We were part of Freshwater OAC for about 3.5 years, with both our kids enrolled from 9 months old. While OAC served us well early on, our view shifted over the past year, so I wanted to share a balanced perspective for anyone considering the centre. When we joined, we lived nearby, met the director (who left shortly after), and despite the very high fees ($210–$230/day), we signed up straight away. The physical centre is excellent – modern, spacious, great outdoor area – and the app updates were lovely, especially for overseas family. The educators have always been warm, and we’ve never had concerns about our kids’ safety. The challenges emerged more recently. There’s rarely anyone at the front desk during morning drop-off and when there is, they will be on the computer and ignore us. It’s small, but when kids are unsettled, a welcoming face really helps – and it’s consistently missing. There has also been noticeable under-resourcing and educator turnover, especially in the preschool rooms. It wasn’t unusual to see 10–15 kids with one educator. On those mornings, if our daughter was upset, we were often left alone to manage it, which only made things harder. Subjectively, the overall “energy” of the centre has felt increasingly negative. Communication has also been poor: little visibility into upcoming activities, dress-up days, or special events, and often last-minute when we did get something. We were also never told when our kids were moving up rooms. More than once, we only found out after it happened. The most frustrating example was our daughter being held back from moving up with her friends eight months ago. We weren’t told at the time, and despite others moving out of the room above, she’s still separated from her peers and mixing mostly with younger kids, which has affected her socially. When she starts at Harbord Community Preschool next year, we asked to keep her at OAC one day a week. We know several families who do this, but we were told repeatedly that it wasn’t allowed. After 3.5 years with two children enrolled, that was disappointing and forced us to look elsewhere. Once we toured other centres, it became clear how much we were missing. The new centre near Freshwater offered things we never had at OAC: Individual learning plans Parent-teacher meetings Support with things like potty training Parent socials External programs like dance and soccer Independent quality oversight They also had no issue with part-time arrangements and made a point of moving kids up together. During our trial visit, all the children knew the director and ran up for hugs – something we’d never seen at OAC. That sealed our decision to leave.

Expensive but worth it. Very well run schedule. Educators are amazing.

OAC Freshwater has been a wonderful centre for our son. He's been thoroughly well looked after, and has thrived and made many little friends thanks to the educators. He has grown confident whilst here, and has learnt to express his emotions and needs to the educators readily. The team has really tried to do their best to cater for his needs. Louise has been just a wonderful person to deal with, she is professional, responsive and kind. Pinky the Educator had a special bond with my son and has been caring and especially inclusive in facilitating group play for my son who initially struggled to fit in a social play setting. Juan was also a great Educator too. Thank you for all the staff and well done.

I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Only about children at Freshwater. My daughter loves going to Kindy and she loves the daily planned activities. The team at OAC have helped out with her toilet training which has been amazing and they have been so supportive and accommodating regarding my daughter’s dietary requirements. Her diet is quite restrictive and we have experimented with a few different diets and the OAC team have always jumped on board to support us in anyway they can. I have had my daughter attend another kindergarten which was ok but when I moved her to OAC I realised they were the best of the best. If you want your child to have the opportunity to have a wonderful experience at kindergarten I would recommend OAC to anyone

Friendly and welcoming staff , the menus are fantastic, oac really focuses on nutrition and the chef really knows his stuff.. There educational programs are amazing.. I highly recommend only about children freshwater campus for your child care needs …

Don't send you kids here. There are some kind and friendly educators but Only About Children corporate is awful and they ruin the experience for your children. They dont pay their staff enough so they are constantly changing educators, they put work experience students in charge of the children, they dont follow through with what they promise in their tours or marketing, they dont work with parents to update them on their children's strengths, their centralise management is horrible to deal with, they even made it challenging to get my bond refund back and continued to charge me even after I ended my child's enrolment. Dont send you children here, there are far better options out there that focus less on profit and more on your children's well being.