Gentle, one-to-one help with letters and sounds, counting and early writing for Prep children, built on a short, playful Skills Check and taught by tutors who know how Victorian Prep classrooms work.
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If you are looking for a Prep tutor, this page explains what Prep actually involves in Victorian schools, where students most often get stuck, what we teach, how sessions run for children aged 5 and 6, what it costs and how to start. RHZ Tutoring is a small local centre at 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029, rated 5.0 on Google, tutoring in person and online across Melbourne's west and Australia-wide.
Prep (Foundation in the Australian Curriculum) is the year a child learns how school works: sitting, listening, following a routine, and the first formal steps in reading and number. The Victorian Curriculum for Foundation expects a child to leave the year able to hear and say the sounds in simple words, to know most letter-sound matches, to read and write a small set of high-frequency words, to count to twenty and beyond, to subitise small groups, to compare and sort objects, and to name simple shapes. None of it is difficult for an adult; all of it is new for a five-year-old, and the pace varies enormously across a class.
The reason families come to us in Prep is rarely that a child is failing. It is that a teacher has mentioned, kindly, that the child is a little behind with letter sounds, or is still counting one by one when others are recognising groups, or that Victorian government schools' English Online Interview and Mathematics Online Interview at the start of the year showed a gap. In Prep those gaps are small and close quickly with the right ten minutes a day; left alone, they become the Year 1 and Year 2 reading gaps that are much harder to fix.
Start the free Prep Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Prep maths is about quantity before it is about symbols. A child needs to count reliably (one number per object, in order, knowing the last number is the total), to see three or four objects and know how many without counting, to compare more and fewer, to make and continue simple patterns, and to sort and name shapes. Our tutors use counters, cards, dice and games rather than worksheets, because the concept has to be physical before it is written.
More on the Prep maths tutoring page.
Prep English is phonics and oral language. The Victorian Curriculum expects Prep children to learn the common letter-sound matches, to blend sounds into simple words and segment words into sounds, to recognise a small set of high-frequency words, to hold a pencil and form letters, and to write their name and simple sentences with help. Our Prep tutors teach systematic phonics in the order most Victorian schools now use, hear the child read every session, and build a few minutes of writing into every hour.
More on the Prep English tutoring page.
Prep science in the Victorian Curriculum is about noticing: living and non-living things, what living things need, the weather and the seasons, what objects are made of and how they move. We do not run separate Prep science sessions; where a family wants it, a tutor folds a short observation or sorting activity into the maths or English hour, mainly to build the vocabulary and the habit of describing what you see.
These are the topics our Prep tutors cover, by year level, drawn from the curriculum-aligned question banks that power the free Skills Check.
Prep sessions are one-to-one, forty-five minutes to an hour, and broken into five- to ten-minute segments: a phonics game, reading a decodable book together, counting with objects, a short writing task, a story. The tutor sits beside the child, not across a desk. Nothing is timed and nothing is graded; the tutor is watching for which sounds and which number ideas are secure and which need another go. You get a short note after each session and a two-minute activity to repeat at home.
For Prep we recommend one-to-one, in person at our Truganina centre. Small groups work well from about Year 3, but a five-year-old learns to read by reading aloud to an adult who is listening, and that does not happen in a group or, for most Prep children, over a screen. Online is possible for a confident child with a parent sitting beside them, and we will say honestly whether we think it will work.
For Prep we recommend one-to-one at $35 an hour; small groups (from $25 an hour) are available from Year 3. Across all year levels, small groups are from $25 an hour and one-to-one is $35 to $45 an hour, with VCE at the top of the range. Plans are monthly, you choose how many sessions a week, and you can cancel any time. The Skills Check and the consultation are free. Online and in-person sessions cost the same.
Here is a typical week for a Prep student doing two subjects with us. Most families run one session a week per subject; two a week is worth it in the term before NAPLAN, a scholarship or selective test, or the VCE exams.
Before or alongside tutoring, your child can try our free online practice quizzes for Prep, built from the same curriculum-aligned question banks as the Skills Check. They are short, marked instantly, and a good way to see which topics need work.
Not if there is a specific reason: a teacher's comment, an Online Interview result, or a child who is anxious about reading. Prep tutoring is short, playful and one-to-one, and it is the cheapest year to close a gap. If the Skills Check shows the child is on track we will say so and suggest waiting.
A short set of questions a parent reads aloud with the child, covering letter sounds, simple words, counting, comparing and shapes. It takes about ten minutes and a tutor talks it through with you for free. It is pitched at the end-of-Prep standard so we can see what is already secure.
Yes. Victorian schools have moved to systematic synthetic phonics, and our tutors teach the sounds in a compatible order and use the same language (sounds, blending, segmenting) so the child hears one consistent message.
Forty-five minutes to an hour, in short segments with movement in between. A full hour is fine for most children by Term 2; for a younger or tired child we keep it to forty-five minutes.
Yes, and for Prep we recommend it. A typical hour has phonics and reading in the first half and counting and number in the second, with a story or a game to finish.
One-to-one is $35 an hour at the primary rate. The Skills Check and the consultation are free, plans are monthly and there is no lock-in.
Start the free Prep Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Prep by subject: Prep Maths tutoring · Prep English tutoring
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RHZ Tutoring · 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029 · 03 9509 3293 · info@rhztutoring.com.au · Prices