The Top 3 Childcare Centres in Templestowe, VIC (3106)

First Steps, a family-owned service on Smiths Road with 120 approved places, is the largest of the three. Approval came in March 2023; its first rating, Meeting in every quality area, followed in July 2025. Its website gives no enrolment age range; ask when your child could start.

The program leans outdoors and practical: a Nature Kinder program at Aloha Gardens Reserve, a garden-to-plate program feeding the cooking sessions, phonics, ELLA language for kinder children, mindfulness and yoga, and an art studio. The site also describes plans to bring older people from an aged care home in the area together with the children.

The centre says teachers with early childhood qualifications lead its funded kinder for three and four year olds. Its pages disagree on room numbers, calling it six rooms on one page and seven on another.

The day rate is $158.00 at any age, a 17.04% rise from $135 in April 2025. Starting Blocks lists nine inclusions: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, other meals, nappies, excursions, the educational program and transport, the last of which the centre never describes. It publishes no vacancy information there.

First Steps tied both rivals on rating date, Little Lambs at twelve months and Leading Bees at one. In each case it won on cost and inclusions: $24 cheaper per day than Little Lambs for one extra item, and only $13 more than Leading Bees for a nine-item list against none. Be clear that parents rate it lower: 3.8 from 13 Google reviews, against 5.0 from 12 for Little Lambs and 4.3 from 35 for Leading Bees. Ask about that on a tour.

Little Lambs, at 1 Niland Rise, has 52 approved places. Granted approval in January 2025, it now holds the newest rating among Templestowe's six long day care services, a July 2026 Meeting result in all seven areas.

It opens 6:30am to 6:30pm on weekdays. The website listed for it on Starting Blocks did not load when we checked, so its program, starting ages and any funded kinder stayed unread. Ask the centre about all three directly.

Little Lambs charges $182.00 a day at all ages, with eight inclusions recorded: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, other meals, nappies, excursions and the educational program. That is up 4.00% from $175 in April 2025.

Starting Blocks gives no vacancy details. No conditions, enforcement actions or provider changes appear in its records. Its Google listing, at the same address, holds 5.0 from 12 reviews.

Little Lambs has the freshest assessment of any long day care service in Templestowe, but First Steps' July 2025 result sits exactly twelve months earlier, which our method treats as a tie. On cost, Little Lambs is $24 a day dearer with one fewer inclusion, and its unreachable website left its program unread. Its 5.0 Google score is a real strength. Call to ask about kinder and starting ages before you shortlist it.

Leading Bees runs Montessori rooms at 14 Aloha Gardens with 60 approved places: an infant community for six weeks to two years, a toddler group for twos, and a kindergarten stream taking children from age 3 until 6. Classrooms are equipped with specialised Montessori materials.

Alongside the Montessori work there is yoga, music and dance, and a Happy Feet music and movement incursion. The operator's funded kinder page says funding offsets fees for eligible three and four year olds in the long day care kindergarten program, though Templestowe is not mentioned by name.

June 2025 brought the centre's first rating, Meeting throughout. On 19 May 2026 the regulator issued it a compliance notice, the one enforcement action Starting Blocks records for it in the last two years; the record gives the type and date but not the detail, so ask the centre what it covered and what has changed. Its approval itself is unconditional.

The $145.00 day rate, lowest among the three, fell slightly from $147. no inclusions appear on Starting Blocks, and the centre asks families to pack nappies, wipes and nappy cream; its routine names the day's meals but also mentions children unwrapping lunch. Starting Blocks shows a mobile number; Google and the centre's site use (03) 9008 7277.

Leading Bees and First Steps were assessed a month apart, so they tied on rating, and First Steps won on what its fee includes. Little Lambs' rating is 13 months newer, which settles that pair outright. With 4.3 from 35, Leading Bees has more Google reviews than either rival, yet volume played no part in its place. The May 2026 compliance notice is disclosed rather than disqualifying: raise it when you visit.