Joey's House Early Education Centre

This centre is riding on it’s old reputation. The director we had last year was lovely and cared a lot but she changed roles 2022. We liked a couple of the staff who were thoughtful and engaged, mostly everyone was looking miserable either sitting in one place and not interacting with children or only talking among themselves. There was rarely any meaningful updates as to our child’s day beyond, “ he had a good day.” I’m an Early Childhood Teacher myself and often would walk in to pick up my son and see many behaviours that were left unattended that required teacher guidance. His behaviour also went backwards at home. It’s clear something is happening from the top down and that the staff are over it and have nothing left. The setting itself is a lovely place for children but it was always set up exactly the same every day with no change or rarely with provocatives for deep thinking, wondering, investigating. Again, that’s not going to be driven for staff who are uncared for. I write about this now as I can see the reviews are still 5 star and reflect the stellar past reputation. It is not what it once was. Joeys came highly recommended from a number of families whose children attended 10-15 years ago. I have recently spoken to a family who attend the sister service, St Agnes, and they say that both St Agnes and Joey’s have had to shut rooms for 2 weeks at a time, dropping service for the children in that room for that period while staff rotate between rooms because they are so short staffed. The parish is going to have to look seriously into their wages and bring them WELL above award to meet professional living wages as well as the conditions for staff. Something is not working and the this is to the negative affect of the children that attend there. We moved our son to 2 days and moved him as soon as he had places starting 2022 elsewhere. I hope they can fix these issues and return to their former excellent service for early childhood as it is just as important, than primary and high school Education.