Tiny Stars Nursery Canterbury, Kent

My children attended the nursery for over 2 years. In the beginning all was fine, until at some point everyone started leaving. My children did not want to go to nursery in the mornings, but I thought it was just a developmental stage. Then they started getting sent home all the time for the smallest of reasons and without a clear policy around when they can return. What followed was even more horrendous. As other parents have described, we started being messaged that they are closing early because of not having enough staff. Then Ofsted closed them down for 6 weeks (we were notified a few hours before the children were due to attend and were told they would try to arrange for childcare cover as the closure was for 6 week! Needless to say none of that happened...). They then increased their prices, reduced opening times, and asked us to bring packed lunches for the kids. "I will still give them a chance I thought.". However, less than two weeks after reopening, they closed down yet again for 2 weeks. My children now go to a different nursery. They eat proper food, play lots of games, and get taken to walks outdoors. I see photos of their activities daily. I can go inside the nursery and help them ease into it. I never realised how much better a nursery can be. Honestly, if you are considering signing up for Tiny Stars, think again! It's a decision you will soon come to regret!
Nov 7th, 2022

This place is a shambles. The owners seem only to care about the bottom line and not the children. By their own admission they have had over 25 members of staff come and go this year all stating that the reason they are leaving is they are over worked due to the lack of additional staff. The owners answer was to not hire any additional staff and instead continually close early or not to open at all at short notice. This went on until Ofsted eventually shut them down, which we were notified about at midnight on a Sunday when they clearly would have known on the Friday, giving no time to arrange alternative child care to be arranged. We have taken our child out of this nursery now as they cannot be trusted. For your own sanity do not use this nursery
Oct 8th, 2022

My son went to this nursery before management changed , management was Annie is was so horrible she left my son wet and pooed him really sinking and she he must have just done it , she doesnt care about the kids , she then got sacked so I will send my other son there team on the floor was great the owner is a right piece of work she didnt support her staff or the kids , in the hot weather she didnt even supply them with drinks or ice creams I as a parent got all the kids and staff what they needed to get through the hot days. I have now been made aware the ANNIE the same ANNIE has been brought back do not send your kids there !! Many thanks
Oct 4th, 2022

No amount of rebranding can save this place and it is not even worth a one star review. As a former employee and to protect myself I will refer to the owner as 'the millionaire' as he used to boast to the former manager that he was one, and his 'partner' has been named in other reviews I have read on here. The millionaire and partner should not own a nursery or have a licence to. Ofsted need to realise this and act on it. They do NOT care about the wellbeing or welfare of the children and that of the staff either. I can only speak from my own experience of working there two days a week for 23 months, but we did not get any lunch breaks on 8-10 hour shifts and were expected to work longer hours to ensure the nursery was cleaned to the best of our ability with the limited resources provided to us. The millionaire and partner did not care. On some occasions, the partner would not order the food for the children on time, so this was left to staff to provide. On a number of occasions I would pay for meals so that the children could eat and other staff had done the same, not only with food but resources too. Despite being a millionaire, he's tight. There was no empathy from either of them, the partner would literally harass parents for payments that the parents alleged they didn't even owe. It is appalling. As awful as being an employee was, through all of this I feel for the children and how this may have impacted them and their families. There was no support or training from the millionaire or the partner and they made experiences for parents and staff very challenging (the other reviews speak for themselves). The core staff I worked with did our very best, despite the challenges set by millionaire and partner, to ensure children felt cared for and supported and we gave every bit of energy and time we had to do this. This meant that sometimes messages would perhaps not be responded to on some occasions, but instead of staring at an iPad we were involved with the children to help support their learning and development. As mentioned previously, the same staff, including myself, worked as hard as we could to provide the best outcome for the children, to the point where it effected their health. In my experience, I lost so much weight from the constant stress and being overworked to the point where my family were concerned for my health. On many occasions, the millionaire and partner would force staff to work out of legal ratio set by the EYFS, further straining staff and showing disregard for children's health and wellbeing. Let this be a lesson to the system and government that ratios in childcare should NOT be relaxed. It is disgraceful that the government would even consider doing this. As I say, this was my experience which is mostly irrelevant to the families of the children who were in the nursery while I worked there but this is the honest truth. I am sad that it came to this and I wish all of the children, and their families, the very best. I cannot say the same for the millionaire or the partner and Ofsted need to remove their licence other wise this cycle will continue.
Oct 31st, 2022

The Owner and Director are both bullies, they seem to think that they can treat their staff like dirt, using threatening behaviour, such as the director saying that she wanted to strangle a member of staff because they would not jump to her every demand when in ratio and the manager being threatened to be kicked by both the owner and the director. The owner used to shout, intimidate and snarl his teeth at the manager. -You do not get lunch breaks - You do not get any support from the owner or director. - They refuse to put any money into the nursery at all, so the children have limited resources available to them. This also then restricts the children's learning and development. - They ignore peoples messages. - You do not have freedom of speech, you are silenced all the time, not able to speak to any officials without them being present and if you speak out of line or say something you shouldn't have, you get shouted at. Not somewhere that should be open at all. They should have their licence removed. Please do not send your children here, they will not get looked after to a high standard, especially with the new team they have working there. Pros The Manager that worked there. Cons Everything!!
Oct 18th, 2022