Next year, Pre-Prep will commence in 6 local government areas (LGAs), followed by an additional 12 LGAs in 2026.
Three-Year-Old Kindergarten enrolments at your service in 2025 will give an indication of what Pre-Prep could look like in 2026 and assist with your planning.
In 2026, Pre-Prep will be available across Victoria to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children from a refugee or asylum seeker background, and children who have had contact with Child Protection services – no matter where they are located in the state.
Currently, children from these cohorts are eligible for Early Start Kindergarten(opens in a new window) (ESK), which continues to provide 15 hours of kindergarten each week for 2 years before school.
As these children will then be eligible for Pre-Prep in 2026, ESK enrolments in 2025 may be a good indicator for services about how many children will be enrolling in Pre-Prep the following year.
While some services will have one or more children accessing Pre-Prep from 2026, this won’t be the case for all services.
How will services accommodate children eligible for Pre-Prep in 2026?
Services may find that the approaches they have already been using to accommodate children enrolled through ESK can also be applied for any children eligible for Pre-Prep in 2026.
Early Childhood Improvement Branches(opens in a new window) (ECIBs) are available to services needing tailored support to understand how they can accommodate children accessing Pre-Prep in 2026, even if they only expect to receive a small number of Pre-Prep enrolments.
For example, ECIBs can help you by using enrolment data to explore the various modelling options available that will best equip you to successfully deliver kindergarten programs for your children.
Will there be differences between Four-Year-Old Kindergarten and Pre-Prep?
When Four-Year-Old Kindergarten transitions to Pre-Prep from 2025, a lot will stay the same.
Programs will continue to be play-based and led by qualified teachers, as well as following the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework.
The most important difference is that the increase in hours will give children greater access to the benefits of early childhood learning, while teachers and educators will be able to provide deeper and more deliberate play experiences, helping children to embed their learning.
Over the course of the reforms, services may find that they enrol fewer children for more funded hours, meaning teachers and educators have more time to do assessment, planning, professional development and to engage with families and carers.
Find out more
For more information, refer to Pre-Prep(opens in a new window).
For further enquiries, contact the Change Management team by email: bsbl.change.management@education.vic.gov.au
Updated