Willowbrae Childcare Academy Victoria

Can't say enough great things after three years with our son at Willowbrae. He just graduated into kindergarten and we are on the wait list with our #2. Very organized system and caring staff, with professional management. A few highlights: 1) food provided, 2) excellent hours to accommodate working professionals, 3) professional orientation guide and onboarding, mobile app and online portal with daily updates, 4) video camera of main play areas for parents who want peace of mind that the caregiving is good, 5) consistently amazing staff! A special bonus was the graduation, attended by staff, management and the owner who was very friendly with a beautiful young family. The work they do at Willowbrae is so important. To the team, thank-you so much for caring for our son. The work you do each and every day is so important, and you are really, really good at it. Keep up the amazing work!! :)

Owner or manager is shouting slurs and bullying unhoused folks away from the vicious poodle patio. It’s ridiculous how mean, rude and not compassionate he was. Even to crisis workers, that showed up. I wouldn’t bring my kids to this childcare. It was a middle aged man with black clothing and balding hair.

Between my 1.5 y/o son and my six y/o daughter, I have had my kids enrolled in about seven different daycares so far. I can say with confidence that Willowbrae Victoria is a great daycare and has many benefits that I have not experienced in other daycares. I find that the Director is professional, a good communicator, and I appreciate that they follow the wait list and reply to emails with great degree of granularity. The teachers are very professional, for example, one of the teachers has multiple post secondary degrees and was an experienced pedagogue in South Korea. The teachers are very loving, and are always there to comfort the kids if they are upset. I appreciate the food being served to kids, there is so much food waste with my toddler and the food is fresh, and it saves me the hassle from having to pack endless snacks. I like how they offer milk, and everything is made on site and warm, fresh and /or refrigerated. I really like the outdoor space upstairs, even though it doesn’t have any greenery, it is extremely safe for toddlers. There aren’t any playgrounds that I know of where you can let a one-year-old just roam around and have free play. All the kids seem very happy upstairs. Well, the classroom didn’t have some of the toys my son really loves (cars cars cars) they let us donate some to the classroom and he is very happy now. The daycare was recommended by a number of parents all of whom have other options and are very happy there. With the CCRFI, the rate is not that much higher than others. I personally don’t look at cameras, etc., but that is an interesting feature if someone wants some video reassurance that their kid is well cared for.