The Top 3 Childcare Centres in St Kilda, VIC (3182)

Bubup Nairm runs from Carlisle Street with 153 approved places, by far the largest service in St Kilda, and is operated by the City of Port Phillip. It takes children from birth through to preschool age and opens 7:30am to 6:15pm on weekdays, closing on public holidays and over the Christmas and New Year period.

Its March 2025 assessment returned Exceeding overall, with five of the seven quality areas above the standard — educational program and practice, children's health and safety, relationships with children, collaborative partnerships, and governance and leadership. Physical environment and staffing arrangements sit at Meeting. The March 2021 assessment before it also returned Exceeding, so this is a position held rather than newly reached.

From January 2026 this centre took on the children aged nought to three who had previously attended North St Kilda Children's Centre, which now runs as a four-year-old service only. If you were considering North St Kilda for a baby or toddler, this is the service that cohort moved into.

Its approval carries one condition: the provider must ensure objects are not placed where a child could climb over a barrier or fence, and that outdoor play equipment is maintained and positioned to meet the Australian Playground Standards, AS 4685. The same clause appears on ten services under ten unrelated providers. It sets a design and maintenance requirement rather than responding to an incident. A May 2026 regulatory visit found no enforcement actions across the preceding two years.

One data note: Starting Blocks publishes no opening hours for this service. The times above come from the City of Port Phillip, which runs it.

This is the clearest first place of any page in this guide, and it is worth being precise about why, because the obvious answer is wrong. Bubup Nairm is not first because it is the last Exceeding centre standing — it is first because it holds Exceeding across two assessments four years apart, at a scale nothing else here approaches, and because it is the service that absorbed the under-threes when the suburb's other Exceeding centre narrowed to four-year-olds. Five of seven quality areas above the standard is a real result, not a technicality. At $168.50 it sits between the two centres below on price, and its four inclusions cover every meal but not nappies or excursions, so budget for those. The honest reservations are scale and setting: 153 places is a large environment, which suits some children and not others, and a council service closes over Christmas and New Year in a way a private centre often does not. Neither is a quality question. If you want the best-assessed care in St Kilda that a child under four can actually attend, this is it, and there is no close second.

Headland Montessori operates from Alma Road with 60 approved places, opening 7:30am to 6:00pm on weekdays, and delivers a Montessori curriculum. Its December 2024 assessment returned Meeting across all seven quality areas, matching the June 2021 result before it. A February 2026 regulatory visit found no conditions on the service approval and no enforcement actions in the preceding two years.

At $142.00 a day it is the cheapest of the three ranked here by $26.50, and the cheapest long day care rate published anywhere in St Kilda. The register lists no inclusions against that rate — an empty field rather than a short list — so what the fee covers is genuinely unknown from the public record, and the saving cannot be compared with the centres above and below until the centre tells you.

Two things about this centre we were not able to confirm, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. The centre's own website could not be retrieved — it refuses automated requests — so everything above comes from the national register alone. Separately, a childcare directory lists the centre as taking children from 18 months rather than from birth. We have not been able to verify that with the centre, and the register does not record a minimum age either way. If your child is under 18 months, treat it as an open question and ask before you plan around a place here.

A note on the address, since search results disagree. The centre's own listing and two comparison sites place it in St Kilda East 3183; ACECQA and Starting Blocks both record it as St Kilda 3182. Alma Road runs along the boundary. We follow the register.

Second place here rests on price, and on the correction of an earlier error worth naming. This centre was originally ranked third on the basis that its zero-inclusions listing meant a family would buy meals on top, cancelling the saving. That reasoning was wrong: an empty register field records that the operator supplied nothing, not that the centre provides nothing, and treating it as a finding would penalise a centre for its paperwork. With that removed, $27.69 a day against Kinderclub is a real gap — roughly $5,500 across a four-day year — and four months of extra assessment recency at Kinderclub, both centres sitting at Meeting with no area above the standard, is far too thin to outweigh it. What holds this centre at second rather than first is the rating: Meeting against an Exceeding held across two assessments. And what should temper your reading of second place is how much we could not check. The centre's website blocks us, so we have the register and nothing else; the 18-month age floor is a directory's claim we could not confirm; and the fee's coverage is unknown. This is the ranking the available evidence supports, and there is less available evidence here than for any other centre on this page.

Kinderclub sits on Crimea Street with 45 approved places, the smallest service ranked here and barely a third the size of the centre ranked first. It is family-run, opens 7:30am to 6:00pm on weekdays, and takes children from birth through to preschool age. Despite describing itself as a kindergarten, it is a full-scope long day care service across every age band.

Its April 2025 assessment returned Meeting across all seven quality areas, four months newer than the centre above it and repeating the Meeting result from December 2022. There are no conditions on the approval. A February 2025 regulatory visit — now the oldest of the three — recorded no enforcement actions in the preceding two years.

Kinderclub loses second place on $27.69 a day and very little else. It is genuinely the newer assessment of the two Meeting-rated centres here, by four months, and unlike the centre above it tells you in writing what the money covers: lunch, both teas, education programs and excursions, with breakfast and nappies extra. That transparency has real value when the alternative publishes nothing. But four months between two centres that both sit at Meeting with no quality area above the standard is the weakest form of the recency criterion, and it does not carry a gap of roughly $5,500 a year. What might change your mind is size. At 45 places this is a small, family-run centre where a child is known by everyone, and some families will pay the difference for exactly that — Bubup Nairm holds 153, better than three times that. Its regulatory visit is also the oldest here, at February 2025, which is worth noting when the two above were seen in February and May 2026.