Treetops @ Kirrawee

Disappointing Experience - Not an Inclusive Service I am deeply upset by my experience with Treetops. After 3.5 years of sending my child there, I made the decision to pull him out because I felt he was not receiving the support and quality care he needed. My child, who has autism, was consistently overlooked when it came to support due to apparent insufficient funding and training of the educators. The director misled me regarding funding, claiming that the centre didn’t have the resources to provide a support worker for my child. She stated that they only received $15 an hour for this, which is false. As a childcare educator and a support worker myself, I am well aware that the NDIS provides $23.75 per hour for such services, and this rate has been confirmed by the Inclusion Support Program. Even though funding was available, it was never utilised to provide additional staff training to help educators meet the needs of children with additional needs, even when no support worker was rostered. This includes the core purpose of funding, which is to have a dedicated support worker for children and staff. What’s most disheartening is the exclusion of my child. After two incidents where he was emotionally heightened—without any prior incidents—the centre decided to exclude him from the service. No effort was made to create strategies or plans to support him when he needed help the most. As a parent, this felt like a complete disregard for his rights and an utter failure in meeting his needs. Under the National Quality Framework (NQF) and the National Quality Standard (NQS), childcare services are required to provide inclusive environments and support all children, including those with disabilities. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) also emphasizes inclusion, ensuring that all children are treated with respect and given opportunities for their development. Excluding a child with autism due to behaviour, particularly without prior attempts at support or reasonable accommodations, is a breach of these standards. This situation also violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which asserts that children with disabilities must have access to an education that supports their full development, and that discrimination based on a child's disability is prohibited. Not even going to mention the legality of this situation (the Disability Act (1992) or the Education Act (2013)) I am angered and disappointed by the lack of care and effort on the centre's part. This experience has been heartbreaking, and I would not recommend this service to anyone who needs a genuinely inclusive environment for their child.

Excellent daycare centre. Very well run by Katie & Adam and the staff are all excellent. I would highly recommend!

Treetops is such a beautiful centre. Katie and Adam are very welcoming. Communication is excellent and some great activities are organised for the children. Peta, Holly and Jamie also do a wonderful job providing care, and have created a lovely environment in the Oak Room. We are appreciative to Treetops, and would highly recommend it to others.

My son Rayyan goes to Treetops since more than a year and we absolutely love it there! Katie is just absolutely amazing, kind and always ready to assist you with any query. She guides you, responds to you promptly, and is honestly one of the nicest people you’d come across. She and her staff are all absolutely amazing. It’s a small centre so children get more individual attention, and everyone knows everybody. Also, as it’s literally next to kirrawee public school, that means most of the kids enrolled there goto kirrawee school that’s a relief as your child will have friends from Daycare at the big school that’s gonna be a comfort when starting there. Cheers!

We have loved our experience at Treetops Katie and Adam are amazing. My daughter just graduated and had a great time. She was always met with warmth and kindness and so was I, as a first time Mum. We will miss all the educators. Peta and Hollie were amazing. Thank you treetops

My son started childcare with Treetops this year. The owners of the centre are always around and contactable directly for absolutely anything. There are always activities being organised whether it’s celebrating a different culture, wildlife and animal visits or playing different sports. But it’s the lovely childcare workers that have made our first year of childcare such a dream and so much easier than it could have been. The girls who work at the centre are all so caring, friendly and passionate about what they do. They develop lovely relationships with all the kids, and there seems to be very low staff turnover, which helps the kids to feel secure. You simply can’t compare a family run childcare centre with this level of care and consideration in everything they do to a large commercial orientated childcare centre. Would recommend to anyone looking for a childcare centre in Kirrawee or surrounding area, but just remember to get on the waitlist as soon as possible!

My child loves going to Treetops. The staff are kind, polite, and have taken the time to get to know my child. Communication throughout the day is great via the app. They've exceeded my expectations.

My son started his journey at treetops and he was very happy and we loved it there then once he moved into the big room, they changed the whole staff and it seemed to unsettle my boy, he started (biting, pushing) acting out (which NEVER happens at home and we were told it was a phase from the daycare, doing the right thing my stepdad went down to talk to manager so we could all get on the same page as naturally this behaviour was unsettling and they suggested we take him to an occupational therapy to which we said we would but there is a waiting list, we also asked them how they make sure kids understand what they did was wrong and they said oh we distract them and put them in a different activity as we are not allowed to do time out or anything that actually tells a child they did the wrong thing (distracting them only tells them what they did was okay, just go play elsewhere) after we talked to them about that so we could be on the same page my stepdad came home and explained the situation to me about how they said it’s just a phase and he should try occupational therapy (cause again he NEVER acts like this at home and when i asked him about his behaviour he mentioned the things he did whilst incorrect were AFTER children had hurt him, to which the teachers either didn’t know or conveniently never mentioned) thinking all was well and we could all be on the same page as clearly this behaviour was out of character and new for my son, I agreed to the occupational therapy, but then despite my stepdads conversation with the manager stating it was a phase I received a long email about how my son has had two chances (both of these according to my son one girl hit him in the head and he retaliated) and whether we get occupational therapy or see a paediatrician or not they would STILL be kicking him out of a third incident occurred. Well a third incident did occur and he is now kicked out and we have found a better daycare where we won’t and don’t have these issues, but I had to come on here and review this daycare as I’ve NEVER sent my son to a daycare that doesn’t work with the parents. Whilst acknowledging my son did the wrong things, I believe that this daycare isn’t equiped enough to handle all children as they don’t understand the definition of phase (if it’s a phase to grow out of they are least need the chance.) I wish everyone a happy future at the daycare but the environment was NOT for my son especially since these problems started mostly after bringing in two new workers and replacing ones he had been with for a year or more.

Such a lovely place! My son has learn so much from his peers, also made alot of friends and has enjoyed it ever since

We found this little gem when we were searching for a new centre after having a bad experience with another centre. Since being enrolled at Treetops, my child has thrived. He gets more one-on-one and personalised attention/teaching which we were looking for. Their curriculum is inclusive of different nationalities and have a calender to to celebrate different days from around the world. They also organise extra activities which come to the centre for the children to participate in, such as dancing and basketball. All the staff are super friendly and well educated in early childhood practices. The owners, Katie & David are so lovely. They go above and beyond for everything, they're both actively involved in all aspects around the centre which is great! I highly recommend Treetops @ Kirrawee and the amazing educators/owners.