Cherie Hearts

[Pauline]

[Moderator's note: Topics merged.]


Dear mommies,

Any of you have kids with Golden Kids at Blk 262 Boon Lay Drive?
I was told it will be taken over by Cherie Hearts officially in Oct 08, and existing curriculums would be changed.
How was everything in Golden Kids then, wondering if you have any concerns with the take over...?

I have registered my girl with Golden Kids, might put her there after she turns 18 months old, due to 0.5km proximity between our home and my mom's, in case emergency needed.

However, realised the new principal could not write grammatically correct English - extracted from her actual emails: \"the teacher will still remain the same and there will be a few more new teacher due more intake of students\"; \"total we had 7 teachers all is experience and qualiify teachers who had been 8 to 9 year with Golden-kids\". She probably meant they have been around that long and will stay put.

It makes me wonder on the standard of langauges of the centre/s... I would not want my girl to adapt to Sing-lish prior to proper English

[kwcllf]

Hi,


I have not logged in for quite a while. However, we have a bad experience at CH which I think I would like to share.

Before we enrolled our 2 kids there, SAF Depot Rd branch, we were promised that we can visit our children during our lunch time. In fact, we were specifically told that it was encouraged for bonding purposes. Anyway, we can’t stay around for long during the lunch visit as we are working in town and have to rush back.

During the initial period, everything was OK. But then we discovered some lapses duirng our daily visit there during lunch. Like missing ingredients in food and my daughter was hardly told to drink any water and etc…

When such things were finally brought up (cannot tahan already), we were barred from entering the premises to catch a look at our child. The HQ said it was their policy that no parents are allowed to enter the premises???

I am surprised to read here that their HQ at Harbourfront is so lax with security. You know, another reason they said we cannot enter its premises is due to security reason.

Now, I know what bullshit it is!!!

[winth]

[quote]Like missing ingredients in food and my daughter was hardly told to drink any water and etc........ [/quote]
Hi, my child's small water bottle can last him the whole day while he's there at the childcare... And it's those medium sized bottles. When I saw that he always come back with unfinished water, I told him that he needs to finish it and get the teacher to refill.

My child followed the instruction of finishing his water. But no teacher ever helped him to refill the water. I had to tell teacher when I came to collect him to help refill his water bottle. But still no change.

For breakfast, he was given only a small cup of milo and 2 pieces of biscuits, which was barely enough for him. And his mouth really stinks from lack of water. Cannot take it down either.

[kwcllf]

Hi Winth,


To overcome the problem of water not being topped up, we decided to fill up another bottle and exchanged it when we visit them during our lunch time.

It is also more hygienic. Imagine the food particles in the water bottle when they drank the water after their lunch and still they have to drink the same water till the end of the day!!

Also, I don’t like the idea that they poured hot water into the plastic dispensers as this will caused leeching of chemicals into the water. This could cause some serious helath problems, as studies have discovered.

By the way, when your child was at CH HarbourFront, were you allowed to enter the childcare centre to see him/her? Any idea whether CH staff who have children at the centre visit their children during lunch-time. We were told that the staff who have chldren there would not see their children. I am really sceptical about this.

[kwcllf]

Hi Junkfood,


I am wondering whether we could share ours and our children’s experiences in the childcare centre.

As we are all busy working parents, we don’t have the chance to interact with each other and share our thoughts and experiences. I think if more parents can get together or contact each other in whatever way, it can act as a "check & balance" on the childcare centre. This will keep them on the toes.

You can always send me a private message if you feel the open forum may not be the best place to share "sensitive" information.

[winth]

Hi kwcllf, when I was viewing CH@HarbourFront, they said they had a special room built for parents who come visit their children during activities time. Inside the room, is a see-through panel but from the outside of the room, the children will see only a mirror.


Through the room, the Principal there claimed that the parents can see their children and not cause any disturbance to their daily activities. Soon after I enrolled, they said the room is not usable anymore. Don't understand why (back then) but now I think I can understand. Suspect many parents must have commented and feedback negatively about how their children are taken care of. :lol:

Anyway, I didn't have the time to go visit my boy then, so that special facility was not really useful to me.

[ChiefKiasu]

winth:

Hi kwcllf, when I was viewing CH@HarbourFront, they said they had a special room built for parents who come visit their children during activities time. Inside the room, is a see-through panel but from the outside of the room, the children will see only a mirror...

The thing I like about Schoolhouse By The Bay is that parents are welcome to stay in the \"command centre\" which has a one-way mirror to ALL the nursery rooms to view activities in the centre. Such openness creates a high level of trust between parents and the childcare, that parents are free to check and feedback on what is going on in the childcare which would lead to improvements in overall service levels. Yes, it is tedious to set up, and there will always be negative feedback. But isn't that quintessential of an organization which is confident of their practices and is willing to garner real feedback to monitor and improve their own service levels?

Unfortunately, such a practice is in the minority in Singapore. Most childcare services have closed door policies when it comes to allowing parents to monitor their services. Given all the discussions about having more babies and getting women back to the workforce, we should encourage the Government to regulate childcare services so that we can at least be assured of a minimum level of quality of service that we are comfortable with. And transparency should be part of this regulation.

[kwcllf]

Hi Winth & Chief Kiasu,


I totally agree that transparancy is important and if the childcare centre has nothing to hide, they should not be afraid to have parents visiting their children, as long as they do not disturb the classes.

I have spoken to MCYS and they said they do not have regulation pertaining to visitation rights. MCYS said it is best for parents and the centre to work out a mutually agreeable solution. I think this is giving the childcare centres too much leeway. Just like my case, they will cite their organisation rules, security. etc… to prevent us from entering the premises. So what can we do.

Perhaps, all parents with young children attending childcare centres should come together to voice our concerns and "force" MCYS to implement registration to ensure that the childcare centres do not "shortchanged" us.

Anyone has any idea how to go about it?

[kwcllf]

Quote:

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In my humble opinion, rather than ‘bad-mouthing’ any organisations, since you are not happy with them, i really wonder why you are still there? I always believe when you point finger at someone, one finger is pointed to that person, while 3 fingers are pointing back at you!

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Hi njs,

Glad to hear you are very happy with Cherie Hearts. Hope we can say the same and I will very much to correct your misconception.

It was NEVER our intention to "bad-mouthed" any organisation. Why would I put my children in the centre and "CREATE TROUBLE" and sour the relationship. For your info, the lapses by the childcare centre that I have mentioned are not the only ones. We have tried to "overlook" them initially but if the lapses were repeated, don’t you think it should be addressed?


Of course, we could look for another childcare centre and for your info, it remains an option but will have to wait. Maybe, your children are not in primary school yet and you may not have known that primary schools are having their year-end exams NOW!

I am glad to hear of happy parents who are totally at ease with the childcare centres that they enrolled their children in. Unfortunately, we unlike you, could see quite a number of FLAWS.

Also, from this forum, you could see that other parents do have their grouses. It is not just us "POINTING A FINGER AT OTHERS WITHOUT KNOWING THAT 3 FINGERS ARE POINTING BACK AT OURSELVES. Maybe, many of them prefer to "overlook" them as changing to another childcare centre can be time consuming and disruptive.

Again, when you mentioned that "it is so human to SEE the FLAWS and FORGET the GOOD", do you think the lapses I have brought up are acceptable?

[kwcllf]

quote:

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With regards to the viewing gallery…yes, it is still there, and i’ve always use it to look at my children whenever i went there, even during lunch hours. I was never stopped from using the viewing gallery.
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I wonder how come the viewing gallery was opened to parents initially, then now allowed to use. Now, according to njs, they can use it.

Don’t you think there is alot of flip-flop in policies. I think if the organisation is confident of thier service standards, there is no need to be so paranoid.