Roots & Wings Early Learning Centre

After my kids were suddenly kicked out of this daycare, I've spent a month processing what was a profoundly upsetting experience and trying to figure out what to say here to support other parents in their own daycare journey. Good childcare is hard to come by (likely due to the fact that it is challenging work that tends to be grossly underpaid) so if you are in need of a daycare and this is your only option, by all means go for it. The facility is great and I think the staff are mostly awesome, although our interactions with them were sparse and always rushed so it's hard to find much to say about them, and I never saw them interact with my children because parents were not allowed inside.As long as the owner/operator of this daycare is Maggie, be warned that she is a very poor communicator. She doesn't seem to have the capacity to show up for her families in a meaningful way. On average she takes 2 weeks to respond to emails, often longer. For us, this meant we missed out on a month of government subsidy because she took so long to respond with the signed forms. She also gave us inaccurate information regarding when the paperwork was due to the government to qualify for funding. But whatever, it's just money. My biggest issues with Maggie was her style of communication, and her apparent lack of care for the actual well being of the families in her care. In communication, she over shares but doesn't follow up, defends herself in an unprofessional way, blames staff for issues in a mean way, and is generally manipulative and passive aggressive in her messages. We also NEVER saw her face to face except the very initial meeting to view the centre. We were there 9 months. She was never around, never available for conversation or phone calls and so dealing with her meant you were left with only inconsistent and frustrating email communication. She is unyielding and inflexible on policies and offers little transparency in her unilateral decision making.It was when I was expressing this frustration and attempting to give feedback to the staff (because Maggie wasn't responding to my messages) that my kids were kicked out IMMEDIATELY because I was behaving inappropriately". In the end

This daycare was awful, I went here when I was really young and one day the caretaker (name was Maggie) got upset with me and left me outside in the cold rain as punishment. I still remember how scared it made me. My mom found me still outside when she picked me up hours later, and I was soaking wet and cold. This was when they were operating on Joyce. Luckily my parents took me out of her care immediately and believed me when I said I was being mistreated. Just think parents should know if they plan on sending their kids here, because I doubt anything has changed over the years.