Would not recommend sending your child here. I attended a centre tour with the Regional Manager and it was great - the centre was clean, the staff smiled and said hello and it was very welcoming. Then I attended an Orientation. I received 3 reminders of my attendance and when I arrived they didn’t know who I was, that I was attending, my child’s name or when I was starting/what days. I was given another tour and during that time 3 casuals arrived and interrupted to ask where they needed to go. The person showing me around seemed like 2IC and it was chaotic. She left me in the babies room. The lead educator told me she had resigned and left in the room was 1 full time educator who didn’t smile at us, say anything or engage with my son, 2 trainees (who were lovely but one had only just started that week) and casuals. There was such a distinct lack of leadership and organisation. Children were crying and coming up to me rather than educators. Children were missing shoes and had snotty noses. No one seemed to really engage with the children in the babies section other than the brand new trainee and the exiting lead educator. They didn’t even have an “All About Me” form to complete because “they’ve lost them”. As someone who has run a 220 employee aged care business I get it’s a tough industry but they’re clearly chronically understaffed, relying on agency employees and struggling to recruit and retain quality and experienced employees. Agency has a place and I’m sure the employees are great, but I would prefer a centre that has their own staff so my child sees the same face and we know their movements (given the recent news about terrible things happening in VIC centres). I imagine (having run my own business for 10 years) this is because their employee value proposition isn’t strong and is a reflection on the culture of the corporate organisation behind the brand. Quality people aren’t perhaps as attracted to it as much as other centres. It’ll get there I imagine but it will take time and until then they need to get their staff and team sorted before they take on new families. They’re having an influx of new children I was told and the Centre Director who I never met and was never on the floor (a problem in my opinion) mentioned they had a change in staff and leadership. Companies like this are so quick to blame the employees or the Centre Managers. We see it in aged care all the time. The problem lies with the structure, the leadership and the big beast of the business struggling to maintain the mission - which should be children’s wellbeing and safety. I’ve had a good experience with my elder daughter being part of a national childcare brand so it’s not like this for every brand. However LZ has had some significant media coverage recently and I think it speaks volumes about how poor the governance, quality, leadership and employee experience is. I’m lucky I’m not desperate for childcare and have decided to remove my son and wait for my preferred centres. Also - they’ve had an influx of 5 star reviews with no comments all on the same day in October 2025. This is so obviously friends/staff trying to change the rating. Further, LZ Kiama seems to ignore negative reviews on here and only respond to the positive ones. They’re trying to falsely inflate their score and not showing accountability. We see it all the time in business and these tactics are disingenuous and should be concerning to families.

My Daughter has started attending in October this year and loves going!