When can your child start Prep?
Prep is available to all children who turn 5 years old by the 30th June in the year they start Prep. View the Department of Education's prep ready reckoner calculator to determine when your child can commence their preparatory year. If your child is able to start prep and you wish to enrol at Benowa State School, please read through our enrolment process and download an application form from our
Enrolling at Our School page.
Supporting your child in their successful transition to school
We value the contributions you have made to your child's development since birth, as well as the decisions around their early learning opportunities. We very much look forward to working with you, as we all know how important the readiness of the child for school, the school for the child, and your capacity as parents is, to their development.
Benowa State School offers a number of opportunities for future children and their families to be a part of the school community, recognising that the more confident a child is about their surroundings, the more scope they have for learning and social development. The following are some of those opportunities that are offered each year:
Prep Information Sessions
A number of sessions, including an evening session, are held to provide parents with information about Prep and school for children of this age at our school. Parents are provided the opportunity to view the Prep environments and to have their questions answered.
Each year we utilise an online platform to continue to engage with families enrolling with us, covering a number of topics, and again providing families with the ability to ask questions. If you are confident as a parent, your child will sense this, and is more likely to transition positively and with reduced anxiety into the new environment.
Registrations for our Prep Information Sessions are essential. Registrations are open now, please click or tap here to register through our online booking system (SOBS) for the next Information Session.
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Find out everything you need to know about starting Prep at our Prep Information Session.
If your child is starting Prep in 2025, join us on 16 May.
Please click or tap here to register
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Upcoming Information Sessions:
16 May 9:30am or 6:00pm
29 August 9:30am
Prep Enrolment Interviews
All enrolling families are invited to meet with the Deputy Principal, Early Years. These are carried out during Terms 2 and 3. This is an opportunity to meet and share information specifically about your child.
Koala Joeys Playgroup
Each Wednesday from 9:15am – 10:45am, families are invited to accompany their children aged from 0 (birth) to 5 years (pre-prep) to Koala Joeys; our very own playgroup facilitated by our trained staff.
Koala Joeys is located within Benowa State School and we provide a range of organised activities based on the Early Years Learning Framework and is the ideal program to familiarise your children with the school environment prior to their commencement of Prep. Please
visit our Koala Joeys page for more information on the program, and the benefits of regularly attending.
The Benowa Bunyips Program
This Program is a series of five sessions run by our staff in Term 4 for children enrolled in the Prep Program for the following year. It comprises of:
- activities suitable for this age,
- a visit to each of the prep classrooms and
- visits to many of the shared spaces the children will be a part of the following year, including playgrounds and the iCentre (library).
Please contact our Enrolment Officer, Jill Sabell on +61 (0) 7 5510 4382 or email:
enrolments@benowass.eq.edu.au for more information on any of these exciting activities.
We look forward to being a part of your child's education when you enrol with us.
Are you within our Catchment Area?
A school catchment area is the local area that surrounds a school. Your local state school is the school which is closest to your home. A map of the local area surrounding the school defines the catchment area and a state school's core intake of students must live within the catchment area of that school. Catchment areas ensure every Queensland student from Prep to Year 12 is able to enrol at their local state school.
You can still apply for enrolment at Benowa State School if you are out of the catchment area, however enrolment is not guaranteed.
For more information on our Catchment Area and to find out whether you live in the Benowa State School catchment, please click through to our Catchment Area page.