Red flag - avoid sending your children here. There are much better options for your children to thrive in your local area. This centre is “family run”. Seemed great and person-centred but that’s furthest from the truth. It is so poorly run. Management (the family) are after your money and filling as many spots as possible over the quality of service. I had 2 children at this centre. My eldest left at the end of 3yo kinder. They sell a STEM program - it’s not. It’s just glorified daycare. My daughter did not learn in this environment or thrive. They had 3 staff turn overs within her first year of kindergarten. Speaks volumes about management! My youngest was at daycare. The educators do their best in such poor work conditions. They are overworked and visibly burnt out. There is no professional development. No investment in their staff and in turn the kids. My eldest experienced consistent physical harm by another child - never dealt with and was told “we will seperate boys and girls” and “we will give the child a chew toy”. How is this an appropriate strategy for either party? Zero intervention or training in this area. Several times my kids came home with visible marks or informed me of an incident. These were left unreported and attempted to be minimised. The final straw was a bruise under my son’s eye. He was between 2 rooms that day and either room educators could explain what happened. Instead, they blamed each other and then I was told by the director that “sometimes kids scratch themselves in their sleep” - my son is 15 months old. That’s unlikely and no scratch is appearing as a bruise before pickup. What centre blames the child or attempts to degrade their story? Absolute disgrace! Avoid at all costs!

Amazing childcare! My son is thriving with the fantastic learning experiences, daily updates, and photos. Swati always shares what they’re working on, and the consistent morning staff make drop‑offs smooth and happy. My son genuinely loves going each day.

When researching childcare’s in my area, Collards stood out to me for many reasons, it’s a family run centre, they take the children to Mill Park library, they take the children to Pitt Gymnastics & the centre itself is so clean and really well looked after. After doing my initial tour and meeting some of the staff, it was a no brainer to sign my son up. Fast forward 5 years, my 4 children have all attended Collards, they absolutely love it there and have formed very strong bonds with their peers and educators. I have also made life long friends with other mums I have met over the years, weather our children introduced us or we have connected at one of the Collard’s events, we especially love attending the family fun night which was on earlier this week, my children loved having their face painted, interacting with their educators in the playground and visiting the cute animals in the animal farm. Thank you for taking such wonderful care of my babies 😊

After having 2 children in the centre since late 2022 I am so glad we are out. There was an incredible decline in the way the centre was run, with management completely loosing their way. There has been a huge turnover in staff, that is often not communicated to parents properly. This has had a massive impact on the children and how they settle into their rooms every day. The kinder program is poorly run, again with high staff turnover and a lack of structure. In the beginning they had a dedicated art room which the children loved, this was quickly replaced as another room so they could increase numbers, and now just sits there as a dumping room after a sharp decline in enrolment numbers. There were several incidents where my child was bitten by another child, the centre failed to document this properly, and they tried to down play what happened. The child who was biting my child was also known to have bitten others and the centre failed to manage this over the course of 2 years. There were many occasions upon drop off (at 8.30am) where ratios were not been maintained - instead the manager would often lean on 'roof line rations' as the excuse. One particular morning there was no educator in my daughters room and myself along with other parents had to go and locate somebody so we could safely leave our children. After giving 4 weeks notice that we were leaving (as per their policy) my daughters enrolment was abruptly ended with no notice after 2 weeks - she was not allowed back for a final day to say goodbye to her friends or educators. Management took their frustration that a few families were leaving out on me and in the crossfire punished a 4yr old. The only positive I have to say is that there are a handful of educators there who are fabulous and deserve recognition. They work in incredibly hard conditions, often short staffed within minimal support from management. I would highly advise that you do not send your children here. There are many other centres in the area that offer better care. **reposting this review as the centre manager has removed my original review**

Pretty good place with friendly and professional educators and management. It’s great to see that the staff are genuinely caring. One of the strongest positive aspects is that the kinder is family-run who bring years of experience and strong connections within the Mill Park and South Morang community. You can really feel that it’s not just a business providing a service, but a place built on relationships, care, and genuine commitment to children and families. We can clearly see that our son loves the place — the people, the educators, and spending time there. After a year, I’ve also noticed that many staff members have been working there for quite some time, and there hasn’t been much educator rotation, which is very important for children at this age. That consistency gives both kids and parents a sense of comfort and stability. Overall, we’re very happy with our experience

We couldn’t be happier with our experience at Collards. We loved how homely the centre feels, the teachers are all friendly lovely with the kids. The kids are all happy. My 2 daughters are thriving and love going to kinder each day. Communication has been wonderful getting daily reflections and seeing what my girls have been up too. Jaspreet and Kiara in the kinder room have been so warm and welcoming and my daughter has made some lovely friends. Paige has been amazing with our 1 year old and is so on top of her routine and always calls if there are any concerns. Thank you creating such a lovely place to send our girls.

After having our daughter attend two other child care organisations we're really happy to have found Collard's. The standard of care is beyond reproach, the genuine care demonstrated by all the educators and the frequent and verbose communication all culminate to provide a profound sense of comfort and reassurance that our daughter is not only being provided for, but also supported and enabled to grow and learn in a safe and secure environment. I would highly recommend Collard's for anyone looking for an early childhood education organisation.

My son has been attending this childcare centre for about a year. His settling process was quite long and challenging. However, the staff were very patient and supportive during this time. They did their best to help both my son and me feel comfortable and confident. I really appreciated their understanding and kindness. The team is caring, responsible, and professional. They truly care about the children and work hard to create a safe and positive environment. I am very thankful for everything they have done for my son.

We have been at collards the past 2 years since our son was a baby. Our son just has transitioned to the Joeys room and Hannah and Laura have been wonderful. So kind and caring. Laura has been fantastic with toilet training and giving us regular updates. It’s great to see him make such a great bond with the educators. There is always new things set out in the classroom and he loves all the puzzels and the art activities they do each day.