Narellan Montessori Academy Childcare & Preschool

My son attended this daycare for approximately 18 months, and unfortunately, our experience was extremely disappointing.<br><br>During his time here, we received a huge number of incident reports and phone calls. He was bitten at least 6 or 7 times by different children, stabbed with a pencil, and slipped on pencils left on the floor, resulting in a split eyebrow. These are just some of the incidents that occurred.<br><br>Whenever I raised concerns about the frequency of these incidents, I felt the responsibility was often placed on children with additional needs, including non-verbal children. I asked whether extra support could be provided, but was told the centre was trying and that funding was limited. I was also concerned by comments from the director about the challenges of managing the children and the lack of support available.<br><br>The difference since moving my son to another daycare has been enormous. In 3 months at his new centre, he has had no incidents, is thriving, and is much happier. This has made us question whether the previous environment was the right fit for him.<br><br>Communication was another major issue. Daily reports were often difficult to obtain, and on occasions I felt the information provided was inaccurate. Staff turnover also made it difficult to build consistent relationships with educators.<br><br>I also witnessed the older class unattended in their classroom on two occasions while the children were watching an iPad, which raised further concerns about supervision.<br><br>The final issue was the reason we decided to withdraw our son. After raising concerns about hitting, I spoke with the family care team, who agreed as a gesture of goodwill to reduce our notice period from 4 weeks to 2 weeks and return our bond.<br><br>During that notice period, my son contracted Influenza A, and there was also an outbreak at the centre. He could not attend for the final 4 days. On his final day, the director assured us she would sign him in and out so we could avoid issues with CCS, as we had medical certificates and had been advised by Centrelink that this was all that was required.<br><br>This did not happen. Despite doing everything we were told to do, we were left approximately $300 out of pocket. When we raised this with management, we felt our account of what had been agreed to was dismissed.<br><br>Overall, this was a very stressful experience for our family. I would not recommend this daycare based on our experience, particularly to parents who are concerned about consistent supervision, communication and their child’s safety.