The Montessori Preschool of Sydney Zetland

My family's experience at The Montessori Preschool of Sydney-Zetland over more than two years, starting from its opening in January 2022 and ending... My family's experience at The Montessori Preschool of Sydney-Zetland over more than two years, starting from its opening in January 2022 and ending in March 2024, turned from initial enthusiasm to profound disappointment and concern. We believed in the preschool's philosophy and trusted they would provide a safe and nurturing environment for early childhood development. Unfortunately, our trust was misplaced, as the preschool has failed to manage a series of safety and well-being issues. The Department of Education is conducting a thorough investigation into the misconduct of the centre. The preschool displayed an alarming inability to handle children’s repeated aggression—biting, hitting, screaming, kicking and throwing objects—directly impacted my daughter and other children, compromising their safety and emotional well-being for almost five months with no sign of improvement. Despite multiple incidents, including a bite that broke the skin and caused physical marks which took three months to dissipate, and numerous reports of other children being physically and emotionally harmed, the response from the centre's management was dismissively inadequate. The centre told parents that these incidents would be typical for any child to conduct regularly until the age of five. Another mother arrived to pick up her child recently, only to find them alone in the corner, crying, unattended. No teacher had even realised that he had been physically assaulted for a second time that day. It is now clear why our daughter’s two years of tuition is more than twice as long as any teacher at the centre. Recently, a new full-time teacher commenced and quit in the same week. Meetings with the centre's management were fruitless, marked by a shocking disregard for the severity of the incidents and a lack of effective intervention. Promised measures, such as continuous supervision and specialised intervention, were insufficiently implemented and entirely ineffective. Astonishingly, the preschool's owner disclosed sensitive information about the child, breaching privacy laws, and exhibited a disturbing indifference to the fear and distress expressed by other children, including my daughter, who prompted me to meet with the daycare after hearing her detail the severe fear she was experiencing, and that is was the cause of her reluctance to attend the centre any more. Drop-off had become a significant issue for weeks prior. The Manager Bernice has left the centre as soon as she had permanent residency as she couldn’t cope working for the owner a day longer than necessary. Our attempts to address these issues through proper channels were met with obfuscation, legal threats, and a refusal to acknowledge the gravity of the situation. Before our first meeting, the centre’s owner interviewed our daughter without our consent or knowledge in an attempt to gather information to use against us later that day. The preschool violated its policies by allowing screen time multiple times despite assurances that wouldn’t happen. Even more distressingly, our four-year-old was brought to tears while having her diaper put on at night for weeks because a preschool teacher actively teased her, saying that a diaper at night ‘makes her a baby’. This same teacher has told children that they need to behave or they will be put in the ‘baby corner.’ She also threatens children she will ‘put them in the bin’. The Montessori Preschool of Sydney-Zetland has shown a profound failure to ensure the safety and well-being of its charges, to respect parents' concerns, and to adhere to its advertised principles and policies. This negligence has not only endangered children but has also fostered an environment of fear, stress, and distrust. I cannot recommend this preschool to any parent or guardian. We now join the other several parents who have cancelled their child’s enrollment in recent weeks. Children's safety, emotional health, and development are too important to be compromised by such gross mismanagement and with many daycares in the area, it’s easy to avoid this one. Read more

Troy Wilkie

Apr, 2024