The Top 3 Childcare Centres in Ringwood East, VIC (3135)

Knaith Road, a community centre with 50 places, is run by an incorporated association of parents and local residents, with the City of Maroondah as sponsor. Families are invited to join the association but do not have to, and anyone may join the waitlist. Children are enrolled from six weeks until school, and it opens 7am to 6pm, 50 weeks a year.

Its May 2023 assessment placed four areas beyond Meeting: educational program and practice, staffing arrangements, relationships with children, and collaborative partnerships with families and communities. That followed an Exceeding result in April 2018 under the same association, so this is a sustained record rather than a single good year. Governance and leadership, above the standard in 2018, came back at Meeting.

Four rooms keep groups small, with eight children in each of the two youngest rooms, and the babies have their own sleep room and outdoor area. The play-based program uses shaded natural yards, kinder children learn AUSLAN on Tuesdays and take part in The Resilience Project, and centre chefs cook a four-week seasonal menu. The site credits a low staff turnover.

Funded kindergarten runs for 15 hours weekly in each of the two kinder years, taught by an early childhood teacher inside care hours at no extra cost. The register gives $178.50 a day across every band, up 5% since February, and lists only two inclusions for the full day; the hourly entry lists meals, and the centre says they are provided, so check the full-day list before comparing.

This is the only Exceeding long day care service in Ringwood East, and the result was earned twice by the same parent-run association, which settles first place on its own. Its Google score of 4.1 from 13 reviews is modest. Its fee sits between the other two at any age, and meals are likely covered despite the register entry. Starting Blocks showed general availability across our check week, without naming rooms, so confirm the days and age group you need.

Kids Academy took over the Grey Street service in March 2023. It is operated by Affinity Education Group, which manages 237 services, and the centre was first approved in December 2020 under an earlier provider. Both of its ratings, Meeting in October 2023 and again in February 2026, were earned under the current operator.

With 117 places for children aged six weeks to five, it dwarfs 50-place Knaith Road. The group runs its own Lifelong Learning Curriculum, kinder children have weekly Sports 4 Kinders sessions, and the yard has a veggie patch and worm farm, with food scraps donated to a pig. The centre also hosts a community pantry and wardrobe for local families.

Both conditions on the approval govern the yard: fence safety, the national playground standard and natural features. The register does not say when they were attached, and no enforcement action appears against the service. The kinder on offer is described as government-approved, with no mention of funding.

It opens 6:30am to 6:30pm, and casual days and permanent spots were open on every weekday, from the baby room to preschool, in the week we looked. The fee is a flat $189.20, up 5.79% since January, with a single inclusion on the register. A tour is required before enrolment, and new families can get 30% off for four weeks after staying two months.

Kids Academy is second because it holds Meeting and the centre behind it holds Working Towards; a level apart on the national standard, the regulator's view decides. It is the dearest of the three for babies and preschoolers alike, and the most open: twelve hours a day, babies from six weeks, and openings all week. It also has the weakest Google record of the three, 3.4 across 18 reviews, so read them and ask about staff stability on your tour.

This small family-owned centre on Mount Dandenong Road takes no more than 37 children a day across three rooms: babies up to two, toddlers aged two, and kinder for children of three to five. Doors open at 6:30am; they shut at 6pm on weekdays.

Read its rating plainly. In August 2026 the regulator rated it Working Towards, one level below Meeting, because governance and leadership did not meet the standard; the other six areas did. The Meeting result it held from June 2023 was earned by earlier owners, who handed over in April 2024, so the August assessment is the first look at the people running it now.

Its $145.00 daily rate, the same for every age, undercuts both other ranked centres in every band, and Starting Blocks shows seven inclusions: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, other meals, the educational program and excursions or incursions. Nappies are not listed. The fee has risen from $125 in November 2023. A Rhythm and Moves music session runs weekly, and the centre lists incursions from the fire brigade, police, a dentist and a chick-hatching program.

Its site describes government funding for kinder covering 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. Starting Blocks shows no vacancy grid, and parts of the centre's website are still placeholder text, so ring (03) 9879 6442 for current details rather than relying on the site.

Ringwood East Childcare & Kindergarten is on this page because the suburb has few long day care options, not because it matches the two above. Its August 2026 Working Towards rating is a lower level, and the shortfall is in governance and leadership, the area covering how a centre is run. Against that, it is $33.50 a day cheaper than Knaith Road and $44.20 cheaper than Kids Academy, gaps that are the same in all four bands, and carries a 4.6 from 12 reviews. Ask the owners what they are changing.