Goodstart Early Learning Willowdale

My daughter started at Goodstart Willowdale in the Nursery One room when she was just 4 months old, and I have nothing but praise for the amazing educators there. They exceeded my expectations by providing exceptional care and attention to my little one. The nurturing environment felt like a second home, and choosing this centre was truly one of the best decisions I’ve made. Knowing she was in such good hands gave me peace of mind and allowed me to focus on my work. I highly recommend Goodstart Willowdale and want to commend the team for their hard work, dedication, and genuine care.

Yesterday was my daughter’s last day at Good Start Willowdale, after being enrolled there for just 2.5 months. The centre itself is conveniently located just a 5-minute walk from our home. The management team has been friendly, responsive, and very accommodating throughout our time there. The facility is clean, well-organized, and has all the necessary amenities. Despite all these positives, we were sadly forced to withdraw our daughter solely due to our experience with one carer named Samreen. From the beginning, she came across as rude and loud in her communication. She repeatedly complained that our daughter was "too clingy"—which we found quite inappropriate given she is only 7 months old. We received almost daily phone calls just 1-2 hours after drop-off, asking us to come and pick up our daughter, even though we had paid for full-day care. We accommodated these requests patiently, hoping things would improve. However, matters worsened when we gently asked if she could try giving our daughter her milk before putting her to sleep, as it usually helps her settle. Instead of taking it as a suggestion, the conversation turned confrontational. What made us feel even more uncomfortable was when Samreen asked us, “Would you rather not be informed if your baby is unwell?” This question, and the tone in which it was asked, deeply unsettled us. It made us question her attitude and level of care for our daughter—who we had entrusted to her. We left the centre with disappointment, not in Good Start Willowdale as a whole—which truly has potential—but in the lack of warmth, patience, and understanding from this particular carer. We hope no other parent has to face a similar situation.

I recently enrolled my 7month old baby and after 3 days of attendance I withdrew his enrolment. From day one we did not have a good experience, first morning I attempted to drop off my son, only one carer to be seen sitting with another child who was crying, another child arrived prior to us and was also crying, no staff attempting to settle him or take him from his dad we waited 10mins with no one approaching me to take my son so I just left, I wish I didn't return but they called me and I stupidly ignored my gut and returned. First reflection about my son is that he clapped his hands that day, my son has not clapped at all, chatgpt wrote his reflection! After the second day the carer who I spent most of the time with regarding his routine etc was transferred to a different room so essentially wasted my time doing two orientations with her to smoothly transition my son into care, but that's ok because these things happen, I assumed there would be some sort of handover but there wasn't based on the level of care my son received on his third day. The carer that replaced her had no interest in listening to what my sons routine was which was incredibly frustrating considering she didn't even bother to feed my son breakfast, I found myself calling the centre multiple times because they had no idea about my son or when he ate, when he slept, the fact that he eats breakfast! Everytime I spoke to someone they would give me a different version of why my son wasn't fed breakfast, there was no communication within that room. I pick him up that afternoon and there is another child screaming in his ear, right next to him and at no point were staff attempting to comfort this other child, I was calling out to my son for a while and he could not hear me...how long was this child crying and screaming in my sons ear??? His face was so blank, my son is always happy and smiling and he just looked so blank, it literally broke my heart. I grab his water bottle and he has had no water?? Was this not offered to him ? I get home I change him and he is screaming as I take his nappy off which he never does , it was so full as though it hadn't been changed for hours, there was also a poop smear as though he had previously pooped but not cleaned properly! I ring the centre and they tell me my sons nappy was changed 45 mins prior and that he hadn't pooped all day! What?! How could he have even filled it that much considering he didn't even have any water. There is no way that nappy was changed only 45mins prior, my son was then left with a nappy rash for a couple days, he has not had one nappy rash since he's been born. Here's the real kicker, when I returned to withdraw my son's enrolment I attempted to give feedback to the Director and she really wasn't interested. I should have trusted my gut from day one and not wasted time I needed to settle my son into care before returning to work, I feel like I was misled during my tour and orientation with the level of care my son would receive versus the level of care he did receive. I also feel like they try to tell you what you want to hear versus what is really happening during the day, they told me my son was happy all day, yet he had what looked like dry tears around his eyes. To say I am angry and heartbroken at the lack of care my son received at this centre is an understatement. It was already so hard for me to find the courage to enrol him and entrust strangers with his care and this is what our experience was, it really hit me afterwards that my son was just another number to this centre.