Why Prep Is the Best Time to Start at St Michael's

Kirsten James has taught at St Michael's Grammar School for 31 years. She's been teaching in the Early Years for much of that time, and in Prep for the last 4 years, and she's still surprised by what she sees every year.

The question prospective families ask most often isn't about curriculum or facilities. It's simpler than that: will my child be okay?

It's the right question. And for Kirsten James, who has spent three decades watching children arrive in the Junior School and leave ready for everything that follows, the answer has never changed.

"We know that happy children learn, so our job at St Michael's is to make sure children feel happy, settled, confident, and supported. If we get that right, they will thrive."

Starting early matters, not because there's a race, but because the foundations built in these first years shape how a child approaches the challenges that follow. The way they take a risk. The way they sit with a hard problem. The way they feel about themselves as a learner. It's worth noting that VCE results at St Michael’s have often demonstrated the importance of starting early – with many of St Michael's top-performing Year 12 students having begun their journey here in the ELC or Junior School. 

At St Michael's, Prep is structured to build those foundations deliberately. The morning begins with a Morning Meeting, a moment to settle and connect. From there, children move into a structured literacy block that Kirsten describes as rigorous but never rigid. The school follows the Little Learners Love Literacy program, which delivers a clear phonics focus, paired with word investigation and guided reading in small, targeted groups. Early in Term Two, children who arrived unable to read or write are constructing full sentences with punctuation.

"I think families are just blown away with the progress that the children make."

St Michael's is a coeducational school, and Kirsten is direct about what that means for girls at this age. Girls do well here; all of them. The school is particularly skilled at drawing out the deep thinkers who might percolate an idea for a long time before they're ready to voice it, creating the conditions where that thinking can surface through discussion, Morning Meetings, and an environment where getting something wrong is treated as part of the process, not a failure .

"We talk about mistakes being great things for learning," Kirsten says. "Girls feel part of the learning, part of the process. We highlight what they're doing well."

Inquiry-based learning sits at the heart of the Prep program. Teachers don't hand over answers; they guide children toward working things out for themselves. Done well, it produces children who are curious, persistent, and genuinely excited to come to school. It's an approach that has earned St Michael's Junior School recognition at the Australian Education Awards — including as a Primary School of the Year Excellence Awardee and Innovative Learning Design Award recipient in 2024.

After 31 years, Kirsten still finds that remarkable.

"As Prep teachers, we're setting them up for the rest of their Junior School journey and for success and joy in learning. So, it's a big responsibility, but Prep is a pretty special place to be.”

Starting at St Michael's in Prep means starting in the right place, at the right time, with people who have spent their careers getting this right.