Community Kids Cessnock Early Education Centre

We loved CK until January 2025 when it all went down hill. Majority of families and educators have all left since the management change and for good reason. Your child is not safe at this centre. There are more incidents than not on the daily here. They will have vacancies and they have that for a reason. Stay clear of this centre.

Extremely high staff turnover, creating an unstable environment for children. For a month or so my baby loved coming to daycare (Leesa was his room leader. He loves her). Then, over Xmas all the staff from his room moved to other rooms, so my son was left with staff that he didn't really know. Strangers. Since then, there have been more staffing changes. I can't keep up with it! It feels like half of the staff in the centre have left in the 4 months that my child has been attending, including the centre director, and my son's 2025 room leader (no notification about room leader's departure). About a month ago, parents received an email giving about 1.5 weeks notice that the centre would be closed for a week for staff training. A few days before, we received an email asking if we could keep our children home that day due to lack of staff, with the centre offering a 25% fee discount for that day... No feelings of securing, safety, or stability for me as a parent, or my son. A few months back I picked up my baby to find that he had 6 deep scratches across his nose and upper lips. The staff member holding him had not noticed and seemed bewildered when I showed her and asked what happened. Leesa was helpful the next day and figured out what had happened with me and took action which I appreciated. My son had scabs on his face for over a week. Leesa is lovely and is the main reason why I haven't pulled my son out of the centre (he will hopefully have her as his teacher again when he is old enough), along with the lack of positions in other local centres. There seems to maybe be an issue with management. I hope it improves and things settle down. Stressful and unsettling. Update: After writing this, I found out that Leesa is leaving this centre, too. What a loss. 😥 Update: 10/3/25 - Last week he came home with a purple bruise on his left eyebrow that no one noticed. A few weeks ago he came home covered in lunch food to the point that he should have been changed into his spare clothes. 31/3/25 - Arrived to find my baby with the teeth marks of another child imprinted on his arm. No voicemail left on my phone, just a call from a random mobile whilst I was at work, so I didn't know it was important. Staff reported the incident was not witnessed. His drink bottle was lost today. How long did he potentially not have access to water? His milk bottle is still missing from about a month ago. Both are labelled with his name. And all of the kids in a photo shared on the rooms chat page were playing outside without hats. I could see both outside yard areas. The UV was above 3 at the time these images were posted. Staff present at pick-up were unable to answer why no children were wearing their sun hats. This was recently in the news. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-27/documents-expose-incidents-at-g8-education-childcare-centres/105102478 1/4/25 - Received an email from the centre, reporting that the centre manager who started a few months back has left. That's the 2nd manager to leave since my son started attending this Centre in Nov, 2025 (and numerous others stepping into the role in the interim).

My child has been going since 4 months old, always have had lovely staff and my boy always come home happy :)

The educators and coordinator are so friendly and welcoming. Would hands down recommend becoming a part of the Community Kids family.