Guardian Childcare & Education Coorparoo

My poor review is purely for the centre manager, Kayleigh. She is rude and horrible to the staff that work there (almost every single permanent long standing staff member left since she took over managing the practice and the place had a revolving door of students and apprentices coming and going). I have ran into a few old staff members that worked at Guardian Coorparoo and they all had awful stories of how Kayleigh treated them when they worked there. 1 ex staff member told me that she was often in a room with 12 children and only 1 student to help her, which is so dangerous! I was told of a number of incidents that had caused a child harm, but they were under strict instructions from Kayleigh to keep this information from the parents as she didn’t want to get in trouble herself. I am also aware 2 parents have complained about Kayleigh to the Department of Health, and that there is an ongoing investigation into the claims made by these parents. -Children are encouraged to supply sunscreen themselves...!! -Children who don't eat are given crackers. Children are often given sandwiches for lunch... not very nutritious. -Children are not educated properly. Very low level activities are arranged for them. -Staff are treated and spoken to so poorly (feedback from previous educators) -Whenever head office or management are visiting the centre, the place gets tidied up but otherwise, it's actually pretty filthy. This review is so other parents are aware of where they’re sending their children.

We adore this daycare and the educators who look after the children so well. The administration staff have always been lovely and welcoming, and the centre has a lovely feel to it. There is a lovely garden, sandpit, a chicken coup and their own personal chef! We have always felt the care to be exceptional, including making sure children are comforted, sunscreen is reapplied, and the food is varied and nutritious.

If your kids want the lord of the flies experience, this is the place for them.good to see the centre is deleting comments.

I want to thank each and every member of the team for working tirelessly to support my 10 month old transition into daycare. Our little one has come leaps and bounds in such amount of short time. I was recommended the centre from my sister who had previously sent her 3 y.o. there. They have since moved on, but after 3 months, her son still talks about the centre and all his wonderful educators. We will forever sing Archan and team's praises and recommend the centre to everyone in the area. Thank you Guardian Coorpraoo for all your hard work and commitment to the children's safety and happiness.

As a parent of children who have attended Guardian Coorparoo for the past 4 years, just wanted to add a recent review with my thoughts about the centre. There is an amazing group of caring Educators who work here and the work they do is hard. During and post-COVID the centre has been working to recover from the mass changes brought about through the impact of visa changes and burnout associated with working in a frontline environment over the past few years. Thankfully, a core of dedicated team members has led the charge to welcome new team members and families to the centre. I really like the size of this centre as it's smaller than many of the newer centres in the area. It has only 7 rooms with a good amount of space in each and importantly, a natural outdoor area with a large shady tree for the Summer. A good size sandpit, rock garden and raised garden beds that facilitate the kids learning about veggie growing (though right at this second, they are being re-grown). Another highlight of the outdoor area are the chickens, eggs for the kids to find and lessons about pet care, cleanliness, etc are part of the morning routine. The latest roster facilitating regular morning shift team members is aiding to comfort kids when drop offs are a bit stressful – this is something I appreciate. We’re in the Junior Kindy Room currently and with the prior Google review of this room, I wanted to counter it for new families investigating the centre. 1. Eating outdoors – this is a preference when possible and of course, meals are taken inside when necessary. My son attended a C&K and Guardian Coorparoo for Kindy in 2023 and both centres made an effort to enjoy outdoor mealtimes whenever possible. 2. Children are monitored for sunscreen and encouraged to build skills to self-apply in the older rooms. This supported autonomy is something I’ve seen in both centres I’ve attended, and is important skill building as they move towards Kindy and Prep. My children have never come home sunburnt, so I assume whatever they are doing is working. 3. In Summer I’ve witnessed the team remind the kids periodically to rush to the water trolleys and have a drink of water. On the hottest days, we’ve had notices to send the kids with togs so that waterplay can be facilitated. While the indoor areas are good, there’s no denying the importance of daily outdoor play, discovering bugs, negotiating turns on the bikes, playing in the sandpit, etc. 4. My daughter is a picky eater at home and at school. The team have engaged with me regularly to work through the options and help encourage her to eat more lunch. Sometimes she flat out refuses to eat lunch, despite everyone else in the class chomping down on what’s been provided. They make sure she has big morning teas and offer her extra afternoon tea. If she was starving, she would eat. 5. The centre is a mix of cultures and I appreciate the cultural diversity my kids have come to appreciate. Celebrations of Lunar New Year, learning Spanish, exploring the heritage of the Educators and classmates, etc. My son is so proud that he can count in Spanish thanks to native speakers integrating their language skills into classroom activities and learning outcomes. My daughter is now coming home saying ‘bonjourno’ (Italian) with a cheeky grin. 6. Finally, ‘early learning’ is such a funny term for 3–4-year-olds, even 4–5-year-olds. The industry used to be called ‘play group’ then ‘day care’ and now ‘early learning’ but ultimately I believe our kids benefit from most is the ability to play with other children, negotiate social situations, be imaginative, creative and cared for. Personally, I’ve felt validated whenever I’ve provided feedback and I’ve benefited from ongoing engagement whenever I’ve requested additional support for my kids. There is always room for improvement and the needs of the kids are ever evolving. There are star performers in every room.

I am leaving this review here for the benefit of parents who are considering enrolling their children into this daycare. In short, this centre puts money before wellbeing. Children are neglected: overheated, dehydrated and not fed sufficiently. After attending the early kindy room for three weeks and having my child’s wellbeing ignored every day I decided to cancel the enrollment. These are the key reasons: 1. Children are made to eat all meals outside. Even in 34 degrees. This is of course in breach of the national standards. 2. They don't reapply sunscreen throughout the day. If you drop off the child late (10am) they wont apply it at all. 3. Children spend way too much time outdoors in the heat. At pickup time Numerous times I saw my child dehydrated and overheated, lethargic and with sweaty hair sticking to her face while the water bottle was no where to be seen. 4. No one made sure my child ate her meals or had enough to eat. No one addressed with me that she wasn’t eating sufficiently or wasn’t liking the food. They gave her lots of crackers instead. 5. 3 incidents in 3 weeks and not a single incident report or as much as a word to me about it. 6. One of the days I went into the bathroom with my child and saw that all soap dispensers were empty. Imagine what horrible things little hands will spread everywhere! 7. In junior kindy it’s 22 children and 2 educators. While this is allowed by the regulations it is certainly not sufficient. There are centres in the area that have more educators for only a small increase in the daily fee. 8. As the result of the overcrowded room with only 2 educators children are left to themselves to do whatever activities they like. This is poor educational practice. 9. In the junior kindy room all educators are not native English speakers. Maybe it is not a big deal for some families, but it was to me. I want my child to learn proper English. Of all groups in the daycare this age needs proper native English most. 10. I withdrew the authorisation to bill but they kept billing anyway. I raised all of these concerns in writing and never heard a single word of explanation. But I did get multiple paragraphs on how much money I need to pay them. They don't care about children - full stop.

I am leaving this review here for the benefit of parents who are considering enrolling their children into this daycare. In short, this centre puts money before wellbeing. Children are neglected: overheated, dehydrated and not fed sufficiently. After attending the early kindy room for three weeks and having my child’s wellbeing ignored every day I decided to cancel the enrollment. These are the key reasons: 1. Children are made to eat all meals outside. Even in 34 degrees. This is of course in breach of the national standards. 2. They don't reapply sunscreen throughout the day. If you drop off the child late (10am) they wont apply it at all. 3. Children spend way too much time outdoors in the heat. At pickup time Numerous times I saw my child dehydrated and overheated, lethargic and with sweaty hair sticking to her face while the water bottle was no where to be seen. 4. No one made sure my child ate her meals or had enough to eat. No one addressed with me that she wasn’t eating sufficiently or wasn’t liking the food. They gave her lots of crackers instead. 5. 3 incidents in 3 weeks and not a single incident report or as much as a word to me about it. 6. One of the days I went into the bathroom with my child and saw that all soap dispensers were empty. Imagine what horrible things little hands will spread everywhere! 7. In junior kindy it’s 22 children and 2 educators. While this is allowed by the regulations it is certainly not sufficient. There are centres in the area that have more educators for only a small increase in the daily fee. 8. As the result of the overcrowded room with only 2 educators children are left to themselves to do whatever activities they like. This is poor educational practice. 9. In the junior kindy room all educators are not native English speakers. Maybe it is not a big deal for some families, but it was to me. I want my child to learn proper English. Of all groups in the daycare this age needs proper native English most. 10. I withdrew the authorisation to bill but they kept billing anyway. I raised all of these concerns in writing and never heard a single word of explanation. But I did get multiple paragraphs on how much money I need to pay them. They don't care about children - full stop.