Young Academics Early Learning Centre - Hillcrest Ave, Penrith 40 Hillcrest Avenue, Penrith, New South Wales 2750

"The Team at Young Academics provide exceptional care for young children. My Husband and I have been extremely happy with the care shown to our Son. The center has fantastic community about everyday events at the center, daily reports, policies and procedures, and a daily menu. Our Son is always excited to arrive at YA! Activities are always set up for the children to engage with first thing in the morning. I would highly recommend YA to other families."

"My son has been with young academics for years now. I cannot express enough the love and gratitude to the many staff, in helping to mold and influence my son in such a positive and loving atmosphere."

"This child care centre is deplorable. The staff are immature, under trained and to be really honest very inappropriate at times. The language from some of them is disgraceful and unprofessional! The centre looked like a scene from Jumunji everytime I picked him up, and the amount of clothing items (including shoes) and water bottles that went missing in the course of the years is worth someone's salary! This child care is known for terminating children with additional needs & behaviours (without a diagnosis) as they do not receive the funding from the government! My son was the 5th child they "expelled" in a period of 5 months! WHAT CHILDCARE CENTRE EXPELS TODDLERS!!!!!?????? My son (now 3.5) has attended this centre since he was 10 months old. Over the course of two and a half years the turnover of management staff and floor staff was incredibly high. Since he commenced there were 4 managers and I lost count of new staff members. Not to mention the amount of casual staff who were randomly in attendance and had not a clue their left from right let alone a thing about children's development. Over the course of a year my son's 'behaviours' escalated and we were advised to take him to get seen by a Pediatrician. The amount of incident reports I filled out over the period of 6 months were shocking. We were always on board with their suggestions given he had been attending the centre for so long. After a long journey, we felt forced to medicate him so he could be 'tolerated' at school. I left work countless times to pick him up as they could not handle his behaviour (mind you, the behaviour he exhibited at the centre was never replicated at home). We were promised we would be given 8 weeks to see if his behaviour improved, this was provided to me in WRITING by the centre's team leader. The first day he attended on the medication I was called at work and advised he was terminated EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. They did not care whatsoever about the ramifications this had on me personally and they were very well aware of my personal circumstances given I was known to the centre for over 3 years! I am disgusted and ashamed of them and I would highly recommend you AVOID this centre unless your child walks around with a gold encrusted HALO and sits still 24/7. They are not equipped to handle any sort of behavioural issue and do not take kindly to children who sit outside the box of "normal". I truly believe my son was being provoked and definitely not supported correctly at all as he is HAPPY AND THRIVING at his new childcare centre which is a family owned centre near me. Young Academics is a large franchise with centres absolutely everywhere and they lack quality service and care more about their pocket than the wellbeing and education of your child. SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AND PUT IT ELSEWHERE! Word of advice, instead of expelling innocent children, how about you EXPEL some of your staff who would struggle to look after a pet bird! Shame on every single one of you!"

"I am still appalled that my grandson, after attending this day care for 3 years, since he was 9 months old, was expelled in October 2022 for ‘bad’ behaviour. On what planet does a 3-year-old get expelled from day care. This centre should take a long hard look at their staff and their lack of ability to deal with children who aren’t perfect angels. Their inexperience and unaccountability are mind blowing. This is on the staff, not the kids. Kids are not the problem at this age, it’s the careers who are not equipped with the right training on how to deal with children of all personality types or traits outside the box. Every person I’ve told this story to is gob smacked at the absurdity of their actions. My daughter had to stop working, give up her income, because at that late stage in the year there were no centres with availability. 3 months later he’s at his new day care and thriving in the way he should be, with staff who actually have the experience, maturity and capabilities to deal with my grandson’s mild ADHD. If your child under 5 isn’t a perfect robot, do not send them to this day care. They will leave you high and dry when you least expect. I could seriously write a book on all the shenanigans of this day care centre, and some of its staff. It’s a shambles and they ought to be ashamed of themselves."

"If your child requires a little extra attention but doesn’t have an offical diagnosis I wouldn’t even bother with this money hungry centre. I enquired with young academics Penrith and told them all about my son and the therapies he’s attending and I was told he would be supported by them. I was so wrong. They wasted three weeks of my time. I attended a tour and then an orientation. They were quite happy to take my money and make a number of false promises. After my sons FIRST day, which was cut short because he had a few behavioural issues, the “ area manager” called me to terminate my son from the school but asked if I wanted my daughter to continue there. You let my son down and you didn’t even give him a chance. I was told he would be supported multiple times from different staff members, especially because he’s already attending therapies but because he doesn’t have an offical diagnosis they can’t get extra funding for him. Absolutely disgusting he’s 3 years old he’s not a criminal. Shame on you all."