Most prep students have at least one other fellow classmate in their year level to share the ups and downs of school life with.
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But not Abby.
Abby was the only prep student to start school at Mount Egerton Primary School this year and the only other solo prep pupil to start at any of the other schools in the Ballarat district was at Trawalla.
Last year at Mount Egerton Primary, one of the smallest in the region, there were two preps and in 2019 there were none.
But Abby wasn't the only fresh face in the playground when school resumed, with another four older pupils starting this term taking the total school enrolment to 15 - 50 per cent more than last year.
While Abby has an older sibling at the school, the other new students have moved in to the area.
Principal Tegan Bell said one of the benefits of such a small school was the "amazing" student to teacher ratio.
Ms Bell teaches full time with another part time teacher coming in three days a week, and with visits from another teacher who brings a mobile library and three education support staff there can be up to five adults in the class helping children.
"Our students have an individual learning plan which we discuss with parents and that has reading, writing and maths goals so everyone is on the same page with what the student is working toward and learning," she said.
Each student's work is targeted at their level so while they may tackle topics or exercises as a prep to grade three group, or grade four to six group, the pupils work to their own goals.
The small school also offers big opportunities for students to take on leadership roles.
This year one of the grade one students is a sports captain, along with grade four and five classmates and the school captain is grade five and vice captain from grade four.
IN OTHER NEWS
"There's lots of opportunities for them to do more things than just academic," Ms Bell said. "We work with a lot of small schools in the area, we group together to do swimming, excursions, camps, and other programs so our student's don't miss out."
A photograph of every one of the 118 prep classes from every school in the Ballarat region will feature in the much-anticipated annual Big Steps, Little Feet feature in the Ballarat Courier and online on Wednesday February 24.