Fancy having the new director leave a 5 star review on the service she is running, with no child present at the service. Having been inside this service and seeing first hand how they run, I can say that there are no opportunities for your children to thrive. While the educators do provide care for the children at the centre, there is no passion or interest amongst the staff in supporting the children to grow, and as a result there's nothing nurturing about the care offered. It's a matter of opening the doors at 7am, and counting down the hours until the children go home. This service runs off greed, and instead of working on their educators’ professional development, they spend more time asking them to leave a 5 star review to maintain a "high standard" reputation. The exceeding sign you see out front, is something that was achieved by a wonderful team who were later shooed out by new management, leaving the service run by new faces and a lack of trusting relationships with families. While all services have room for improvement... please listen to these reviews and find a space where you know your child is confident, thriving, and loving their learning journey.

Do not send your child to this centre. The quality of care is deeply concerning, and it is very clear that profit is prioritised over the well-being of the children. Look at the genuine reviews that have come from other families who have had terrible experiences here, and not from educators who have just given them 5 stars to boost their ratings.

I really love Mount Colah centre! My daughter is usually very shy and didn’t like to speak much. But after just three months here, we’ve seen such a big change—she’s started to speak more and more every day. Thank you so much to the educators for your patience, care, and support. You’ve made such a positive difference in her life!

Have had a great experience at the centre, aware of the history but none of that is evident anymore, great communication, committed team and always maintaining ratios and even having extra educators to support. I also haven't seen an agency staff member in months. There is new management, so give the centre a go and don't listen to the old reviews of families who have left months/years ago and not experienced all of the changes that have been put in place. They are also currently doing incursions once a month as a bonus for families.

Do NOT send your child to Little Zak’s Mount Colah. My experience with this centre has been nothing short of a challenge and heartbreak. As a parent, I cannot stress enough how deeply concerned I am about the standard of care, professionalism and operations at this service. What you’re promised at enrolment is a far cry from the reality your child and family will face. Families are regularly hit with extra and unexplained fees and communication with management and educators is often disconnected and unhelpful. Getting basic updates about your child’s day feels like an uphill battle. I've had to escalate serious concerns directly to the Department of Education due to the mismanagement and chaotic running of the centre. The rooms were constantly over staff to child ratio, with staff stretched thin and relying heavily on each other to get through the day. Children were left in large groups with minimal supervision and the quality and quantity of food provided is inadequate, especially considering the high fees families are paying. There have been multiple injury and incident reports involving my child and others and it's alarming how frequent departmental visits for compliance have become. Children were exposed to distressed, overwhelmed staff and due to extremely high staff turnover, the centre relies heavily on agency workers, creating a revolving door of unfamiliar faces. Educators are underpaid, overworked and often pushed out due to toxic business practices. Resources for meaningful learning experiences are minimal, outdated or non existent. There’s a severe lack of investment in both the children’s development and the wellbeing of staff. The centre fails to provide promised extras like incursions or excursions and any claims of being "different" or "premium" are simply false advertising. The cleanliness of the service is deeply concerning. From what I’ve witnessed, educators are expected to clean on top of caring for children, with only a weekly cleaner provided. Privacy is also an issue as children have been posted on social media platforms without permission, completely disregarding family rights and confidentiality. The centre’s communication with families, both in person and via the online portal is inconsistent, vague and often dismissive of concerns. There is no transparency, no accountability and certainly no sense of the nurturing, safe environment every child deserves. My child was exposed to multiple inappropriate situations that no family should ever have to accept. Please, read the reviews, listen to the local community and trust your instincts. This is NOT the place for your child to be, become, or belong.

Some issues they need to work through. We liked it at first due to the cots (my son was young and needed two naps a day) They did one activity with a snake handler that was cool like a year ago, other than that activities were at a minimum- “exploring green toys” in the garden or “playing with water outside” felt basic now I’m at a centre that has a rotating calendar with depth. They forced a whole bunch of staff to commute to Dundas valley LZ or quit. I cannot in good conscience give my money and trust in a company that treats its staff, primarily hard working women with their own carers responsibilities with this level of respect. It caused a fallout of much loved room leaders to leave also in solidarity and for me this loss of this continuity of care prompted me into action. Maybe 2 times out of 10 they’ll be the right staff to children ratio due to creativity with the schedules and people going up or downstairs. A corporation keeps it close to the bone to maximise profits. With my first child I believed the ratings of “Exceeding” but now i know you have to look beyond that, its not to be trusted. Give it another year maybe they’ll redeem and learn from the past 6months. The building is in good condition and outdoor play a selling point. Just needs better focus on safety, activities, communication and staff retention.

This review is for prospective parents from a family that has chosen to remain at the centre. The recent negative commentary you’ll have read stems from a baffling decision made at management level that ended up forcing out several beloved staff members who had strong relationships with the children. This decision and poor management thereafter led to the remaining longstanding staff moving on, along with many families. As a family that has been with LZ Mt C for 3 years (and potentially another 4), this has impacted us hugely. My child no longer has any educators or friends remaining who were there when she started and it has become tough to convince her to go each week. But please be reassured that the staff currently at the centre do a great job caring for and educating our children. Is it comparable to a smaller centre? No. But as far as I know we aren’t facing the kinds of worries we are reading about in the news at other centres. It feels like ratios can be a problem, but I mostly feel safe leaving my 3.5 year old there. Little Zaks as a group is hugely profit-driven (100m revenue / 20m profit posted in FY24). This in itself isn’t a problem - all businesses are profit-driven - however the problem comes from it acting like the big corporation it is. They failed to recognise that parents genuinely care about how frontline staff are treated as these are the people helping raise our kids. However, I will say that the CEO was open to hearing feedback from parents so I’m hopeful that over time LZ Mt C will return to a community-led culture. I also hope that at an HQ level they now recognise that the investment parents make in them is not just financial, but emotional. In the hope that current staff are happy and not in a hurry to move on, I can say that LZ is a decent centre, with good staff, reasonable pricing, good food, and a great outdoor play space.

We’re personally very happy with Miss Rubab and Miss Kanchan in 0-2 years old room and little inventors’ room. They have created a great bond with my boys and the drop off is no longer stressful for us. Nevertheless all educators in these rooms are doing amazing considering the amount of work they have.

I am disappointed with the care my child has / has not received here. My wife has previously posted a review outlining only SOME of the issues at Mount Colah Little Zaks. Their respond to this was, who are you and what centre do you attend we can’t find you in our records… yet her full name and review was posted for the daycare our child attends. It’s disheartening to know they are genuinely disregarding any reviews or feedback and are washing their hands of bad publicity and pretending that you are not one of the families at their facility. I wouldn’t recommend this centre and I’m devastated that we kept our daughter here as long as we did, her health and her wellbeing has suffered being at this centre. Even being on waitlists at other centres I feel like we have had a better connection and rapport with staff and managers than what we have done at Little Zak’s Mount Colah.