Casa Bambini Essendon

Disheartening Experience at Casa Bambini Essendon I feel compelled to share my deeply concerning experience with Casa Bambini Essendon, where my son has attended childcare since he was a baby. Initially, we were pleased with the level of care he received. The educators were nurturing, and my son thrived in the supportive environment. Unfortunately, that positive experience deteriorated over time, and I can no longer recommend this facility. As time went on, the quality of care sharply declined. The best staff members began to leave one by one, and there were management changes. When the management shifted, so did the centre's overall atmosphere and care standards. The nurturing, supportive environment that once existed faded, and it became painfully obvious that the well-being of the children was no longer a priority. So many families and staff have left in the space of 6-8 months and I have felt very uncomfortable since. I have been looking at other alternatives for so long, and could not find a centre due to waitlists. As a result, i reduced my days since November/Dec last year and kept my son at home while working and I have no regrets because the centre was just not the right fit for us. The food provided was poor, my child was eating plain rice with veggies - no protein most days, lacking in variety and nutrition, and the general structure of the centre seemed disorganised at best. After the centre merged with another centre close by, the child-to-educator ratio became alarmingly disproportionate, which only exacerbated the issues we were witnessing. During pickup and drop-off times, the chaos resembled a zoo, with very little order or care taken to ensure the children's safety and comfort. My son was in the 3-year-old kinder room, but as more kids left, he became increasingly isolated. It broke my heart to see him crying before going to the centre, and it often took a considerable amount of time to settle him down once we arrived. The lack of stability and support led to him playing alone, which is not something any parent should expect from a childcare facility. When I decided it was time to remove my son from the centre, I had a verbal discussion with management about my concerns and intentions. I was told I would receive an email outlining the next steps; however, that email never came. Instead, that same day at pick up time, two staff members approached me to say goodbye, despite the fact that I had not formally communicated my decision. It felt unprofessional and left me with a sense of discomfort, especially as I preferred to speak directly with my son's educator. Communication with management was lacking, and it seemed that any feedback provided was brushed off without consideration. Moreover, I was disappointed to find that essential activities such as coloring, painting, and reading were virtually nonexistent. The room appeared unwelcoming and lacked adequate resources for the educators to implement an effective kinder program. My experience at Casa Bambini Essendon has been overwhelmingly negative. The nurturing environment that initially drew me in has vanished, replaced by chaos and neglect. I have made the necessary decision to exit the centre and continue keeping my child at home until we can find another childcare facility, and I urge other parents to thoroughly consider their options before entrusting their children to this centre. Please do not view the positive reviews, I can guarantee it is FAKE. It is the only centre in the vicinity of Moonee Valley with no waitlist. It is not worth the money!

This was rated exceeding when I enrolled my 18 month old and it is a nice looking centre. However I often found the required staff ratios to children weren't being followed (i.e. 16 kids under 2 with only 2 staff members present who were more interested looking at their phones then interacting with the kids). It happened too regularly to be a coincidence and I realised this is how the centre saves money- by putting the legally required amount of staff on a shorter shift during the day but not the full day, while at the same time they are charging parents premium. Some mornings there were no staff in my child's room at all and I had to take my 18 month old down to the kinder room and give her to a kinder teacher she didn't even know until the childcare staff arrived. Not legal or appropriate and quite distressing for me heading off to work this way, and I pulled her out for this reason.

My child attended this centre since nursery until I removed them last week in the 4 year old kinder room. I enrolled my child because the centre was highly recommended by two mums in my mother’s group who sung the centre’s praises. In the beginning, I was very happy with the quality of care my child received and the educators were caring and passionate about their jobs. I received regular updates about my child and formed good relationships with educators and centre management. I knew that my child was happy and well cared for. Over time however I saw many good staff leave and there were multiple management changes. Communication with parents fell off a cliff and we received significant price increases in circumstances where the centre and room resources were seriously out of date, educators were leaving and the food served was terrible. Almost all the children my child started with left as their parents were unhappy with the quality of care they received. I stuck it out because I wanted to give the centre a chance (I gave them multiple!) and I did not want uproot my child to a different centre so close to starting primary school. I should have left earlier. I had to constantly raise even the most basic things with centre management - reinstalling a soap dispenser and replacing rotting timber in the kids bathroom - to requiring that the front desk be attended at peak drop off and pick up times for the overall safety of the children and staff. I personally saw a private courier enter the centre at around 5pm on a weekday due to a fault in the front door which left it unlocked and go from room to room to try to find a staff member to sign off on a package delivery. I had to confront him and ask what he was doing, then had to find a staff member to sign off on the package before he left. The only staff member I could find was a casual who had no idea what to do and was slightly panicked that a man was walking around in the centre (it freaked me out too!). The front door was subsequently fixed and I was assured that the front desk would be attended at peak drop off and pick up times moving forward. And yet, it was still unattended on numerous occasions. The final straw for me was seeing none of my child’s regular educators at drop off without any prior explanation or notice, seeing inappropriate child-to-educator ratios and going yet again from room to room to find someone to raise this issue with. I cannot explain how many times I have raise issues with centre management, the area manager and with G8 with minimal improvements to show for it. I personally made two complaints to the Department of Education because I thought it would compel the centre to improve. It did not. This centre had some fantastic educators and staff, but it does not have the ability to retain them. When one or two staff leave, you can put it down to personal circumstances. When there is a revolving door of educators, children and centre managers, then there are serious and deep seated cultural problems all the way to the top with the way this centre is managed that has nothing to do with the shortage of early learning educators in the industry. Save your sanity. Do not leave your children here. There are better options in the area.