Bright Beginnings Child Edu-Care Centre

When we first inquired about enrolling my nephew (Mr 4) we were welcomed with open arms. As an educator myself there were so many greens flags going on during the tour and after a previously bad experience the team were very supportive and understanding. Or so we thought. We were open and honest about his additional needs and the journey his mum had been on with seeking diagnosis. We happily supplied any information requested as well as putting together a multiple page plan/info pack about Mr 4 ourselves including detailed information about how we manage behaviour at home, his strengths, tips and tricks, likes and dislikes as well as his personal care needs. The service were still very keen to enrol him and assured us many times he would be included and loved like any other child in their care and were eager for have him join their program as soon as possible. The days after we withdrew him his behaviour and overall happiness changed. We went from having a quirky sweet little guy with lots of energy to melt downs and violent outbursts. As well as genuine fear of returning to the service. I wish I knew what happened because he can’t tell me but it breaks my heart to see such a change and I fear he was treated kindly when parent weren’t present. We seeking the support of a phycologist. Unfortunately once Mr 4 began attending everything changed. He was immediately deemed “to higher support needs” because he was a bit sad and teary and wanted to hold a familiar educators hand for parts of the day. We were called by the owner nearly ever two hours to come and collect him as they couldn’t provide 1:1 care for him and deemed that necessary. Which his OT rolled their eyes and laughed at when it was mentioned to them the next week. After the sixth call on his forth day with the owner engaging in bullying tactics to have us come in I left work then came in with his mum who was at this point to scared to go by themselves to pull him from the centre. I then watched Mr 4 for a while before entering the room and I still can’t work out as an educator with a bachelor degree, nearly 15 years experience and teaching him for 2 years myself that he was displaying any “additional” behaviour that was different to any other child who starts at a new centre. Upon conversation with multiple educators they were not able to identify any concerns outside of him being a little sad. If as a early childhood setting you can’t help a child to settle you shouldn’t be in this industry. What we experienced was discrimination plain and simple with a service hungry to scab as much extra funding per child possible (ISS). We are currently still in discussion with the governing body in regards to taking potential further action against the service. I also hold a lot of concern for the staff here as their seems to be a very toxic gossip/taddle tail culture with lots of whispers and comments when passing each other and with so many of them being quite young I’d hate for them to think that’s acceptable behaviour across the industry. Finally the old duck in the kindy space needs to chill out on how she speaks to the children. It’s amazing how her tone changed straight away once I shot her a look of disapproval. Clearly if parents aren’t their educators are free to speak to children however they like. After unenrolling him and having it confirmed that they were waving the notice period it’s taken over a month for the refund required to be processed which was only done after extensive follow up from mum. Thankfully today he started at a much higher quality centre where the interactions with the director, educators and everyone else were nothing but supportive and loving. He has come home our happy little guy again and is already talking about how excited he is to go back tomorrow.