My 2-year-old has been attending this daycare for a few months and absolutely loves it. The teachers, especially Megan and the kind Filipino...
My 2-year-old has been attending this daycare for a few months and absolutely loves it. The teachers, especially Megan and the kind Filipino teacher, show so much love and care. There are daily fun and educational activities, and a chef prepares healthy, delicious meals. My child has learned a lot and become much more well-behaved. Highly recommend this centre to any parent!
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Response from the owner
11 Jul 2025
Hi there, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a 5-star review of our Children First Cranbrook centre. We are so glad to hear that your little one loves attending each day and you are happy with the educational programs set up by his Educators, and the healthy meals included. Thank you for recommending us to others and for your ongoing support.
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Lovely staff. Very clean and tidy. Staff always going above and beyond to help
Lovely staff. Very clean and tidy. Staff always going above and beyond to help
My 3 year old has learnt so much in the PreKindy room! She sings the ABC (properly) and can now count to 20...
My 3 year old has learnt so much in the PreKindy room! She sings the ABC (properly) and can now count to 20 (gets a bit stuck at 14 but once we say the next number she gets it again)! Tracey and the team have been so understanding of the extra details and care she needs, even spoiling her when she is Hangry and getting her a sandwich or Weetbix with honey! Thank you for taking care of our Sass!
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My son attends this centre for child care and kindy, and I truly cannot speak highly enough of the support he receives here....
My son attends this centre for child care and kindy, and I truly cannot speak highly enough of the support he receives here. The team goes above and beyond to meet his therapeutic needs, and the care, understanding, and proactive approach from the educators has made a world of difference in his development.
Miss Sharna, Miss Alison, and Miss Liz have all played such a pivotal role in his journey — their dedication, patience, and genuine love for the children shines through every day. Thanks to them, my son is thriving in ways I never thought possible.
The area manager, Kelly, is also incredible — always responsive, kind, and supportive. You can really feel how much thought and heart goes into running this centre.
What makes Cranbrook Children First even more special is the extra touches — the kids get to enjoy amazing activities like yoga and Capoeira (which they love!), and all parents are treated to a delicious coffee made with love by the wonderful Chef Tim. It's those little things that make such a big difference.
We are so grateful to have found such a nurturing and supportive environment. I honestly don’t know where we’d be without this amazing team.
Highly recommend to any family looking for more than just a daycare — this is a place where children and families are truly cared for.
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Having never attended Day Care before our Daughter has flourished and integrated seamlessly into her Kindy Class, meeting new kids and learning new...
Having never attended Day Care before our Daughter has flourished and integrated seamlessly into her Kindy Class, meeting new kids and learning new things especially routines! The professionalism of the whole centre, the staff, facilities and the educational program is incredible and the warmth, support and understanding they have for family and each children’s needs is priceless.
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Both my kids attended this center, amazing staff who actually care, felt personal and the kids loved going!! Would highly recommend! A+++ Service
Both my kids attended this center, amazing staff who actually care, felt personal and the kids loved going!! Would highly recommend! A+++ Service
My son has been at Children's First for 6 months. They not only treat the parents with great respect for their needs and...
My son has been at Children's First for 6 months. They not only treat the parents with great respect for their needs and wants for their children but they take the utmost care in looking after the children. They always have more staff than legally required in rooms giving you a great sense of security around the care for your child.
My son runs himself in to daycare each day and has to say goodbye to every staff member on his way out. He's well cared for and they call me at the slightest incident and always let me know how he's going through out the day. The staff the centre has recently started to get are amazing they have been building a new team of dedicated and caring staff and it shows how much the director and assistant director care about their staff and the families they service.
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If you care about quality standards in early childhood education, and consider safety paramount for your children, I cannot recommend this centre.
This review...
If you care about quality standards in early childhood education, and consider safety paramount for your children, I cannot recommend this centre.
This review follows several unacceptable biting incidents involving my ~2 y.o daughter despite expressing several former concerns. The response from this centre and area manager have been appalling despite multiple efforts to collaborate to resolve recurring biting incidents and seeking reasonable explanation for how incidents occurred.
5 incidents occurred within 5 months. The first incident occurred Jul 2024 (Tiny Tots). The fifth and final incident occurred today Dec 2024 (Toddlers). There have been 2+ bite wounds in 2 of 5 reported incidents. On 2 occasions, I took my daughter home only to discover bite marks which had not been noticed or communicated to me by anyone at the centre.
Despite requesting latest incident report copies, the centre failed to provide, further communicate and follow through with action plans conveyed. I immediately discontinued my child at this centre after today, despite her final intended day not being far off and will progress formal complaints.
Observed challenges in this centre's child:educator ratio:
The centre went through change of directorship Jul 2024, following the sudden departure of their former centre director. They since had ongoing staff retention challenges, resulting in poor communication, poor transition/handover between educators, and conflicting messages in response to incident queries. The lack of familiar faces due to initial inconsistency from constant change of unmotivated staff made the initial 3 months in Tiny Tots extremely challenging for my toddler to adapt comfortably. She is usually extemely happy in other childcare environments with the right level of engagement, experience, and genuine care. The educators would leave my daughter crying, with little engagement and little support for over an hour with each drop off for several months initially, and thought that was a normal and appropriate duration despite me telling them this was out of character.
While there are some lovely educators that have given their best lately, she did seem to enjoy Toddler room activities a lot more. The campus is modernised compared to other TSV childcare centres and has great facilities and resources, but the overall experience outweighs the positive. Quality care, children FIRST, safety, culture, and good education is VITAL.
After so many collective issues at this centre over time, I constantly started worrying that something bad could happen to my daughter on any given day she was attending childcare.
It has been heartbreaking seeing it diminish my daughters happiness and confidence overtime, resulting in her being extremely upset, acting unlike herself, to having nightmares several days and weeks following each incident. She cries during evening bath time when she sees her bite wounds and this centre have not shown authenticity and care towards limiting these challenges or mitigating risk. The centre does not have zero tolerance or best practice solutions to biting incidents and require plenty of feedback to drastically uplift their standards.
Despite all efforts to communicate and resolve, improvement was too slow and the experience becoming horrific. The lack of care and preventative measure could one day, result in an incident beyond repair for any one of the children, and this should really be treated with greater urgency to better improve standards, process and procedures to avoid any major future incidents and a more ideal childcare environment.
For context:
My daughter commenced childcare at an early age (3-4 months) and naturally has a bright, bubbly personality. She thrived in 2 former wonderful childcare environments in Sydney, but the results have been the opposite since her attendance at Children First.
I regret that I did not remove her from this centre instinctively sooner. She will be returning to her former childcare centre interstate, which comparably provides excellent professional care and standards.
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My daughter adjusted so well on her first day creating a great sense of belonging. The staff were so welcoming and she was...
My daughter adjusted so well on her first day creating a great sense of belonging. The staff were so welcoming and she was full of smiles at pick up. Such a huge variety of toys and so many set experiences for her to explore. Educators reading stories and dancing with her. Highly recommend.
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We couldn't have asked for a better childcare centre!!
All the staff are amazing and so supportive.
They are open and willing to help in...
We couldn't have asked for a better childcare centre!!
All the staff are amazing and so supportive.
They are open and willing to help in any way possible.
Our daughter has fit in and loves attending each day.
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Response from the owner
02 May 2024
Hi Elizabeth, thank you so much for your 5-star review of our Children First Cranbrook centre. It is so lovely to hear that your daughter loves attending each day! Thank you for your support and we look forward to creating many more wonderful memories with you and your family.
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