindy & pre-school are around the other way or some such..? :confused:
The Prep Year ads on TV just totally did my head in, given that I don't really know how school here works in the first place!
I'm not completely stupid, I just haven't ever really looked into it. I didn't even know that school here was differently set out until the topic came up at work where we have a lot of NSW ex-pats.
Fiona - for the rest of this year it is..
Pre age of 5 - Kindy/creche/child care
Year turning 5 - Preschool - half day or half week program.
Year turning 6 - Year 1, normal school.
etc.
Year turning 13 - Year 8 highschool until year turning 17.
As of next year...
Pre age of 5 - Kindy/creche/child care
then the fun begins...
the age cut offs are 30th of June. So basically you have to be 5 before the 30th of June that year to start Prep.
Then after Prep goes year 1. With year one (and so on) you have to be 6 before the 31st of June to start.
It confuses even us office ladies :)
LOL
From next year, there will be no more preschool (which was either 2.5 days or a 5 day fortnight and they went the year they turned 5) and instead there will be prep (which is fulltime 5 days a week.) You are eligible to go to prep the year you turn 5 BUT that year is from 1 JUly to 30 June while the actual school year is run from Feb - Dec:rolleyes:
Sooo, say it is January 2007..if your child turned 5 after June 2006 or before June 2007 they will be in prep in 2007...LOL does that make sense???
Kindergarten would be the year before that, I assume?:confused:
Argh, its confusing even to explain!! I might have it totally wrong and just confused you even more (and me.......)
LOL we posted at the same time Seekrit! You explained it better than me....except for one thing! JUNE has 30 days!:p
HAHAHA
Goes to show about MY public school education LOL
I kept on typing "July" which is where I got 31 from :p
LOL, yes something which has stuck with me from my wonderful schooling..."30 days have september, April, JUNE and November!!" :p
hahah
we make the kids recite that every morning LOL
Except we use the word "hath" :p :p :p
OK, while you're here....
From your experience in schools, Nikki...have you witnessed children who have gone straight to school without any daycare/preschool or anything? I am just wondering how they cope (not just academically, but emotionally..) - obviously every child will be different. I just wonder how Milar would go if we skipped the prepp year and went straight to year one. I assume he would be behind unless we homeschooled and got hold of a prep program.?
Thanks!:thumbsup:
LOL, I almost wrote "hath" but I wasnt sure if it was right or I was getting mixed up with my Bible:D lOL
Funkychicken
18-03-2006, 17:00
Wow the QLD education dept are harsh on starting times! In Vic, the cut off is April 30th and even then if you want to hold your child back a year you have that choice. If during the first two terms of kinder you feel your child won't be ready for school you can defer the rest of the kinder until the next year and do the 4 terms then. In the schooling system we are with the cutoff comes back to Oct 30th but is flexible within a month or so.
When I started school the VIC cut off was June 30th and as I was June 28th my mum sent me and although primary school was fun and enjoyable it was secondary school that it fell apart. I was too emotionally immature to keep up and grew to really dislike school. Those girls a bit older than me always managed to remind me of how 'young and immature' I was.
Hopefully your son will miss all that girly manipulation stuff.
I've only worked in the classrooms of small schools (like really small, 2 teacher schools) so it's a bit different than a big school.
The ones that join in from either no or limited childcare to the small school environment bloom just as well as those who do. I think preschool is used as a free childcare SOMETIMES these days.. so while those kids are great and well adjusted and ready to learn, those who aren't sent tend to come from homes with great moral values, so they too are quite well adjusted... IYKWIM :)
I was too emotionally immature to keep up and grew to really dislike school.
Me too, i definately think I would have done better and not gotten into so many bad things if I had been older.
I am pretty sure that here in QLD until this prep thing happened, you could hold your child back a year if you wanted to....there are kids in Tobys year 1 class who are 6.5.
Thanks for your reply!
Nikki, that was a great answer:thumbsup: That has made me feel much better! It really does all come back to home doesnt it?
it absolutely does!!! :) :)
it's amazing the kids that get sent home with reading homework... and are doing really well.. but come back after the holidays and have to go back a few levels.. why? "Oh, we wanted to give her a break over the holidays."
Break?! From READING?! it makes it a chore... something you need a break from..!
Funkychicken
18-03-2006, 17:27
Hey Katie,
I have just reread my post and realised what I wrote probably only served to make you feel worse! Sorry, didn't intend that.:o
LOL, no, not at all!!:thumbsup:
Thanks for your response, it was great:D
sopolicha
18-03-2006, 17:35
I think the prep year is way too much, especialy for kids that haven't been in daycare or anything like that before.
A lot of the people I know whose kids go to prep have the odd day off here and there to catch up on some rest.
My DD does the 5 day fortnight at pre-school and on the three day week she is completey fagged out.
I think they will be left behind in friendships etc if they don't do it.
jarrahsmumma
18-03-2006, 17:36
I think preschool is used as a free childcare SOMETIMES these days..
I wasn't going to say this for fear of having my head bitten off:D , but I can see that some people would look at it this way. In fact I KNOW of people personally that think along these lines...:(
A lot of the people I know whose kids go to prep have the odd day off here and there to catch up on some rest.
I can totally see that happening. My 6 year old is completely wiped out by Friday....although I would have to chain him down to stop him from going to school:laughing: (he loves it) - I can just imagine what my little 4.5 year old would be like:( Aww, little Millar, I dont think I could bear it:(
I wasn't going to say this for fear of having my head bitten off:D , but I can see that some people would look at it this way. In fact I KNOW of people personally that think along these lines...:(
I think sometimes it is a need.. for those working mums and dads and the cost of childcare...
I know I whinge about having to pay for another year of childcare for Nuggs, I'd love it if she could go to prep a year early... but that IS also because Mummy will be working there and so it's less day care and more "come to work with mummy" care :p
Yeah, I'm trying to justify being one of 'those' people, aren't I? :P
Funkychicken
18-03-2006, 18:15
OK Katie, This may not help you feel better either-so don't read on!
Our school has a four day a week policy for prep. Mon,Tues, Thurs & Fri.
In class 1 they get to finish at 1pm on Wednesdays.
jarrahsmumma
18-03-2006, 18:16
I hear what you are saying Seekrit, and that is cool. The particular people I am thinking of are the ones who don't work, use up all their allowed hours of daycare and then have their children in kindy a couple of days a week for more 'time off'.:thumbsdown: I think the cost of childcare for *working* parents STINKS! So I see how it may have it's benefits for those people.
I am actually really sad to see preschool go. I think a 5 day fortnight or 3 days a week was a nice balance following 2 days of kindy and I think it gave adequate school preparation. I can remember reading somewhere (don't remember where though) that the educational outcomes were not vastly different in Queensland compared to other States. So the old system must have worked ok if what I read was true.
I really believe getting rid of preschool is a bad move. I would not of minded prep being introduced with the retention of preschool. However if it did happen, then it should of been a mixture of play based and some introduction of formal education. This was never going to happen due to the cost and all the extra infrastructure that would of been required. Although, the kids will be 6 months older, 5 days a week is a pretty big load for 4-5 yos. My daughter is currently shattered after 2 days of kindy.
She is eligible for prep next year so we will send her as I want her to have the best education possible and home schooling is not my thing. However, if necessary I will give her a day off every now and again just to let her rest if she is tired.
Easterlily - as far as I'm aware, Prep is playbased learning with only a small bit of formal classing.
The main difference is that it's in a normal classroom (which can be smaller than a preschool) and 5 days a week...
that's how we've been told to do it at least.
MrsMiggins
18-03-2006, 21:45
:confused: :eek: Now I'm even more confused!! Oh - you ladies all explained it brilliantly! I'm just tired! I should really get off this bloody computer & get a decent night's sleep, come back again tomorrow & try reading it again! :D
I'm just glad that I have 4 .... or 4 and a half.... or 5..... whatever! years still to mull it over!
I think I do actually understand the general gist of it (DD would be 6.5 starting first grade), although I don't know how I would feel about my DD having no choice but to start the grades the following year, being born in October. I guess we'll see what happens when it happens.
I was one of the younger kids in my year, as I did only 2 weeks of kindergarten (in the ACT this was the first full-time year of school started at age 5) then went to America, where they actually tested children to see what year level they should be entered into (this may have been only because we came from overseas...) I went into the same year as my older brother, so I was definitely one of the younger ones then!
When we came back to Australia, it was based wholly & soley on age, so I was dropped back a year again, was still one of the youngest & was bored out of my head at 8 years old! I'd done all this work already!
MrsMiggins
18-03-2006, 21:49
I didn't mean to hi-jack the thread with my own agenda! Sorry if I did!
I just really wanted to know what this prep year was all about & it made it a bit difficult not knowing how it fit in to how QLD schools are currently set out.
Thanks for the help everyone!
I think it is a bit much to ask of children so young to put in a full day, and a full week. If it is play-based though (as seekrit pointed out) and parents are allowed to pull them out for a break every now & then, it makes it a bit easier.
hehe we were talking about how tired the preppies would be and how they'd need a day off a fortnight/month/whenever to recover. Even some of our year ones need it! :D
DD1 is currently doing prep and her teachers are very understanding of what might be too much for the kids, and made sure to tell us all that letting them stay home for a day every now and then was perfectly OK, esp if they are getting a bit tired. Better to have them enjoying going to school but missing the odd day than being upset at school because they are too tired to cope.
Cheers
Thanks seekrit. I actually know that prep is primarily play based with some formal learning. I understand that for instance there will be more focus on number, letter recognition which is all fine. The five days at such a young age is the problem for me not really the prep concept.
I really am saying it would of been better to have an extra year like Kindergarten in NSW insteading of scrapping preschool but it wasn't going to happen due to the cost. Prep is just preschool rebadged not really an extra school year like the Government is trying to market it as. I think I am too tired I don't think I am making sense anymore, I am giving up for the night:D
Sorry easterlily! A bit of wires crossed I think! :D
No problem. Cross wires probably is the best way to explain the introduction of prep:D At our school it seems like they haven't even decided where to put the prep kids yet, the principal seems relaxed but I am freaking out:laughing:
tanni_83
22-03-2006, 23:45
easterlily --- just wondering where about you are to be teaching in such a small school that u only need 2 teachers?! :)
Sorrry tanni you must be confusing me with someone else as I am not a teacher. Just a SAHM with a lot of opinions:D
I think it was for me! I didn't answer earlier in case you'd said something taht I missed. :p
Anyway.. I did answer Tanni by PM.. because I'm being Seekrit n stuff ;)
Thanks Seekrit that makes more sense. I am thinking what did I say about a 2 teacher school:confused: Glad it is sorted:)
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