Cranfield Academy Wake Forest — Local services in Wake Forest

BEWARE - especially if your child has an allergy!

Before I go into the allergies, be prepared for MAJOR teacher turnover at this place. Not because of the teachers, but because of the way they are treated by the owners. The owners do not treat the staff well and moral is very low because of that causing high turnover.

Also, the 5 star reviews are all from a promotion they run where you can get a discount on tuition.

My daughter has been allergic to dairy since she was born, so it’s on all her paperwork, her infant teacher and crawler teacher were great about it and very aware. (One time when she was in the crawler room she was given yogurt by a new teacher but the teacher apologized and we moved on).

In the time she was in the 12-18 month room she went through 5 different teachers, After one teacher was fired, I went to the people at the front desk and reviewed my daughters dairy allergy and made sure all the new teachers/subs would be aware of her allergy, everyone assured me they knew.

My Daughter had been getting really sick (diarrhea, blood in her stool etc.) I asked if they would review the video and they did and found out all the teachers had been giving her dairy all day, mozzarella sticks, pizza everything. They talked to the teacher in the room and they told them a teacher who had recently been fired said she was allowed to have dairy again. I don’t know what’s true there but since they blamed it all on that teacher and she had recently been fired we said okay fine, no problem, just please make sure she is not given dairy again.

A few days pass and my daughter gets really sick again, they review the tape and she was given dairy by a sub that was in the room.

So I ask the new teacher what the process is for making sure subs know about her allergy; she tells me all kids who have an allergy are listed on the fridge. I go over to the fridge and my daughters name isn’t there, I ask to add her name myself, they insist they’ll do it right away.

The very next day my daughter is given dairy again. At this point I am livid and asking Ms. Chen what the process/plan is for when kids have an allergy because this has been an ongoing issue. She assured me everything is being handled and it was a big mix up and it’s all taken care of now.

The following Tuesday my husband drops our daughter off at school and is unpacking her stuff when he hears a teachers in the next room up ask my daughter if she’s ready for some milk and starts to hand her a cup of milk, my husband stopped her. My daughter went up to this room every day for a few hours so we’re pretty sure this has happened before because the teacher didn’t know about her allergy and was very surprised to hear she was allergic.

Before I go any further with this I LOVE all of the teachers, this is an owner problem.

Anyway, after the teacher gives my daughter milk, my husband went to Ms. Chen and said this is getting ridiculous - Ms. Chen apologizes and says come with me and goes to the cafeteria staff and says “RILEY has an allergy, Riley can not have any dairy!” My daughters name is NOT Riley!

That same day Ms. Chen printed out 4 pictures of my daughter and wrote dairy allergy under them and hung them up around the facility. 2 in each of the rooms. *which is fine but what about all the other poor kids with allergies- if it’s happening to her, surely it’s happening to others. Thank God my child doesn’t go into anaphylactic shock, she would be dead multiple times at this point but the fact is other kids do.

Flash forward a week and I find out Ms. Chen has been forcing my daughter to be isolated for all meals/snack times. So during all meals she is at a table by herself, in the same room as all the other kids who are all sitting at a table together. So here she thinks she’s in trouble because she has to eat alone. She can see all of her friends eating together but isn’t allowed to sit with them. (It’s not like she was stealing dairy off kids plates, or like it’s an airborne allergy). They never asked us about it; they just did...

I was really debating on leaving a review because I think the owners are genuinely good people trying to run a business, but I feel I should be honest.

My daughter attended here for a little over two months. We have since moved her to another daycare. At first I loved it, her teacher was amazing. Although on my daughters first day a new teacher was starting as well, and she innapropriately handled a situation with the kids. The matter was handled by the owners but I was left with the sense that the owners take things personally, and have a hard time separating their emotions from their business.

Sadly her teacher left, and afterwards I stopped seeing education happening. Her first teacher updated us daily when we came into pick her up, but that stopped after she left. With her departure I found my daughter was having a hard time when i left, similar to the first week starting. She wasnt very happy talking about class, except about her friends. The supporting teacher in her class was moved and new teachers brought in, but two of the regulars also ended up leaving and before we decided to move her there was yet again another new supporting teacher in the room. This was only in about a two month span. Half the time her daily reports werent even filled out when emailed, or things left blank.

I did walk in on her new main teacher playing youtube for the kids when we came in late (i recognized the youtube kids theme song). They werent dancing or using it as an activity they were huddled around on the floor watching. Which I didnt think appropriate given the amount of money people are paying, definitely dont want youtube babysitting our kids. Another time I came to pickup my daughter and the end of the day, she was sitting watching tv with other children, with a cut on her leg that was bleeding. This was during a time of teacher transition, the person she was with didnt know how she got the cut, nor did anyone think to perhaps... get her a bandaid or clean it.

There is also alot of drama and unhappy staff, i dont even know anyone who works there personally but unhappy employees would chat to parents about things and in the parking lot, it was an unsettling feeling. Most of which had to do with the owners not handling things well, treating staff well, or taking criticism. (Also Id like to note that yes turnover happens in childcare facilities but the amount while I was there was crazy. The place we moved to the teacher has been there for 11 years! Her other teacher has been there for years too. And if they do need new staff they always pair them with someone who has been there for a while. It leads me to believe that the complaints were true.)

I realized my daughter would thrive more in another place and Im so happy I made that decision. It was amazing moving her, her first day at her new daycare she had a blast and when I came to pick her up she was full of stories about the activities they did, something she never did when at Discovery Point. The second day at the new facility when I dropped her off she asked me to leave! I was blown away, she completely loved it and was excited to go back. The difference in education was great while still getting alot of play and outside time. I think it all depends on the teachers and I think thats where DP might be going wrong is not creating a thriving environment for their teachers.

We remained there for two more weeks as you have to give two weeks notice and they started doing homework during that time so perhaps they decided to improve that part, although I dont necessarily agree homework is the answer.

The facility however is very clean and their food seems like good quality. It just wasnt a good fit for us, and Im super glad we moved. I do however know people who still have their kids there that love it, and have only had...

Just a little bit of background on our family. We are originally from Europe. Our son was 18 months old when we started taking him to daycare, he is now 2 years old. We were looking for daycare for couple of months visiting and comparing different facilities, and we were very disappointed, until.... we walked into Discovery Point Heritage. When we walked into this facility we knew right away we found what we were looking for. Since we are from Europe I feel like our expectations and imagination is a little different when it comes to daycare. Here is what is important to us and we found it all plus some at Discovery Point: cleanliness- this place is spotless. My husband swiped his finger on some furniture and found no dust or any dirt, he even looked in the kitchen and it was extremely clean. When you are there ask them how they keep the changing table clean -incredible routine. nutrition- they cook from scratch, and again we did see veggies in the pot cooking, the food is very healthy too. I love the menu it teaches my child to eat healthy foods from the beginning. education- they send parents everyday curriculum that is just fantastic, our son is learning soooo fast we can't believe it. hours- they have great hours, and the list of holidays when they are closed is very short which is great because our jobs don't honor holidays like MLK we still have to clock in :( other things that we love (there is so many I don't even know what I should mention here): everyone is super warm and caring. All staff (even from other classrooms) remember my child's name and they are all extremely friendly towards him. It was very difficult for our son in the beginning, but I cannot even tell you how INCREADIBLE they were to work with us to get our child adjusted to the new environment. Words don't describe my gratitude for the assistance they provided to get our kid to love daycare. Now he greets the owners (who are there all the time) with hugs and high fives and enjoys every moment he is at this daycare. I would not switch this daycare for any other because it is as close to European standards as it gets and it is well above the standards...