Wisdom star childcare

I sent my daughter to Wisdom Star for playgroup at 19 months old. Things were not great, and there were many inconsistencies between what was discussed during the school tour and how things progressed once she was enrolled. I hope this review informs the decision of other parents considering this school. We withdrew our daughter from the school after 5 months. Below are some reasons why. While the playgroup teachers in the school were generally caring and nice, there is a lack of structure and many areas for improvement/concern. 1. My daughter entered playgroup and it was her first time in school. The first week was expectedly hard for her but there was little to no updates from the school unless I texted to ask a specific qn. Further to this, there was illogical threats used to attempt to pacify my daughter; “if you don’t eat, mummy and papa won’t come”. This only fortified my daughter’s fear of school and I can’t begin to imagine how anyone could have eaten better with such anxiety and crying. 2. Check in and Check out photos are not mandatorily completed at the door. There will be times where the check in/check out photo is a black photo of nothing or a picture of the wall (???). There was also one time, where the photo was of my daughter squatting and sobbing alone inside the school (post drop off). It is perplexing how the person uploading it did not consider how upsetting it would be for the parent to see this picture almost 35 min after drop off. 3. When the playgroup teacher (EL teacher) is absent, there is simply no lessons or make up activity for the students. Instead, students are fed lunch as early as 10.20am. We know this because we went to pick up my daughter at 10.25am, and the playgroup class was already in the process of eating lunch. (Seated and eating) 4. The food menu is not transparent and disseminated. Even after asking, only the catered menu (lunch) was shared. We had no idea what our daughter was eating for breakfast or snack time. Even when we asked the teacher/teacher assistant at the door, the answer will be something vague like biscuits (what biscuits?) or bread (type of spread etc). 5. There is no health check at the door for the students in the morning. At my daughter’s birthday celebration, there was a fellow classmate with his nose completely drippy and wet and he was allowed to play and sit with the rest. 6. There is little/no outdoor playtime, even though this was assured at the school tour. The principal (P) at that time said that the students go out for a walk/outdoor play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But this is frequently cancelled if there is a teacher absent etc. In the 5 months that my daughter was there, I believe that they went out for a walk about 5 times. 7. Administratively, things are also lacking structure. We submitted the birthday celebration form about 1.5 months before the celebration date. Two days before the celebration, we received a text from the P that said they overlooked that two kids were celebrating on the same day, and asked if it was okay. Given how the celebration was in two days, there was no way for us to ‘not be okay’. The cakes were ordered, the leave was applied for and the children were already looking forward to it. Similarly, we submitted the withdrawal form about 2 months in advance for withdrawal in November. Yet, the December fees were still deducted. Subsequently, the P texted to inform me of this error and assured me that a refund was underway. The school needs more time to figure out their systems and routines for it be an effective learning space for the students. The new P has made some improvement with celebrations for Halloween/Deepavali. There was also a class photo taking session that was arranged at the end of October. But there is a definitely a long way to go.