Little Zaks Academy Mount Colah - Mount Colah (NSW)

1 /5 Cee Cee: Fancy having the new director leave a 5 star review on the service she is running, with no child present at the service. Having been inside this service and seeing first hand how they run, I can say that there are no opportunities for your children to thrive. While the educators do provide care for the children at the centre, there is no passion or interest amongst the staff in supporting the children to grow, and as a result theres nothing nurturing about the care offered. Its a matter of opening the doors at 7am, and counting down the hours until the children go home. This service runs off greed, and instead of working on their educators’ professional development, they spend more time asking them to leave a 5 star review to maintain a "high standard" reputation. The exceeding sign you see out front, is something that was achieved by a wonderful team who were later shooed out by new management, leaving the service run by new faces and a lack of trusting relationships with families. While all services have room for improvement... please listen to these reviews and find a space where you know your child is confident, thriving, and loving their learning journey.

1 /5 B L: Do NOT send your child to Little Zak’s Mount Colah. My experience with this centre has been nothing short of a challenge and heartbreak. As a parent, I cannot stress enough how deeply concerned I am about the standard of care, professionalism and operations at this service. What you’re promised at enrolment is a far cry from the reality your child and family will face. Families are regularly hit with extra and unexplained fees and communication with management and educators is often disconnected and unhelpful. Getting basic updates about your child’s day feels like an uphill battle. Ive had to escalate serious concerns directly to the Department of Education due to the mismanagement and chaotic running of the centre. The rooms were constantly over staff to child ratio, with staff stretched thin and relying heavily on each other to get through the day. Children were left in large groups with minimal supervision and the quality and quantity of food provided is inadequate, especially considering the high fees families are paying. There have been multiple injury and incident reports involving my child and others and its alarming how frequent departmental visits for compliance have become. Children were exposed to distressed, overwhelmed staff and due to extremely high staff turnover, the centre relies heavily on agency workers, creating a revolving door of unfamiliar faces. Educators are underpaid, overworked and often pushed out due to toxic business practices. Resources for meaningful learning experiences are minimal, outdated or non existent. There’s a severe lack of investment in both the children’s development and the wellbeing of staff. The centre fails to provide promised extras like incursions or excursions and any claims of being "different" or "premium" are simply false advertising. The cleanliness of the service is deeply concerning. From what I’ve witnessed, educators are expected to clean on top of caring for children, with only a weekly cleaner provided. Privacy is also an issue as children have been posted on social media platforms without permission, completely disregarding family rights and confidentiality. The centre’s communication with families, both in person and via the online portal is inconsistent, vague and often dismissive of concerns. There is no transparency, no accountability and certainly no sense of the nurturing, safe environment every child deserves. My child was exposed to multiple inappropriate situations that no family should ever have to accept. Please, read the reviews, listen to the local community and trust your instincts. This is NOT the place for your child to be, become, or belong.

5 /5 Sarah Payne: Have had a great experience at the centre, aware of the history but none of that is evident anymore, great communication, committed team and always maintaining ratios and even having extra educators to support. I also havent seen an agency staff member in months. There is new management, so give the centre a go and dont listen to the old reviews of families who have left months/years ago and not experienced all of the changes that have been put in place. They are also currently doing incursions once a month as a bonus for families.

1 /5 K Harrison: We recently made the difficult decision to move our daughter from Little Zak’s Mt Colah (on the 14/03/25) due to a misalignment of values demonstrated by senior leadership. Over the past few months, we observed significant staff turnover—more than seven educators left in our final weeks—along with several families also making the decision to leave. While we deeply appreciate the care and dedication of the educators who worked directly with our child over the past three years, the response from senior management was disappointing. In multiple meetings, concerns raised by parents were largely dismissed. The CEO explicitly stated that parents have "no right to expect stability" in the carers looking after their children, which contradicts the belonging and teamwork in their core values One bright spot in our later experience was Tara (Area Manager), who genuinely listened to parents and worked to address concerns. Unfortunately, the rest of the management team did not demonstrate the same level of engagement. We hope Little Zak’s can reflect on these issues and make meaningful improvements. We sincerely thank the educators who supported our daughters and wish them all the best.

1 /5 Helen Van Mey Gaarden: A great childcare centre should be a place of trust, consistency, and genuine care—where educators build meaningful relationships with children and families, fostering a safe and nurturing environment. Unfortunately, this was not our experience. We had our two children at this centre from 2020 until the end of 2023. Initially, we were drawn to the brand-new facilities, spacious playground, and well-designed rooms. There were also a handful of regular staff members whom we really liked and trusted. However, after a management change around 2021, things began to decline. Communication deteriorated, fees kept increasing, and staff turnover became a serious concern. One by one, the educators we valued either left or were let go due to “management decisions.” Despite our gut feeling telling us to leave, we stayed, hoping things would improve. The final straw was receiving end-of-year reports that were completely inaccurate—misrepresenting our children’s personalities and raising concerns that had never been discussed with us throughout the year. Leaving your child in someone else’s care is a huge decision, and this centre did not meet that responsibility. How it maintains an “exceeding” rating is beyond us. We are not the type to complain easily, but the issues here were impossible to ignore. Now that we’ve moved on, we can clearly see just how poorly it was run. The difference is night and day—we are now at a much better daycare that truly meets our needs as a family. I’m leaving this review a year later because, despite our disappointing experience, things have only deteriorated further. I wouldn’t recommend this centre to any parent—there are far better options in the area.