Ballara Park Kindergarten

My oldest boy attended this Kindy for 2022. We have mixed reviews both pro's and con's. I will begin with the pro's. Overall I believe my child did enjoy the experience and he did make friends. The centre does have some good messy play areas outdoor, and they do encourage it. Which is great. The aspect that let it down drastically for us is, is the communication. Upon pick up time, there was almost no updates on what he had been doing through the day. Only a couple times he had actually done some art or craft. So I think they just let him free roam all day, this is fine for childcare. But my thinking was there was some more structure as they transition to school. I won't go into the academic side of things. The main gripe my wife and I had was a particular teacher has very poor at communication and HR with parents. All we ever heard regarding our son was complaints, criticism or being subtly blamed for mistakes we may have made as parents. This was NOT just our experience. Two other families with boys, shared the exact same feedback. Boys have excess "energy" and play differently to their counterparts. Rough and Tumble play is quite common behaviour, and there's many articles on its benefits, especially for boys. We believe the kindy didn't handle the boys behaviour with understanding, but rather a disciplinary approach. This was quite demoralising for my boy, as he was pulled away from play and segregated and considered "naughty." Far from his original intentions. I hope not to bring a negative light to this wonderful local kindy. But really hope the staff can gain a deeper understanding from this. The rating is more like 3.5 stars. 😅