Imagine Childcare & Kindergarten Doncaster

We have been extremely happy with Imagine since our eldest son joined at the beginning of 2023, and now with our youngest recently starting, we feel even more confident in our choice. The team has been welcoming, and it always brightens our mornings to be greeted with a warm smile from Chef Tilly. Our eldest’s educator, Tara, has been absolutely wonderful — she is kind, patient, and has made such a positive impact on our son’s early learning journey. In the nursery, Eva and Phuc have been equally amazing with our youngest, creating a caring and nurturing environment where he feels safe and happy. During our time at the center, there have been a few changes in leadership, but we are especially pleased with the new supervisor, Menake. She is very attentive, approachable, and kind, always taking the time to address any concerns we have with genuine care. We are truly grateful to the entire team for providing such a supportive, loving environment for our boys. Thank you for making their early years so special!

Since joining Imagine in the nursery early this year, we have been really pleased with how centre staff have gotten to know my child. Eva and Phuc the main educators in nursery are so lovely and always have stories to recount at pick up. The positive experiences they are creating for the children are a true example of how much they care for them. Menaka has also been great, knows my child and is very prompt with answering any questions. I also always love being greeted by Tilly (head chef) in the morning! Thank you for your care team!

My son recently started at Imagine just over a month ago now in the nursery room, we couldn't be more happier with our choice of childcare. Whilst it was concerning that the manager was leaving just as we started, we were quickly put at ease as Menaka stepped in to assist. In the nursery, we have Eva and Phuc who are always super friendly and endeavour to care for our baby as per his routine. In addition, they were very cautious with his allergies and so was Tilly (the lovely chef). Overall, our experience at Imagine has been wonderful and I would highly recommend!

We left at the end of December after being there for about six months. We went because our little centre in Templestowe closed for repairs (after which we received an email saying they weren’t reopening). In that time, there were three different directors. Communication was terrible. There was no way for us to contact our children’s educators other than by email (and then we were often told that they hadn’t received the information we’d sent in). We generally found that emails weren’t responded to in a timely manner and often weren’t replied to at all. There are and were some beautiful educators that worked at Templestowe and Doncaster but we saw many leave in the six months that we were there. Things that really bothered me while we were there… - The lack of communication (not receiving daily updates until that evening or at all, having emails replied to using ai or being told to ‘email with any concerns’ and then never hearing back) -Staff not knowing my children (being asked what their names were to check them off the list when I picked them up-massive red flag) -Not being confident that staff knew about my children’s medical issues (as staff turnover was so high and my youngest was never in the room he was meant to be in as the numbers of children and staff kept changing) -The building lacks any warmth. Where we were previously my children would see each other. This place is like a hospital building and the first day I picked them up I couldn’t even find my kids as they weren’t in the rooms they’d been dropped off. The final straw came for me when our Templestowe director left and her replacement spent their time behind the desk instead of on the floor getting to know the children. They had no idea about any of the information we had given our children’s kindergarten teachers or that a pre school field officer had been out to see our child and their recommendations. Even though we left at the end of December we are STILL receiving emails to sign documents of price rises (this has prompted me to write this negative review-I have contacted Imagine but that hasn’t seemed to work!) We even received updates of what our child was doing in the nursery room after we had left the centre. Again, there were and ARE some beautiful staff at the centre but the management really lets the place down.