Four-Year-Old Kindergarten is becoming Pre-Prep

About Pre-Prep

From 2025, Four-Year-Old Kindergarten will gradually transition to Pre-Prep, with programs across Victoria increasing from 15 to 30 hours each week.

Led by qualified teachers, Pre-Prep will give 4-year-old children greater opportunities to socialise and learn through play. Pre-Prep will be delivered through standalone (sessional) kindergartens and long day care centres.

By 2036, all children across Victoria will have access to 1,800 hours of funded kindergarten before school, including 600 hours of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten and 1,200 hours of Pre-Prep.

Both Pre-Prep and Three-Year-Old Kinder are part of the Free Kinder program. 

Why hours are increasing for 4-year-olds

Increasing the hours of play-based learning in the year before school gives children even greater access to the many benefits of early childhood education.

More hours of learning through play each week can increase children’s early literacy and numeracy, and self-regulation skills.

Teachers and educators will be able to provide deeper and more deliberate play experiences, which will give children opportunities to embed their learning. 

Roll-out schedule

Pre-Prep will start in 6 local government areas (LGAs) in 2025, and gradually roll out across the state. 

New LGAs will be added to the roll-out each year. The staged schedule allows time to grow the necessary workforce and build the infrastructure, and for services to prepare for expanded programs.

Find your local government area.

Maximum hours of Four-Year-Old Kindergarten and Pre-Prep per week

Pre-Prep roll-out for LGAs (DOCX - 188KB)

Cost of Pre-Prep

Pre-Prep, like Four-Year-Old Kinder, will be free for children at participating kindergarten services across Victoria.

Free Kinder will be available in Pre-Prep, similar to Four-Year-Old Kindergarten. There will be no charge for children who attend standalone (sessional) kindergartens and families who enrol their children at long day care centres will receive a fee offset.

In 2024, Free Kinder will benefit up to 140,000 children and save families up to $2,563 each year, per child, helping more than 28,000 parents return to work.

To find kindergarten programs in your area, use our find a kinder program interactive map.

Find out more about Free Kinder.

Benefits for children

A child who has attended two years of a quality kindergarten program will, on average:

• have better cognitive, social and emotional skills when they start school (including better development in language, pre-reading, early number concepts, non-verbal reasoning, independence, concentration and social skills)
• have higher exam scores at 16, including better grades in English and maths
• have more developed social and emotional outcomes at age 16
• be more likely to take more final year exams and to go on to higher academic study.

(Reference: Sammons, P., Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Siraj, I., Taggart, B., Toth, K. & Smees, R. (2014). Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education Project, Department for Education, United Kingdom)

Benefits for Victoria

Evidence shows that investment in early childhood education has significant social and economic benefits.

For every $1 invested in early childhood education, Australia receives $2 back over a child's life - through higher productivity and earning capacity, and reduced government spending on health, welfare and crime.

(Reference: A Smart Investment for a Smarter Australia, PricewaterhouseCoopers & The Front Project)

In addition, independent analysis from Deloitte shows that Best Start, Best Life will deliver significant economic benefits, boosting Victoria’s workforce and increasing the state’s real gross state product (GSP). By 2061-62, the reforms are expected to deliver an average real GSP increase of between $4.8 billion and $7.9 billion, with up to 72,500 additional full-time equivalent staff per year.