Little Smurfs Child Development Centre (Lenasia)

***BEWARE - EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL SCHOOL***

I enrolled my son in January 2019 and had an absolute challenge with the teacher / owner's conduct. Here are some incidents which led us to eventually pull my son out of the school mid-year: 1. The teacher (whose name is Arwah) was caught in a lie on numerous occasions. We were first told that the school would be closed for Eid over 1 day. A few minutes later, we were told it would now be closed for 2 days. Arwah's reason for the additional day was that since we take 2 days off for Diwali, she deserves 2 days for Eid (yes, very childish). Then her reason changed to “we need 2 days to prepare for Eid". 2. The school closed for absolutely silly reasons (Arwah had to take her daughter for a driver's license test, Arwah took leave for Ascension Day even though she is Muslim, Arwah was tired of looking after my son who she says is a lot of work, etc.) and each time, we would be informed literally the afternoon before the school would be closed. This made it a challenge to make alternate arrangements for my son to be cared for. 3. On one occasion, we paid R400 per week for holiday care over a 2 week period (total R800). However, Arwah went to Cape Town for the 2 weeks and so the school was closed. Unfortunately, our money was not refunded to us, despite the service not being provided. 4. Arwah's student-to-teacher ratio does not comply with educational law. She is 1 teacher to 15 toddlers. Over 6 months, her assistant / helper changed about 4 times. 5. We were totally shocked to learn in February 2019 (1 month after enrolling my son), that the fees increased by 25% (from 1200 to 1500 per month). And this too without any prior notice. Once again, Arwah's reasons varied: First, her "partners" instructed her to implement an increase. We later learned that she has no partners in the school. Then, we were told that my son is a lot of work so she needs the extra money. As we later came to know, her class of 15 kids reduced to 10 kids for unknown reasons. So she implemented an increase to compensate for the loss of income. 6. On one morning, Arwah screamed (yes, literally screamed) at my wife outside her school, for neighbours and passers-by to hear. The next morning, she hugged my wife as though all was well. 7. When I declined holiday care for my son the second time around, she got upset with me and mentioned how "you do know that eid is coming up so we also need our money". 8. In January, she claimed to follow the standard government school calendar. However, all of the above occasions of school being closed tell a different story. When we asked her for the calendar so that we know when she will be closed, she immediately claimed to have no knowledge of this calendar (yes, we were baffled as well!). No school should operate in this manner and no business should ever take their customer to be a fool. But this school does all of this. *Whatsapp messages available as proof*