Serrell St kinder will close at the end of the year

Irate parents from the kinder are demanding answers after Serrell St kinder announced it will be closing its doors despite fundraising efforts.

Serrell St kinder will close at the end of the year, leaving up to 50 devastated families in the lurch.

Serrell St kinder will close at the end of the year, leaving up to 50 devastated families in the lurch.

Irate parents from the kinder are demanding answers about what’s happening to the fundraising money they’ve raised, and say local kinders are full, leaving them without similar care for their children.

The kinder, located in Malvern East, is run by the Uniting Church and had been under review for the past 18 months.

With preschool services increasingly moving to childcare centres and primary schools, such single-use services that offer working parents limited hours are increasingly under threat.

The centre’s seven staff were told on Monday that the centre’s low enrolment numbers made it unviable.

Serrell St kinder will close at the end of the year.

A source from the centre said families were “shocked, disappointed and frustrated”.

“That’s how the staff are feeling as well,” she said.

“The review was going on so long but we only had an inkling something was going on three weeks ago.”

Families have been guaranteed a funded kinder place by the Department of Education.

However, there is a dire shortage of places at sessional stand-alone kindergartens rather than kinder programs offered in childcare centres.

“It’s not what the families would like,” the source said.

The Herald Sun has asked the department and Uniting for comment.