Every
child, known.

A family-run kindergarten in St Kilda, run by Hilton and Julia. Thirty years here. Fifteen with us.

Book a tour Read our story
Children playing in the Kinderclub sandpit beneath a handmade teepee

Kinderclub is a family-run early learning and kindergarten centre in a beautiful converted house on Crimea Street, St Kilda. The centre has been here for over thirty years. Hilton and Julia took on its management in mid-2011, bringing more than two decades of early childhood experience with them. Kinderclub is licensed for a maximum of forty-five children: small on purpose, because that is how every child gets known. We are not a chain, and we never plan to be. There is one Kinderclub, and that is the point.

Why families choose Kinderclub

Four things we do differently.

i.

Educators who know your child

Every room at Kinderclub has a qualified Early Childhood Teacher in it, every day. More than half our room staff are Diploma trained, and every adult in the building is up to date with First Aid, Anaphylaxis and Asthma. Our educators bring different teaching approaches with them, and that variety is deliberate, because no two children learn the same way. We have small enough numbers to actually notice your child.

ii.

A natural place to play

Our outdoor environment is spacious, green, and real. No fake grass, no plastic substitutes for the world. Children dig, climb, build with sticks and stones, and spend real time outside. We use natural resources creatively because we believe imagination grows faster in a world that hasn't been pre-decided for it.

iii.

Food cooked here, every day

Kinderclub has its own chef, and every meal your child eats is cooked in our kitchen from fresh ingredients. We think about food the way we think about everything else at Kinderclub: as part of how children grow, not a service that happens around the edges of the day. Meals are nutritious and rich in flavour, made from quality ingredients.

iv.

Thirty years here. Fifteen with us.

Kinderclub has been running in this converted house in St Kilda for over thirty years. Hilton and Julia took on its management in mid-2011 and have cared for it ever since, bringing the funded Kindergarten program with them, alongside more than twenty years of experience in early childhood education. When you choose Kinderclub, you are choosing a place that has been here for a generation and intends to be here for the next one.

About Kinderclub

Thirty years in St Kilda. Fifteen with us.

Kinderclub Childcare has been running continuously for over thirty years in a beautiful converted house on Crimea Street, St Kilda. It has watched the suburb change around it, welcomed the children of children it once cared for, and stayed exactly where it is: small, considered, and rooted in this corner of Melbourne.

In the middle of 2011, Hilton and Julia took on Kinderclub's management. They brought with them more than twenty years of experience in early childhood education, and a belief that what this centre already had (its scale, its history, its relationships) was worth protecting and building on, not replacing. With their arrival, Kinderclub introduced a funded Kindergarten program and implemented the Victorian Early Years and Development Framework alongside the Early Years Learning & Development Framework, meeting the new National Quality Standards.

By the time Belonging, Being and Becoming was formally introduced as the national framework, we were already practising and mentoring others in its methods. That isn't a credential we put on the wall. It's just how we have always worked.

Fifteen years on, the same family still cares for Kinderclub. We are licensed for a maximum of forty-five children, which is small by industry standards and entirely deliberate. Our promise to the families who walk through our gate is simple: the people who answer the phone, walk the rooms, and know your child by name are the same people who have always done so.

A child's hand at work, focused, unhurried
What we believe

Every child, known.

That is the line we come back to. It is shorter than a philosophy, and longer than a slogan, and it shapes everything we do.

Children learn by being noticed.

Our educators are trained to be responsive to each child's interests, questions, and pace. The qualified Early Childhood Teacher in every room is not there to deliver a curriculum at children. They are there to watch, listen, and shape learning around what each child is ready for.

Play happens in the real world.

We chose a centre with a spacious, natural outdoor space because children deserve room to move, climb, dig, and discover. There is no fake grass at Kinderclub. The garden is alive, and so are the materials we use inside.

Families are partners, not customers.

We invite every family enrolled at Kinderclub to be part of our community: to see, hear, and feel what their child's day is made of, and to communicate with our educators on the same terms our educators communicate with each other. Our annual workshop for parents is part of this. So are our partnerships with allied health professionals, for the families who need that kind of support alongside ours.

A centre is its people.

Our educators stay. The family that cares for Kinderclub has been here for fifteen years. More than half our room staff are Diploma trained, and every adult in our building is up to date with First Aid, Anaphylaxis and Asthma, and is here because they want to be, not because it's the closest job to home.

Our program

How we teach, how we feed, how we play.

A day at Kinderclub is structured enough that children feel safe, and open enough that they can lead their own learning. The Early Childhood Teacher in each room shapes the program around the children in front of them, so it is never the same twice, and that is the point.

Our rooms

[6 weeks – 18 months]

Nursery

Our youngest children are cared for in a calm, soft space designed around routines, sleep, and one-to-one connection. Educators here are trained to support attachment and early communication, and ratios are kept low so that babies are held, watched, and known.

[18 months – 3 years]

Toddler

Toddlers explore the world with their hands, their feet, and their curiosity. Our toddler room is set up for movement, sensory play, and the messy, glorious business of figuring out how things work. Educators follow each child's interests and extend them with materials, conversation, and time.

[3 & 4-year-old kinder]

Kinder

Our 3- and 4-year-old kinder runs as one combined program, so children move into kinder among friends and educators they already know, and stay there through both years. Kinderclub is an Integrated Funded Kindergarten, a program we introduced in 2011 and have run ever since. The four-year-old funded kinder year happens here, with a qualified Early Childhood Teacher, as part of your child's normal day. There is no second drop-off, no separate kinder, and no break in the relationships your child has built. Discussions grow out of the children's own real-life events. It is hands-on learning, and no two days are the same.

A natural environment

The garden is actually a garden.

Our outdoor space is spacious, green, and built for real play. There is no fake grass at Kinderclub. We use natural resources (wood, stone, water, sand, plants) because they invite imagination in a way plastic equipment never can. Children dig in real dirt, climb on real logs, and spend a meaningful part of every day outside. They plant seeds, grow vegetables, compost, and learn sustainable practices as part of everyday play.

This isn't a design choice. It is a learning choice. Children who play in nature develop differently (physically, cognitively, and emotionally), and we have built our centre around that belief.

Children mixing soil in the Kinderclub garden, hands and natural materials at the centre of play
Food, cooked here

Every meal, made in our kitchen.

Kinderclub has an in-house chef. Every meal your child eats (morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea) is cooked here, from fresh ingredients, every day. We do not heat up trays from a central kitchen. We do not cut corners on what children eat.

We treat food the way we treat learning: as something children deserve to have done properly. Our menu is nutritionally balanced, varied, and designed to introduce children to the kinds of food we hope they'll grow up loving.

Children cook alongside their educators too, kneading, measuring, tasting, so the kitchen isn't somewhere food comes from. It's somewhere they belong.

A child's hands measuring ingredients alongside an educator. Food made here, every day
Beyond the centre

The world is the curriculum.

Children at Kinderclub learn out in the world. We take excursions to the zoo, St Kilda beach, local parks, and community spaces, because what children see and touch in real life stays with them in a way classroom learning alone cannot match. Excursions are a regular part of children's learning, not an occasional extra. They are part of how we believe early learning should work.

We also build everyday connections with our local community, and with First Nations culture, as part of how children come to understand the place they live in.

We also work with allied health professionals (speech, occupational therapy, early intervention) so that families who need support can access it without leaving the centre they trust.

Children walking together on a Kinderclub excursion, exploring the world beyond the gate
For families

Everything you need to know before, during, and after your child starts.

Getting started

1. Book a tour. The best way to know Kinderclub is to walk through the gate. Tours run throughout the week. We'll show you the rooms, the garden, the kitchen, and introduce you to the educators your child would be with.

2. Submit an enrolment form. If Kinderclub feels right, we'll send you the enrolment paperwork and explain what's involved.

3. Settle in. Before your child's first full day, we run orientation visits so they can meet their educators and explore the room with you alongside them. We don't believe in cold starts.

A typical day

Most days at Kinderclub start with a calm welcome and a short settling-in period. Children find their friends, their educators, and the activities laid out for them. Morning tea is followed by focused indoor or outdoor experiences shaped around what each room is exploring that week.

Lunch is cooked and served from our kitchen. The afternoon brings rest for those who need it and quieter learning for those who don't, before parents return at the end of the day. Every day is shaped by the children in it.

Once a year

Our parent workshop

Once a year, we run a workshop for the parents of Kinderclub families. It is part professional development, part conversation, part community. We bring in speakers (educators, child psychologists, allied health professionals) to talk about whatever the parents in our community are thinking about that year. It is one of the ways we work in partnership with families, not just for them.

What our families say

Three families. Three reasons.

"

Our daughter started at Kinderclub when she was nine months old, and what struck us almost immediately was that her educators didn't just learn her routine. They learned her. The way she liked to be held when she was tired, the songs that calmed her, the foods she'd reject one week and inhale the next. By the time she moved into the toddler room, the educators in the new room already knew her, because that's how Kinderclub works. You're not handed off. You're handed forward.

Hannah parent of Mia, Toddler Room
"

We've had two children at Kinderclub now. Our son Eli finished his kinder year here three years ago, and our daughter Frankie is in the toddler room. The thing that surprised us, walking back through the gate the second time around, was that almost everyone was still there. The educators. The chef. The family who runs it. After the noise of looking at bigger centres for Eli originally, what we kept coming back to was how rare it is to find a place that's small enough to actually stay the same.

David parent of Eli and Frankie, Toddler Room
"

I tour a lot of childcare centres for work, and Kinderclub is the only one where I've watched children eat their lunch with genuine pleasure. The food is real, cooked that morning, in their kitchen, by someone who clearly cares about it. The garden is real too. There's no fake grass, no plastic playground in primary colours. My son Theo comes home with dirt under his fingernails and stories about whatever he's been digging up that week, and that's exactly what I wanted for him.

Priya parent of Theo, Kinder

Frequently asked questions

What hours is Kinderclub open?

Kinderclub is open Monday to Friday, 7.30am – 6.00pm. We are closed on weekends and public holidays.

What ages do you cater for?

6 months to school age.

Do you offer kindergarten?

Yes. Our 3- and 4-year-old kinder runs as one combined program. Kinderclub is an Integrated Funded Kindergarten (a program we introduced in 2011), meaning the four-year-old kinder year happens inside the centre, taught by a qualified Early Childhood Teacher, as part of your child's normal day.

Is there a waiting list?

Our availability is not static. Places open up at different times across our rooms throughout the year, and the picture changes month to month. The most useful thing is to contact us directly about your child's age, preferred start date, and the days you're hoping for. We'll give you an honest read on current availability and what we expect to be opening up in the months ahead.

Do you provide meals?

Yes. All meals (morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea) are cooked in our kitchen by our in-house chef.

Do you provide nappies, wipes, or sunscreen?

We do not supply nappies, but we do provide sunscreen and wipes. Parents/guardians can supply their own if they wish to.

What happens if my child has additional needs?

We work in partnership with allied health professionals and have long-standing experience supporting children with a range of additional needs. The best way to talk through your child's situation is on a tour or a call.

Come and meet us

The best way to know Kinderclub is to walk through the gate.

Fill in the form below and we'll be in touch within one working day to confirm a tour time. Tours take about thirty minutes. You'll see the rooms, the garden, the kitchen, and meet some of the educators your child would be with. Bring your child if you'd like; many parents do.

Thank you.

We'll be in touch within one working day to confirm a tour time. Looking forward to meeting you.

Find us 35 Crimea Street
St Kilda VIC 3182
Call us 03 9510 3833
Email us info@kinderclub.com.au
Hours Mon – Fri, 7.30am – 6.00pm