Alfred Child Care Centre

11 Alfred Lane
MELBOURNE VIC 3004
Get directions
  • Monday to Friday 6:30am - 6:00pm
Babies Toddlers Preschoolers

Our Program and Approach

At our centre childhood is celebrated. When they play and explore, children's imagination and curiosity is sparked – they enjoy learning, and are inspired to continue learning more.

At Alfred Child Care Centre, we implement the Australian-approved curriculum, the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF). Play-based learning is the foundation of our curriculum and revolves around the children’s interests and educators’ close observations and assessment of their development. Play is interwoven with intentional teaching and provides a context for learning. Our educators work in genuine partnership with children to actively promote learning through challenging experiences and interactions that foster high-level thinking skills.

Our curriculum is inclusive of all children. We recognise that children bring their diverse experiences, perspectives, expectations, knowledge and skills to the centre. We value and build on children’s strengths, interests, abilities and cultural traditions, while using strategies such as modelling, asking open ended questions, speculating, explaining and engaging in shared thinking and problem solving, to extend the children’s learning and thinking.

We aim to establish immediate rapport and a sense of belonging in our community, as families arrive through the front door.

We greatly value the strong relationships between our staff, children and families, and we look forward to the opportunity of including your family in the life of our centre.


We Focus On

In addition to the high quality well-rounded programs we offer, all KU centres are also encouraged to develop an area of focus.

At Alfred Child Care Centre, we focus on Collaborative Partnerships with Families and the Community.

We incorporate our focus on parent participation through parent story times, afternoon teas, celebrating unique festivals, support gardening, the creative arts and excursions. We believe strong partnerships with families support children to develop trust and confidence within the learning environment, enabling the children to develop and grow.

Our kindergarten program is rich in the creative arts, as we believe that this supports children’s early literacy and offers children a medium of expression to voice their understanding of the world around them. Our pen pal program with a preschool in New Zealand and an orphanage in Nepal supports the children to develop an understanding of children from diverse backgrounds and life experiences.

We feel that the children benefit from this focus, because it enhances their awareness of different cultures and enables them to develop positive relationships.


Our Quality

Our centre has been independently assessed by the Department of Education Training Victoria under the National Quality Standard, and are proud to be rated as 'Meeting' the National Quality Standard.

However what matters most is what our families think...

“Thank you for the care and nurture over many years and for the wonderful memories. Our children are the happy, curious and confident children they are thanks to the considerable time they spent at the centre.” - Alfred Child Care Centre Parent

“The centre provides a caring, loving and safe surrounding while nurturing my children and providing an environment that has enhanced their development, allowing them to explore and learn through play.” - Alfred Child Care Centre Parent

Our Environment

Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within relationships and interactions between children and staff, and children and their families, not within four walls. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting, homelike learning environments for children – whatever our setting.

Our environment is a caring space, that is safe, stimulating and rich in natural resources, which creates a homely and welcoming atmosphere. Our environment gives children opportunities to explore, investigate, enquire and problem-solve. It is a space that encourages and engages children to create social groups, test out ideas, challenge each other’s thinking and build new understanding.

Our playground is our outdoor learning environment and includes natural elements such as sand, water, leaves and twigs and kitchen gardens. Wherever possible we avoid using lots of fixed, plastic equipment in our playground. Instead we provide an ever-changing array of challenging and interesting activities and equipment, explored by children and educators together. These activities help with the development of children’s gross motor skills, enhancing their overall health and wellbeing as they discover their strengths and abilities and feel inspired to create, imagine and play.


Our Reconciliation Action Plan

KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At Alfred Child Care Centre, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and were proud to launch it in 2019. Please view it here.


Our Awards

In 2020, Maria Lobos Matta of Alfred Child Care Centre was awarded the 'Making the KU Difference for Communities' Award.

The Making the KU Difference Awards were introduced a number of years ago, as a way of acknowledging KU staff who have made a significant contribution to KU. These annual awards are open to all KU staff, at any level (either individual staff or a team), who have worked above and beyond their normal duties.


Other Features

Child Care Subsidy
Cooked Meal
Designed Centre
Extended Hours
Hat and Sunscreen
Lunch
Transition to School
Public Transport
Play-based Learning
Parking
Outdoor Play
Award
Storypark
Education for Sustainability

photo of Yoon-Hee Cha

Yoon-Hee Cha

Director

Yoon-Hee is a university qualified early childhood teacher with almost 20 years’ experience working with children and babies. She has been working at Alfred Child Care Centre since March 2018. Yoon-Hee is very passionate about early childhood education and is driven towards delivering high quality care and education to children and families, as well as providing a positive, fun working environment for all staff.

Yoon-Hee has been nominated for a 2020 Making the KU Difference Award. This nomination recognises the significant impact her contribution has on the lives of children, families and the local community.

Our Team

Our team of early childhood educators are qualified, experienced, caring and highly motivated. All hold specialist qualifications in early childhood education. We believe that the positive interactions children have with our staff are the most important component of our high quality program.

We pride ourselves on our very low turnover of staff, which enables us to form trusting relationships with children and their families, providing a sense of consistency, predictability, safety and trust. A number of our staff have been working at the centre for over six years.

The daily fees for 2024 at Alfred Child Care Centre are:

  • Infants: $176
  • Toddlers: $176
  • Preschoolers: $172.50

This is the full daily fee. If you are entitled to Child Care Subsidy, this will reduce the daily fee you are charged.

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, KU has remained very proudly a not-for-profit provider of quality education for more than 125 years. In the past, KU has taken great pride in offering the very best services with minimal increased fees wherever possible. However this year is different, escalating operating costs have meant that in 2024 we are forced to increase fees at a higher rate than we would normally.

The fee increase will ensure we can continue to improve the quality of our services and invest in our highly skilled teachers and educators. We recognise our staff are the heart of KU as they build strong nurturing relationships with children and families whilst continuing to provide a high-quality learning program. These are vital factors that contribute to what is most important to us all – the best outcomes for children.

Overall, KU services hold the highest ratings across the National Quality Standard, with 82% of our services either Excellent or Exceeding, compared to the sector benchmark of 45%.

KU does not distribute our profits to shareholders or send them offshore.

About Child Care Subsidy

Child Care Subsidy is the main payment to assist families with the costs of childcare. It is paid directly to the childcare provider and passed onto families as a fee reduction wherever families meet the criteria. The level of subsidy you receive, as well as the number of hours you will be subsidised, depends on your individual family’s circumstances.

If you do not already have one, you will need a MyGov account linked to Centrelink to claim any subsidy you may be eligible for, and to find out more information, please contact Centrelink on 136 150 or visit www.dese.gov.au.

Victorian Kindergarten Funding

Our Victorian long day care services offer an integrated kindergarten program funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training. If you have a child aged 3 or 4 years, you may elect to use your kindergarten funding at our service. Further information can be provided by the Service Director.

From 2024, the Victorian Government will be providing Free Kinder funding, based on $2,050 for a 15-hour program per eligible 3 and 4 year old child attending a kindergarten program within a long day care service. This funding is applied as a weekly credit to the gap fee after CCS has been applied or to full fees where a family does not receive CCS. The Free Kinder payment will not impact CCS entitlements.

Free Kinder funding is for children who are 3 and 4 years old in the two years before attending formal schooling and can only be accessed in one service. This could either be in a sessional kindergarten or long day care service. If you have a child who may be eligible, please discuss this with your Service Director.

The Victorian Department of Education and Training requires parents to sign the declaration form at the time of enrolment. Your eligibility for Free Kinder funding is conditional upon signing this form.