Any kid at Mulberry Learning Centre?

cryiez

New Member
Hi mummies,

I just went to open house of Mulberry Learning Centre @ TPY new branch. I like the colorful, brightness and happy environment there. I am planning to register my son to Mulberry but the Fee is too expensive so i really need to consider carefully. Is Mulberry good?
 


My experience with Mulberry has been horrible. I am so angry with myself for letting my child be there. I have since take my child out of the school and I see immediate developments.

list of complains include:
1) Brand manager, Mandy. Extremely difficult be contacted because she is busy. Tried to contact her for a week, between 9am to 9pm. eventually no reply from her.

2) Centre principal is reactive, to complains. they seem so caught up with admin matters they are not sure what the teachers are doing. They will find excuses until you show them prove of their lies then they say they will make amendments. they will never tell you the truth until you force it out of them.

3) dedicated teachers are few and far between. most seems to be there just to do a job.

4) I found unfinished milk in my child's bottle, but daily journal claims it is fully finished with additional cereal even. Makes it hard to trust what else on the journal is untrue.

5) Centre promised 1 caregiver to 3 children in infant care. for a period of months, this was not fulfilled at any time of the day. as they had a shortage of staff but continue to accept children and do not tell the parents of this shortage.

6) There seems to be a written curriculum. but it is not followed at all. my child at 17 months old is in the cot for 4-5 hours a day. ie, jailed in a 60 / 120 cm cell. because the teachers are busy. the teacher to child ratio was 5 : 12. and they are too busy to let the child out.

7) During observation, 1 teacher said the children in PN are at fault for sitting near the computer screen. then with my own eyes, i see another teacher bring the child to sit down less the 1 metre from the screen.

I strongly discourage anyone who want to send their kids to this school.
 
My girl has been in Mulberry for the past 2 years and I like it so far. In fact, I started her with MMI but was not happy so I shifted her here. The teaching staff has been quite consistent which I think is good as I don't like to see new teachers all the time. There is also a variety of activities though you need to pay more for additional enrichment classes. At MMI she is not keen to attend school but she enjoys going to Mulberry. The centre is big and well equipped, which is good as I find a lot of childcare too cramped.
 
perhaps difference centres and different age groups levels are quite different. as my child was in infant care, and i did an oberservation for PN, i can only comment as so.

ECDA's officer looked into this and had a few similar findings as my comments above.
 
My kid is not at mulberry yet so I cannot speak for the experience of being in the school. But they are very aggressive at open house so just be prepared. They keep pressuring parents to put a non refundable registration fee minimally. My Husband was put off so we left. While I understand the business rationale for that (opportunity cost) I think it could have been handled better. Paying a non refundable registration fee just to have a day or 2 more to consider seems a little mercenary.

Their promotional fees are tempting but with a fee guarantee until the child graduates, I wonder how they manage to keep it up with rising manpower costs etc. Surely something's got to give? Quality of Teachers? Safety? It's a double edged sword. It's tempting yet maybe too good to be true?

When we went to the last open house the Teachers seemed hesitant to/could not answer basic questions we asked (eg how do you handle a HFMD outbreak?) and we had to be referred to the brand manager. Not very assuring.

Also - as I understand it, mulberry@alexandra currently does not have a principal vis-a-vis the nearby maplebear @ Alexis that has a very very experienced principal Aileen who is Super confident of her their syllabus, teaching method, and Teachers. But maplebear is also a bit more ex.

That said I have also heard positive reviews about mulberry such as their good parent engagement, portal notification which does help parents know what their kids are up to. I guess that's what we look forward to. The Alexandra branch is also a sprawling premise with a lot of play areas for the kids. I am only hoping that this prettiness is not mere window dressing but that it is matched with a management & Teachers who are sincere & who genuinely nurture the children. Otherwise, no amount of app notification, pictures of the kid, or pretty premises will matter.

We are really considering mulberry and I hope our concerns are not proven right if we should decide to go with them. I hope, if we decide to go with them, we will be happy to write a positive review about them.
 

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