Jenny's Kindergarten & Early Learning Oatley

I have been sending my son to Jennys for a few months now and I am very happy with the level of care the staff show and also, the photos and posts throughout the day make me feel more connected. My son loves going to Jennys which to me, is an indication of a fun, caring and safe environment!

I was a undertaking my studies at at Jenny’s Kindergarten Oatley for some months during the year of 2019. During my time as a student I was able to see the centre operations from morning to afternoon. I would not recommend sending your children to this centre!
The food is not up to standards.small portions offered, repetitive meals served for children who need other requirements and not nutritious. There is a lack of respect for cultural food requirements, such as halal meals, some children are just given vegetables if they’re not able to eat meat products.
The centre is lacking resources and is dated.
Centre Manager can be rude and not professional, I even heard of talk for staff to take work home to complete and not be paid, so if you’re looking to obtain employment I would steer away.
Thanks.

The staff are very friendly and understanding, and absolutely delightful and patient with the children. My child loves his friends and educators, and they're as flexible and accommodating as possible with parents like me on call for casual shifts.

I have been working at the Oatley centre for 5 years now, and continue to love what I do. The children coming through the centre make working and learning together so much more enjoyable. I have made long lasting friendships with staff both past and present. The management is approachable, providing feedback and guidance for professional development as they allow experience through all three aged rooms.

All three of my children have formed great friendships here, staff greet all children by name. They provide nutritious, tasty meals and have a solid pre-Kindy educational program.

My child absolutely loves going to Jenny’s. The staff are just amazing, so loving and caring. It makes my life easier knowing I’m leaving her in such a wonderful environment while I’m at work. I would definitely recommend this centre to anyone. If only there were more people like these girls out there looking after our kids.

Jenny's Kindergarten has kept up to the highest standard with it's amazing team and wonderful facilities. I would definitely recommend it to all parents particularly given the warm and supportive environment!

Very friendly staff and fantastic facilities with a large variety of activities for the kids! I would highly recommend this Kindergarten to all families!

After seeing a complaint written here a few days ago I was encouraged to write about my experience as an employee.

For a few months I was employed and worked at Jenny's Kindergarten and Early Learning Centre Oatley. During my time of Employment at Jenny's I had witnessed some concerning things which lead to my resignation.

The first factor was the QUALITY and QUANTITY of food provided to the Children. Some days Children would be provided with only one serving of food and still left hungry. Children with Allergy/Dietary requirements were given sandwiches not a hot meal.

Staffing issues are disgraceful! Staff are made to work sick with no casual staff to relieve them. Children are sent home ill, but staff are expected to stay and work sick if not enough staff to cover ratios.

Staff are expected to open the centre at 7am and carry out work place duties for 30min NOT PAID. Staff are expected to work with an attitude that it is a CHARITY and are not paid for working back or given "time".

Children's Christmas party is set up by staff and Staff are expected to be at the Centre at 7am till 6pm NOT PAID! Again what I mean about acting like it's a CHARITY.

Resources are terrible, I have personally gone to the director to organise more resources for the children and became unapproachable.

It is such a shame for their to be bad management because Staff do an amazing job and are devoted to providing quality care.

If you're thinking about Working for a Jenny's Kindergarten please be aware of the poor working conditions.

I have been working for Jenny's Oatley for the past 6 months and during this time I have enjoyed been apart of the team here. The staff and management have been very accommodating and wonderful. I feel like from the first day I was part of the team here and made to feel very welcome. The families and children are wonderful and we all enjoy learning and developing together.
I am very happy here and enjoy coming to work each day to see what we can learn and teach the children.

Terrible, Terrible, TERRIBLE!
We have enrolled our child so far in 3 different centres and Jenny’s Kindergarten is by far the worst daycare you can possibly enrol your child in.

We chose this centre after we moved into the area and at first glance it looks so impressive, the wall is filled with ‘activities’ done by the kids.

However, 1 month into the enrolment my child was no longer as active, didn’t come home to ‘show-off’ what she learnt that day and appeared to be depressed and bored. Thinking it was simply a case of being in a different and new daycare environment and she needed more time to settle in we gave it another month before we had even more serious doubts about the centre.

There is no arts and craft, no activities whatsoever and ‘Photos of Our Day’ is emailed to parents by 8.30am! We dropped off at 8.30 so we missed out on the photos and have no communication whatsoever as to what activity the children engaged in all day.

Also, if the staff is not the room leader they will refuse to talk to the parents. They simply stare at you as you pick up and drop off. On a talkative day they will say ‘they had a good day’, which is a generic line to tell ALL parents!

The last straw was when another child scratched our child, leaving permanent scars!
Now we understand kids will scratch, hit and bite at that age (0-2) but they were not apologetic, when we tried to discuss with the staff/director, they became all defensive, said the staff was already working very hard keeping all children safe and was more concerned why the other child was scratching rather than the fact our child had a bleeding face, scratched eye and now many months down the track the doctors tell us she is left with permanent scars!

Ever since we enrolled our child in another centre, within 1 week she has gone back to her happy self, came home with new things she learnt that day, brought home arts and crafts projects.she was the happy kid she was BEFORE we enrolled her in JK. Even gained healthy weight from all the yummy food.

Overall we would not recommend this centre. If you have the opportunity to experience another centre and compare to JK you WILL feel the difference!

As a parent of three children I am extremely happy with the staff at Jenny’s Kindergarten.
I find the Director always supportive to all the staff. Many of the staff have been there for years which to me shows a lot, especially in the childcare industry.
Thank you so much to the staff and especially the director for leading such an amazing team. My children love coming there and are so excited to fill me in upon pick up on what they have done!
The new app you have implemented is amazing. Not only do I see the amazing activities they have participated in throughout the day but up to date information of what’s in your amazing fresh menu and when my little one has slept and had a nappy change which makes it that much easier when I arrive home to know where she has left off.
Thank you Jenny’s! You’re amazing!

Hi Management in response to your comments unfortunately I strongly disagree that staff are paid for all additional hours and events! If you went through relevant paper work you would find these hours unpaid. Actually I think Fair trading should be contacted to investigate the matter appropriately and fairly.

Policies and Procedures are in place but not followed when it comes to staff working with Illness. I have personally seen Staff come into work ill and have heard staff say that they were made to come in because we didn't have enough staff to cover them.so I suggest you look into this further.

Menu's is not always ahead too on a daily basis, parents even making comments to me personally as to why it wasn't followed. So yes I'm sure the Menu looks good on paper but unfortunately not implemented.

The Centre does have resources and some good ones but unfortunately not enough variety and when resources are broken or not suitable for use they are not replaced. When confronting the Director excuses were made about their not being enough in the budget to buy more resources.

I had to respond to your comments as frankly I am not lying about these issues and there is a lot of things that the Centre is getting away with. I know the staff their during my time liked working with each other but did not feel comfortable addressing the issues with the director as she could become quite defensive and not take on board feedback positively or appropriately.

Unfortunately I will be following up on these issues now because they have obviously not been investigated properly.

After almost 2 years at JK Oatley it was very sad to leave. Only left because we had to move for work. Awesome bunch of ladies who go above and beyond for your child. Totally give 110% to the kids and they are always there priority. Recently renovated modern playground. Couldn’t recommend any higher. Best centre I have ever been a part of and that’s what it is a part of a family if you join JK.

My son has attended Jenny's Kindergarten and Early Learning Centre for five days a week since he was a baby. I can honestly say, without reservation, how impressed I have been and continue to be, with the quality of care at this wonderful childcare centre. Having to return to full time work is difficult enough, especially having to decide on who to trust to care for your child. I have found the staff at Jenny's to be absolutely dedicated, professional, generous with their time, caring, knowledgable about every stage of his development and hard working. The place is spotlessly clean and the food is nourishing and tasty. I have been so pleased that they celebrate a whole range of activities, including Book Week and also raise money for the Cancer Council and other charities. I was initially impressed with how they honoured the routines I had established at home, around sleep, etc but also how they have been able to encourage my son to develop new skills and interests. They offer a range of extra curricular opportunities, to compliment their already diverse learning and creative play opportunities, such as soccer, which my son looks forward to each week. My son has been afforded the most wonderful learning opportunities, through play and art and song and music and dance, to name a few. I can't overstate how wonderful the staff are to the children there. They are knowledgeable, give you great feedback about your child, no matter whether you ring during the day, or at pick up in the afternoon. It's great as a parent, to know that if you need support in a certain area of your child's development, that the staff are able to give you some advice, but also spend time considering how they can best help your child at daycare. The centre has some great work done to the indoor learning areas and the outdoor space, which has proved a hit with my son. I could not be happier with the quality of care and education that my son receives from this outstanding establishment. I looked long and hard to find a place when he was little and I feel so confident in the we've decision made to send him here. He still loves it and he loves his educators and his friends. The conversations with him when he tells me something new or about his day are really the best example of what happens each day. The smiles and laughter as he recalls his day are the best. As a parent, when you know your child is happy, well-cared for and is having their basic needs and their emotional and social needs met, it's a huge relief. To know that in addition to these needs, the staff create activities to cater for the interests of the children and also to extend them, is really the best you can ask for at any level of education. Miss Sandra is the great Director of the centre. She's taken plenty of calls from me over the years (and still does) and plenty of impromptu conversations at pick up time and she always makes time for parents. She and her wonderful staff are second to none. I have no reservation in recommending this great place with great staff who continue to inspire my son and every other child there, each and every day. They inspire me too.

Our child was at Jenny's Oatley in the nursery for a few months in 2013. After the departure of the room leader mid last year (who was great) it became a very unpleasant experience. Staff turnover there is unbelievable and after the room leader left mid-year most of the carers who remained just seemed completely apathetic and uncaring - or maybe they had just lost hope. There would be new people every time we attended and after a while the carers simply stopped introducing them so we didn't even know who they were. The kids had hardly any toys and no books (except a few, worn cloth baby books) to play with and they rarely got to do any activities such as arts and craft. When we would do the drop off no-one would offer to come and cuddle our child (who was teary and clearly upset) and we actually had to ask someone to come and take our little one. Add to that that often when we used to do the pick up we found all the kids and babies would be plonked sitting in front of the tv. The remaining carers after mid-year never spoke to the children and the sense was that they considered that doing so was a waste of time. All up the centre just had a really bad vibe to it and you could tell that both kids and carers alike hated it there. As a result we simply couldn't wait to take our little one out of there and seeing how good they are at the new centre I have absolutely no doubt that it was the right thing to do.