Hippo's Friends Childcare Centre

We’ve been at hippos the last nine months and very happy with the service. We found Hippos through friends and now have a little clan building there. Everything is straightforward and clear and there are multiples things they do that makes my life easy and the process extremely manageable. Heike has been running the centre for more than 25 years and a lot of her staff have been there for many years too. They are passionate about education and ensuring the highest level of childcare safety so you can’t be sensitive to this. I see some negative reviews on here and have never seen anything unpleasant at the centre. I do welcome the team at hippos to be firm with me or anyone else when it comes to the best care for the children. I personally find all staff are nurturing, caring, professional and consistent and my daughter comes everyday talking about heike.

My son joined Hippos as a young baby and has now been at Hippos for over 2 years first in the baby room and then with the toddlers and I can not speak highly enough of the amazing team. Smart, professional and they truly care about the children they look after. Botany locals and now part of our extended family. We love Hippos!!

I found Hippos through a recommendation years ago before I was actually married and planned to have a family. Heike and the Team are welcoming, friendly, honest and professional. I took my firstborn here to return to work when he was only 5 and half months and I was petrified leaving my son, now 4 and half years later and my son will be leaving all this beautiful children that he has grown up with along with his his sister. Heike and the educators do an amazing job and to them its actually not just a job. She is honest and proactive with all the Feedback in relation to our children's learning progress and highlighting the kids strength and weaknesses. My son and daughter, looks forward to going to Hippos and enjoys it.Thank you Heike and the TEAM for having us as part of Hippos and Friends.

My 3 year old daughter has attended a few daycares in the past and I have found Hippo Friends, to be one of the best. The staff are fantastic and have manage to build my daughters confidence in the time she has been attending Hippos. The staff are always happy and approachable.

We were at hippos for four years and my children loved this centre! The facilities were great and the educators showed our children a lot of love but sadly we had to move them due to logistics. Hippos has a lovely family feel to it and I will miss hearing my daughter yell yay" every time we drive into the car park."

Our kids both loved hippo, it was like a second home for them and they were sad to leave it to go to kindy. The carers are very nurturing and caring. Our kids loved the many activities including the opportunity to speak French with a native speaker.We appreciated the daily updates and photos, the activities being linked to specific learning outcomes and the ease in communication with the carers.When our son had to deal with significant health issues, we found hippo to be very accommodating to our timings and adaptive to his dietary needs. For this we remain extremely grateful.Thank you so much for everything!!!

We have 2 children at Hippos our youngest daughter now 15 mths only recently started and they both love it, the staff are very friendly and professional. We have seen our eldest grow in many ways since starting there 3 years ago, the staff always make the extra effort with the kids to make sure they are progressing as best as they can to eventually make the move to school. I would highly recommend Hippos

Our boy started at the Hippo's friends at 10 months. He was still crawling and it was his first real time away from home. We always felt that he was looked after very well. The staff were attentive, caring and friendly and the kids had a great time. By the time he left he was confident, he would run around outside and really enjoyed playing with other children including the child of the owner (Heike). We drove quite a long way each day to keep our kid at this child care centre even when work took us elsewhere.

My kids both attended Hippos for years, my youngest since he was a baby. We like the way they are taught to be independent and helpful and spend lots of time outside, exploring and learning. Fully recommend Hippos!

We were only at hippos for a short time as we had to move and logistically it didn’t work but we were devastated to leave. Our kids were so happy here. The staff was so personable and caring and they’re very engaged with the children. My daughters speech and ability rapidly excelled during her short time here. I found Heike to be very helpful when it came to behavioural advice and non judgmental. The centre was clean and organised and even my baby in the nursery was comfortable and happy within a very short space of time. I particularly liked their focus and approach to music and sensory activities which always kept the kids busy and engaged. I also loved how my daughter wasn’t so segregated from her brother and all ages could play together and engage. It felt very inclusive & warm. Heike was very professional and informative and I never felt like I was left in the dark with anything that happened. They were very proactive about including different religious holidays and embracing different cultures. I will miss hippos very very much.