In addition to my husband's review, I would like to add a few things-
The biggest highlight is that the teachers only care about meeting their standards and not about your children.
My son was 2 and a half years old when he started daycare with BRELC. Even after repeatedly telling the teachers that we have just moved from another country and my son has only started learning english and the poor thing is still settling in a NEW COUNTRY, the teachers, especially Zoi kept complaining every day about how he doesn't like group time, doesn't do any activities, doesn't play with other children, how he keeps running here and there, how he doesn't "listen", and on and on and on. She told me every day to start being "firm" with him at home, "you should do this at home and that at home", etc. They also mentioned how he took a long time to move from one activity to another and a long time to eat. She often called him "cheeky" and said he cries "CROCODILE TEARS"!!!
They were totally incapable in getting him involved in the activities and becoming friends with the other children, as this is a teacher's responsibility that every child feels seen and included.
They gave us this feedback at every pick-up in front of my child which lowered his confidence completely. They even had me in tears one day by giving constant negative feedback about my child. The teachers didn't know how to handle my child professionally and there is often agency staff who is not experienced. My child cried the entire time and always came home with swollen eyes and a sticky face with dried up tears.
As this was our first daycare experience, we asked some friends if this was normal, and they said absolutely not!!!
Just to clarify, my son who used to be a very confident, happy, curious, kind, smiling child, withdrew completely and had almost stopped smiling. He used to be a friendly child who played with other children happily. He started having SEVERE ANXIETY and completely refused to go to daycare!! He woke up with NIGHTMARES and cried "please don't take me to school" and cried at night! He would often try to tell us how there is a "dinosaur" in school and that he is scared, I wonder whom he was talking about.
He started looking depressed, refused food, had dark circles around his eyes and always asked for me to hold him.
We communicated all of this to them and what they told us was that they would like to "OBSERVE" my child on a park-play day to see if he plays with other children. They always blamed their incompetency on my poor child who was just trying to settle in a new country. The center director Anna gave us so much attitude on our decision to remove my son from there and had an argument with my husband as well.
On my son's last day at BRELC, when I clearly told him that you never have to come back here, I saw his real smile for the first time in 2 months!!!
I thank my starts that a strong gut feeling told me that I have to get my son out of there. I will always have the guilt of not getting my son out of there earlier.
Guess what - he went to another daycare and settled there within 2 WEEKS!! He absolutely loves group time, activities, plays with other children, made friends, and the teachers are so professional, HONEST and caring!! They communicated with him via play and actions from day 1, and now he speaks good english as well.
Now that my son can communicate a lot better, he often tells us about how his old school was bad, and he never wants to go back there, and how much he loves his new school.