Narre Warren South Childcare: the Top 3 for 2026

Twinklekids runs a 70-place service on The Avenue, one of five centres its operator runs across the south-east and Gippsland. Its website lists nursery, toddler, pre-kinder and kinder programs but does not state an age range, so ask where the youngest room starts if you are enrolling an infant. The centre traded under a different name for years under this same approval, which is why older directory entries still carry the previous branding.

The October 2023 assessment placed it above the standard in five of the seven areas: children's health and safety, physical environment, staffing arrangements, collaborative partnerships, and governance and leadership. Read that alongside the timing. The service approval transferred to its current operator on 4 May 2026, so no assessment has yet looked at the team now in place. The regulator visited in August 2026 without issuing a new rating.

At $151.00 a day for every age band, it is the lowest fee of the three, and the register lists eight items inside that rate: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, other meals, nappies, the educational program and excursions or incursions. It keeps a 6:30am to 6:30pm day. The register publishes no vacancy grid for this service and asks families to ring, and the contact number it lists is a mobile.

Twinklekids leads on price. Its Exceeding rating sits a month from Busy Bees' at the same level, so the rating does not separate them, and the fee does: $151.00 a day with eight listed inclusions against $172.80 with seven. Busy Bees has more approved places on paper, but that figure also covers its before and after school and holiday programs, so we do not compare it. The caution to weigh is that this centre's rating was issued before its May 2026 change of operator, and its Google base is small at eight reviews.

This service sits on Cranbourne Road, on the boundary between Narre Warren South and its parent suburb, and runs nursery, toddler and kindergarten rooms alongside before and after school care and vacation care. Its 102 approved places cover all of those programs together. It is part of a national group of more than a hundred services; the building carried a different brand until a few years ago, but the approval, the address and the rating history belong to the same service.

Its September 2023 assessment returned Exceeding overall, with children's health and safety, staffing arrangements, collaborative partnerships and governance and leadership above the standard and the other three areas at Meeting. The current approval holder took the service over in September 2021, two years before that assessment, so the result describes the operation a family would be enrolling into today.

The daily rate runs from $172.80 for the youngest room down to $170.70 from 36 months, and seven items sit inside it: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, other meals, nappies and transport. Transport is the one item neither other ranked centre lists. Casual places showed Monday to Friday when the register was read in the week of 19 October 2026.

Busy Bees is second because its rating ties Twinklekids' and its fee is higher, $172.80 against $151.00, with one fewer listed inclusion. It sits above the third-placed centre on the rating alone, Exceeding against Meeting. Its strengths are a rating earned under the current operator, transport inside the fee and open casual places; its 102 places are not counted as a long day care advantage because they include school-age care.

Community Kids runs this 114-place centre on Elida Crescent, and its own page describes long day care and kindergarten for children aged six weeks to six years, with nursery rooms from six weeks. The trading name says Narre Warren, but the register and Google Maps both place it in Narre Warren South, which is why it ranks on this page.

Its June 2026 assessment rated it Meeting in all seven areas, a step down from the Exceeding rating it held from December 2022. The same operator has run the centre since November 2017, so both results describe the same management. The regulator last visited in May 2026; there are no conditions on the approval and no enforcement actions in the past two years.

The fee is $164.20 a day at every age, with eight inclusions on the register. The centre's own page says a long-standing chef prepares breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a late snack, and that nappies and wipes are provided. It lists a government-approved kindergarten, including a 3-year-old program; confirm funded hours directly. Casual places showed Monday to Friday in the week of 19 October 2026.

Community Kids takes third from a group of three Meeting-rated centres assessed within a year of each other. Fees come out level against both Amberly Park and Goodstart Pound Road, and capacity decides: 114 approved places against 58 and 90. Weigh the downgrade: this centre held Exceeding from December 2022 until its June 2026 reassessment. On Google it has 4.6 from 70 reviews.