Great Beginnings Secret Harbour - Secret Harbour, Western Australia

Dale A.

We’ve had our child at GB Secret Harbour since they were 9 months old, and now at 2.5 years old, they still really enjoy it. The educators are caring, attentive, and truly invested in the children's well-being and development. They provide a balanced mix of creative and engaging activities, with plenty of outdoor play, which our child thrives on.

The meals provided are nutritious and well-balanced, and our child often goes back for extra portions.

While there was a brief period of challenges under a short-term manager, this was only a small bump in an otherwise great experience. The team has always remained dedicated, creating a warm and nurturing environment. We’re so grateful for the love and care they show our child every day.

We would recommend this centre to any parent looking for a place where their little one will be happy, engaged, and well cared for.

Paul H.

Before I share my bad experience with Great Begginings Secret Harbour I’ll share some positives.

The current manager is truly trying to improve the centre. Individually, the educators are lovely people who don’t get enough thanks for their job they do and unfortunately cop all the flack which they don’t deserve.

This was my first experience placing a child in daycare. My experience relates to the nursery room.

This is the most expensive daycare in the area and provides the worst service.

Early on, a new manager came in from interstate. She told us that she was brought in to fix all the issues and that she wouldn’t send her own children there. She only lasted a few weeks before going off on long personal leave.

We were provided food menus that would be provided to the children. These menus weren’t followed as I was told that the food wasn’t appropriate for the children

We didn’t know who would be in the room looking after our child each day. On multiple occasions when I picked up my boy they couldn’t provide me any information on how he went for the day as staff regularly were swapped around. On a few occasions the educator didn’t even know my son’s name and when I asked about how he ate I was told they think he ate lunch as it was on his shirt.

Staff turn over / shortage was such an issue they could only provide only one full time educator in the nursery. That educator ended up leaving. Even when meeting ratios, one educator can’t manage feeding, changing and providing education / playtime especially at that age. Towards the end they never took my boy outside.

So many babies left to go to other centres. We stuck it out after repeatedly being promised changes were coming. They never came. We changed centres and after a month we have noticed a massive difference in the quality of care provided. My boy is noticeably happier and thriving.

My boy had some great days at Great Beginnings thanks to some of the educators. Unfortunately they lack off staff and high turnover meant my boy wasn’t getting what he needed and deserved.

Despite individual educators being really responsive they didn’t seem to have any support and weren’t able to provide many Learning opportunities apart from just ensuring the children were fed and changed.

Tayla W.

First I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to the educators and new management at GBSH

I just wanted to share my appreciation and experience with GBSH.

I enrolled my kids just over a year ago one into the toddler room and 1 into kindy room. This was our first experience with daycare after returning to work. We did a walkthrough to check the centre out before we started, we had a wonderful experience with the educator giving us a run down of how it all works and making us feel super comfortable with our decision.

The first few months were a mixture of good and bad experiences it was more for me todo with the high turn around with staff but ultimately I never felt that my children’s education was affected by this.
My son was very shy prior to his enrolment, he has made wonderful friends with the kids and has really come out of his shell.

I found since the centre has come under new management Jess has made a HUGEEE impact to the centre and has really turned it around.

They are super accommodating to our kids needs and have been wonderful with allowing day changes when needed due to changes in work.

I recently went through the process of ending care for my son as he started kindy this year and it was such a simple process, but he was really sad to go he loves going in and dropping his sister off and seeing everyone still at pick up time.

My daughter continues to go to GBSH, she loves it and I couldn’t thank the educators at this centre enough, my daughter absolutely loves going to “school” here and I feel like she is thriving from it!

I also really love the daily updates, especially with toilet training we’ve been able to continue our toilet training from home and it’s followed into the centre which has been a really positive impact for her.

The level of care the educators really show towards my kids has been nothing short of amazing I couldn’t recommend themenough and I am so glad we have been apart of the centre journey as it has really improved in the most recent months.

Thank you again for all you do 🫶🏻

Ruby R.

I had a really terrible experience with staff here. A majority of the staff are very rude and I caught the team leader yelling at a child one day when I came to pick my son up early. The staff made little to no effort to action any care requests for my son who is autistic, they never made the effort to include him in activities or update daily photos of him like they did with the other kids. I felt like my son was like left to play by himself mostly, he never came home having learnt anything new. My son actually developed alot of anxiety over attending daycare, to the point where I couldn't take him anywhere without him crying "no school, no school!"

I had typed up a huge review detailing all my terrible experiences here and what ultimately led me to cancelling my sons care here but it literally exceeded the character limit. I tried to talk to management about my concerns before and after I cancelled my sons care here, I also called the area manager and left a voice message but they never got back to me. They are not really interested in taking on feedback from parents to improve the service and experience, they just deny and deflect.

My son and I are still recovering from our terrible ordeal at this Centre.
Read the reviews, and don't send your kids here!

Tai R.

Unfortunately can’t recommend this centre to others. My 2 sons attended for roughly a year and a half, there were new centre managers every few months while we were there (one lasting barely a month). The high staff turn over is ridiculous and my children were in hysterics at drop off every morning (while staff stood and stared at me until I asked for help.) Only to find out that staff were shouting at my 1.5 year old, which explains the distress at drop off. Overall, majority of staff were unfriendly and the care was not great at all. My children have been at a new centre for 4 months now and have no issues with drop off whatsoever and always come home happy. A few of the staff were friendly but a lot showed little to no enthusiasm for their job. Among other issues, I was not happy with the overall care given at this centre.

Summer S.

I would advise everyone to steer clear from this daycare at all costs, if I could give zero stars I would. We have had so many bad experiences with this daycare: she came home from daycare wearing the same nappy I had put on her in the morning told staff and they proceeded to lie to me same as the centre director. Never gets them access to water my son is always coming home so thirsty and his water bottle hadn’t been touched. We would pick him up and there would be days we’re there would be 1 educator to 9 kids. Different educator in the room every time had no idea who the kids even were. The high staff turnover is ridiculous, they don’t even tell us anymore when someone is leaving because they would be doing an announcement about it every 2 days. This daycare even didn’t know where my son was for about 7 minutes and then proceeded to lie about the times and try to cover it up. New centre director makes all these promises to change the daycare yet she has not made any changes. This daycare is going down hill extremely fast!!

Daniela D. P.

Our son has loved every moment here, the staff are warm and friendly, the centre is bright and clean with a large outdoor area. We have nothing but good things to say about the centre, he spent 6 months in the nursery room and is still currently in the toddler one room where he has lots of fun and has made really good friends

Angelique O.

After your disgusting response good riddance and clearly I am not the only one noticing your horrendous behaviour!!! My child was removed immediately due to him being so distressed screaming his lungs out and no one attending to him. No need to sneak him out as he was outside and I walked to him to get him no teacher in sight! It took you. Over 40min to ask met whether I have taken my child out. I was assured and promised my wee man will be looked after with care but clearly you just added to his stress and anxiety which we need to try and rectify now!!! His new school has been nothing short of incredible! So goes to show! If you are not in it with the right intentions it will catch up with you!

It is very sad that you try and push blame on parents for the centre's behaviors.

Observations made over the 4 weeks my wee man was there. Very disappointing and a few heartbreaking and questionable incidents occured which resulted in removing him with immediate effect.