The Top 3 Childcare Centres in Box Hill North, VIC (3129)

At 582-584 Elgar Road, this 108-place service is one of 75 run by the Montessori Academy group. The group markets it as its Box Hill centre, and Google lists it as Box Hill Montessori Academy Child Care Centre, but the address and the register both place it in Box Hill North, and it has held the same approval since September 2020.

Inside are six Montessori classrooms and three separate outdoor playgrounds, organised into an infant program to two years, a toddler program to age three, then a kindergarten and preschool program from three to six. The curriculum pairs Montessori materials with the national Early Years Learning Framework and adds a school readiness program in the final year. The centre says meals are provided fresh and daily.

The March 2026 assessment returned Meeting in all seven areas once more, matching its October 2022 result under the same operator. Two outdoor conditions sit on the approval: one about keeping objects away from fences and meeting the Australian playground standard, the other requiring natural elements in the yards. Both are terms the regulator attaches across many unrelated services, and the register shows no enforcement action.

Starting Blocks shows $183.50 a day for the two youngest bands and $179.50 from 25 months, but its inclusions box reads None. The centre's own page says the fee covers meals, snacks, nappies and wipes and that Victorian kinder funding is included, so put that question to the centre in writing. Hours are 7:30am to 6:00pm, 51 weeks a year, and casual and permanent places were open every weekday in the week of 19 October.

Montessori Academy edges Guardian on cost in every age band and on how much it publishes about its rooms and yards, while Guardian keeps a longer day. With those pulling in opposite directions, review depth settled it: both score 4.6, Montessori on 75 reviews to Guardian's 58. The catch is the register's empty inclusions list, which makes its rate hard to compare until the centre confirms what is covered. A 7:30am opening will not suit every commuter.

Approved in February 2024, this Station Street centre is one of 178 services run by Guardian Early Learning. With 122 approved places it is the largest service on this page, and it is still building a track record: the January 2026 result is the first it has received.

Children move through four rooms: a nursery (six weeks to 18 months), a toddler room to two and a half, and two preschool rooms covering two and a half to three and a half and then three and a half to six. The group's own programs run throughout, including its To BE Me learning approach, a Nutrition for Life menu and Flying Start, a funded kindergarten program that spans two years for children aged 3 to 5.

Its first assessment, in January 2026, came back Meeting on all seven, and an officer called again in September 2026. A single outdoor condition sits on the approval, playground and fence wording that also appears on many other services' approvals. Guardian's site says families can draw up to 15 hours a week of Victoria's Free Kindergarten funding here.

The daily rate is $190.68 in every age band, and Starting Blocks lists six items inside it: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, nappies and the educational program. Guardian's own page goes further and says excursions are included too. The real constraint is space: no casual or permanent places were showing on any day of the week we checked.

Guardian shares the longest day of the three with Mary's Little Lambs, 6:30am to 6:30pm, and has the most places. Against Montessori Academy it costs $7.18 more under 25 months and $11.18 more from 25 months; against Mary's Little Lambs it is $22.68 dearer at every age, though it confirms funded kinder and Mary's does not. Both pairings split on our middle criteria, so Google reviews decided. Mary's Little Lambs carries the higher headline score, 5.0 from 19 reviews, while Guardian shows 4.6 from 58; because our method weights the number of reviews behind a score, Guardian ranks above it. Join the waitlist early, because nothing was free when we looked.

Mary's Little Lambs is a 50-place centre at 27 Medway Street. Its own website and Google Maps entry give a Box Hill address, while the national register records Box Hill North, and on a split like that the register decides the page here. It takes children from birth to five.

The record has two chapters. A previous operator held the approval in May 2022, when the assessment came back Working Towards with five areas below the standard. The current provider took over on 27 July 2024, and the July 2025 assessment, the first under that provider, returned Meeting across every area. Its latest inspection was in September 2026, with no conditions or enforcement action on record.

At $168.00 a day for all ages it costs the least of the three, and Starting Blocks lists eight inclusions: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, other meals, nappies, the educational program and excursions or incursions. That is a fuller list than either centre above it, and it costs $15.50 a day less than Montessori Academy under 25 months, $11.50 less in Montessori's 25-months-plus band, and $22.68 less than Guardian at every age.

Doors open from 6:30am to 6:30pm on weekdays. Two things are not published: its kindergarten funding, which its website does not mention, and vacancies, which Starting Blocks asks families to request directly. Ring (03) 9898 6974 for both before you plan around it.

On price and inclusions, Mary's Little Lambs beats both centres above it at all ages, and it keeps a twelve-hour day. It sits third because its ties with Montessori Academy and Guardian came out mixed on our middle three tests, and reviews then decided: its 5.0 rests on 19 reviews, against 75 and 58. Its one assessment under the current owner is a clean Meeting. Ask about funded kinder hours before relying on them.