PLAY Childcare & Kinder

We toured Play last year and asked the Centre Director about spots in Kindy, as our daughter turns three in April this year. We were told by the Centre Director that it wouldn’t be an issue, as they had availability on all days. We were very specific that we needed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. They suggested that she start in the Toddler room first to settle in and then move up with the other children in her age group. We proceeded with the enrolment, only to find out just after Week 1 that Kindy orientation dates for children in the Toddler room had been posted. When we asked about Kindy for our daughter, the Centre Director told us that she could be enrolled in the Kindy room, but the problem now was that Tuesdays were no longer available. We were offered enrolment with Monday and Wednesday in Kindy and Tuesday in the Toddler room. We weren’t very happy with this, but at the time we felt it was our only option as we really wanted our daughter to attend Kindy this year. A few days later, the Toddler room leader (who had only returned from leave two days earlier) pulled me aside during drop-off and told me it would be better to keep our daughter in the Toddler room longer to build more independence. I was taken aback and asked how much longer, and the response was “a few months.” No further explanation was given. We were unhappy with this and contacted the Centre Director for more clarification. We were told that our daughter had not been feeding herself and needed assistance, and that this was the reason she was considered “not independent enough.” We were shocked to hear this, as it was not consistent with her behaviour at home or in previous daycares. In fact, the feedback we had previously received was that she was very independent and often acted as “the helper,” assisting with bringing meals out for other children. We have also never had any feeding issues with her at home. They also brought up a couple of incidents where she had bitten other children. However, we had previously been reassured that this behaviour was completely normal for children her age, and we were already working on addressing it. It was very disappointing to learn about these concerns regarding our daughter’s feeding behaviour in this way, and even more disappointing that this appeared to be used as a reason for holding her back in the Toddler room rather than progressing her to the Kindy room. The outcome of the meeting was that they would “see how she went” over the next few months, and that her orientation would be done 2–3 weeks before the Kindy start date (if she was considered ready), rather than with the other children. We did not want to wait for this and decided to withdraw her from Play. While we briefly second-guessed this decision, during one of our pick-ups (during the notice period) we were speaking to one of the educators when another older child rode a bike over our daughter’s foot and knocked her over while she was standing right next to us. This completely solidified our decision to leave Play. No incident report was completed for this either, which made us wonder how often similar incidents might happen when parents are not present. Pick-ups were always chaotic, with different age groups all together in the big play area. Dealing with their accounts was also a nightmare. We are now much happier with another daycare centre since leaving Play, and our daughter is thriving in Kindy.