Kindalin Early Childhood Learning Centre - Castle Hill

Really fun, informative school. Not too much discipline but enough to keep kids in line

My child really enjoys attending Kindalin. They offer a variety of activities, and the staffs are wonderful. Even on weekends, my child still wants to go to Kindalin. The team is excellent.

I'm urging all parents to think twice before sending their kids to this place. They are very professional in taming babies, not helping them settle at daycare. When I say taming babies I mean that they treat babies like animals. It has taken me a while to be able to put this story into words. I would say I still have not made peace with it. When I spoke to them about it, they made it sound like it was very psychologically accepted, but I urge all parents to read my story and make their own judgement. My 20-month-old started at this place in July 2023. At the orientation day they told me they have a pram that they use to soothe babies with. I told them right then and there that "my baby doesn't like a pram even on her best day. But it's okay for you to try it. But if she doesn't like it, move on to another strategy to help soothe her. Like try to distract her with toys and games". So what they ended up doing was to leave my baby in the pram for 5 hours that day. I kept calling them but they gave me convoluted descriptions of her situation. So each time that I called they would say "she was upset. But now she's okay". "We rock her a little and she becomes okay again" and things like that. But when I saw my baby I realized she was traumatized. She wasn't upset nor happy to see me. She was actually afraid of expressing her emotions. I unbuckled her and tried talking to her. I kept on saying "my love, why won't you go and play in the sandpit? Why won't you go and play with these toys or why won't you eat the yummy food?" Of course she couldn't reply. She's only 20 months old. I took her home and I was just thinking that this is a transition period where she needs to get used to being separated from us. And yes it would be distressing. But when I thought further about her situation when I picked her up and when I tried to reply on behalf of her to my own questions I realized that she couldn't go play in the sandpit if she wanted to. Because she was buckled and stuck in the pram the whole day, she even had cried herself to sleep and slept in the pram for 2 hours. She was in the pram when she fell asleep. She stayed in the pram while sleeping and she woke up in the pram and was still buckled in the pram after she woke up. Next thing I did, I terminated her enrollment here. Because I concluded that their pram strategy is a punishment. It's a punishment to the child who is expressing their unhappiness due to getting separated from their parents for longer than usual. It's the exact 'Thinking corner' method which is now frowned-upon as a strategy with older kids. They deprive the child from basic rights of playing and walking and being free to move. When I talked to the director, I was told that they even put children who are used to daycare in the pram for the first 5 minutes of the day! Because she said the pram is the child's safety net. Yes she made it sound fancy and psychological… but I think they put kids in there every day to threaten them by reminding them of the punishment! They cut the child's unhappiness very quickly with a very cruel and inhumane method. The director also lied to me and said they don't buckle the children and they keep offering them to go play. It's a lie. I unbuckled my child with my own hands. It's impossible for her to not get out of a pram if allowed to. Heartless!