Agent TypeOrganisationActivities & OccupationsTeacher training institutionsHistoryThe Free Kindergarten Union was established in 1908 to unite all four free kindergartens then existing and to maintain a high standard of work. From its inception, the need for trained kindergarten teachers was deemed essential. 1916, John Smyth (Professor of Education) and Ellen Pye (State Education Department) developed a training course for the the FKU. In 1917 the Union was granted registration by the Council of Public Instruction as a training centre for kindergarten teachers. In 1922 as enrolments increased, the Union moved its premises to the property known as Mooroolbeek in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. Mooroolbeek opened as the Kindergarten Training College in March 1922. Autonomy was granted to the Kindergarten Training College by the FKU in 1964 and it became the Melbourne Kindergarten Teachers' College.
In later years the former FKU became the Free Kindergarten Association of Victoria and then FKA Children's Services.
See also 'The Free Kindergarten Union of Victorian 1908-1980' by Lyndsay Gardiner.
Free Kindergarten Union Of Victoria (1908-). University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 10/03/2026, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/61236
![[1986.0153] Records of the Free Kindergarten Union Of Victoria](/img/placeholder.gif?1768336552 "[1986.0153] Records of the Free Kindergarten Union Of Victoria")