Imaginarium Early Learning Burpengary

My son had a serious fall & we were blatantly lied to about it & the centre followed no first aid procedures or requirements. I was called at 11;53am and was advised that my son had slipped off the bottom of a climbing frame at 11am & couldn’t catch himself in time and bumped his head on the ground when landing, resulting in a small graze to his forehead. I had asked at what height he fell from and they were very clear over the phone that he was stepping off the bottom of the frame and lost balance, but he was completely fine, no other marks etc. I felt comfortable with this as I trusted the educator however requested someone still watch over him as he was already asleep at the time of the phone call. I had an incident report sent to me advising of what I was told over the phone. Upon pickup around 4pm I arrived at the centre to see my son had grazing & bruising on his forehead, left cheek bone, under his nose, ribs, a black eye & the whole left side of his face was swollen. We went in & watched the footage of my son’s fall 2 days after the incident, the cameras view was obstructed by an umbrella however the bottom 3 quarters of the frame (about the height of my son who is 2) was within view of the camera. The footage showed my son climbing up and down the frame a few times without issue & it then showed him falling from a part of the frame which was not within view, essentially confirming that he fell from the top or near top of the frame. My son fell head first and then onto his back, then rolled onto his right hand side (opposite side to his injuries) and was crying on the ground. Not one of his educators got up to tend to him or offered first aid. One of the other children in the room helped him off the ground, brushed his face off and gave him a hug & walked him over to the lead educator where they brushed the dirt off his face & he was pretty much dismissed as they continued doing another child’s hair when my son was so clearly in distress. The director tried stating that he had fallen onto his side because the footage showed him rolling from his back to right hand side, I had to correct them in advising that none of his injuries were on that side of his body so that could not be the case & if he had landed on his side then he wouldn’t have any injuries to his head/face. I also had to explain & show them while watching the footage back that you can see his body falling fell head first before hitting the ground. We voiced our concerns surrounding the incident, lack of communication, no first aid whatsoever, a false incident report, no comfort given at all & being blatantly lied to regarding what had happened, as we would have picked him up and had him seen by a doctor if we had of known what had actually happened. We also raised concerns with the fact that my son was put down for a nap an hour after he had a pretty serious fall, not following any concussion regulations. We questioned how the incident report was even written up and signed by both the lead educator & the director as the lead educator did not actually see what had happened & it did not depict what had happened. The lead educator had already left the centre (her last day being the day of my son’s incident) & the other educator did not receive anything but a warning. This is by far not our first issue or incident that we’ve had raised to the director, owner or even department with this centre, but definitely our last, we took our son out effective immediately. The director & operations manager laid all blame onto the educators, in which we agreed with as they were the ones who were in the room however they did not offer any reasonable resolutions & made it clear in their eyes this was a ‘learning curve’ rather than an incident that should be taken seriously resulting in serious consequences for the staff involved.

After some time to try to take emotion out of it, I have decided to share my story as well. I was a parent at this centre for nearly 2 years and a staff member for 1 year. While I can't discuss my staff experience, I will surely be voicing my parenting experience. My child was locked out side on several occasions, unsupervised when she became heightened. She was refused additional food after meal time if she refused a meal due to sensory issues (which i had made very clear) - even though their policy states children are fed if they ask for food. My daughter was injured consistently with no incident reports. I would be told that she was naughty today, but very rarely seen a behavior report. I had addressed my concerns with the director and owner several times, however it was disregarded. I was unhappy with the kindy program, and when I addressed this with the owner, she made me have a meeting with the Kindy educator to tell her what I wanted (whilst I still worked there) but not before telling me that I can also teach my own child things at home. Which I did, however I was also entrusting them to do that for me as well, as I worked 9-5 as an administrator in that same centre. My child has traumatic outbursts since being at this centre, there were days we couldn't close her bedroom door without her telling us we were locking her away. She now requires therapy. Please don't send your child to this centre. No parent or child deserves to deal with what my family are now dealing with. Edited to add : When I say she was locked outside, she was hysterical. Not out there having a good time.