In the beginning, I was really excited given all the positive things I'd heard. I've since learnt…read morethat things have been downhill since the previous manager left. The 1st issue was extremely poor communication. The teachers in the youngest group didn't speak English and it was difficult to communicate without a translator. Small babies can't communicate their own needs, so a parent should be able to. When I brought this up with management, they said the lead teacher did speak English - yeah, maybe 10 words. The poor communication goes beyond language. At the start I explained I was a young widow, my husband passed a few months prior, and expected them to communicate this to the teachers so they could be sensitive. It was obvious this did not happen. None the less, the teachers were kind and caring, so I stayed. But the disappointment continued. My daughter came home with BLEACH stains on her clothing on THREE separate occasions. I brought this up to management and was assured it would be addressed, it was not. I understand the need to use bleach to clean, but small children should not be around toxic chemicals! Clean when they are not around! This was troubling as my daughter is a thumb sucker and could have got bleach in her mouth. The 1st summer I sent her to school in sandals the whole summer with no issue. The children have to keep their shoes on all day, including nap time. My daughter came home with sweaty and smelly feet. When summer came, I knew it would be uncomfortable for her to be in closed toes shoes all day. I made sure to get sturdy sandals with a thick bottom and adequate edging to protect her feet. Mid-summer, the sandals were suddenly a liability issue (but bleach isn't?!). They are so hyper focused on rules, they've lost the warm human touch they once had. I got a call from the office manager, I explained my concerns and told her that if shoes could be removed during nap time, I would send her in closed shoes. She said she would look into it and let me know. Then Sandy herself called me. I found her to be extremely rude from the gecko. She spoke over me and had no empathy for the concerns I was expressing. It was clear that she wasn't interested in the human perspective, this is just a business to her. At this point I felt frustrated and unheard. I finally made the decision to remove my daughter and emailed them she would not be returning after the year end. I received no response, they didn't seem to care. On the last day the teacher gave my daughter a lovely goodbye package, it was nice to finally see some care from someone there. I emailed about my security deposit and got no response. A week or so later, I emailed again. Today Sandy called me and once again tried to bulldoze her way through the conversation. The financial agreement says we have to give 45 day notice. (Standard notice for a job is less than that, are you kidding me?) I explained that I didn't have 45 days because the school year ended. Had I come to this decision during the year, I would have obliged but what was I supposed to do? Again, she spoke over me and had zero empathy, she really did not care about my situation. This time I spoke to her the way she spoke to me, which is uncharacteristic of me, but I was tired of the bullying. They expect parents to keep to the 45 day notice when they don't keep to their end of the deal - ex since the pandemic, they're only open until 6 (apparently you can only catch COVID19 between 6 and 6:30pm), among other things. So, I am leaving with a bitter taste, my experience at Sandy's was disappointing from the start, and I wish I had left earlier instead of trying to give them more chances. I've never been one to write reviews online, but I felt like I had to this time.
Ps. Due to character limit I could only share some of the many issues.
