Guardian Watsonia Childcare and Education

Similar to other recent reviews, we have recently left the centre after experiencing so many issues. Initially when we started in mid-2024, the centre was great. The staff were amazing with our son, and it was such a great environment to send him to. We did have a very serious incident occur at the end of 2024, which the Department of Education got involved with following the hospital reporting the incident. When I called the centre at the time to ask what happened to our son, management did not seem to care given that they did not follow up with us and we had more communication about the incident from the Department of Education compared to what management provided. In hindsight, we should not have returned after that incident. The only reason why we returned was due to the staff in the nursery our son had at the time who were amazing and our son genuinely loved going and seeing the educators. While we believe that the incident was an accident and not caused by the educators he had, the response from management was very poor. Since 2025, staff turnover has been extremely high and concerning with the number of key staff members leaving. As more of the great staff members left the centre and the quality of the care our son was receiving dropped significantly and the mood at the centre has completely changed. Remaining staff members who used to be happy have had a complete shift and as a parent walking into the environment and observing the interactions between not just the staff and children, but also the other staff members, it feels quiet toxic and unwelcoming. Since the decrease in quality of care at the centre, we tried to raise issues with the educators and management team multiple times, and nothing was ever done to improve basic care, particularly around nappy changes. We had a lot of issues around nappy changes, including near weekly instances where my son would often be picked up and clearly needed to be changed, and he would come home with severe nappy rash (which he never had at home). I was also aware of lots of other safety issues that went unaddressed including the front door not properly closing for months, children getting hurt and staff members being oblivious to the children being hurt. Just before we left, at morning drop off I witnessed an educator kiss a young baby multiple times on the head and actively encourage multiple toddler/kinder ages children to kiss the baby on the face. Given the responses we previously received from management over care and safety issues with our own son, I don’t have faith in management team at the centre due to their past inaction. Unfortunately, I don’t know who the baby’s parents are and cannot advise them of this incident myself. The only reason why we stayed at Guardian so long is for the friendships our son made with a few of the other children. Though we had near weekly discussions on whether we should move him given all of the problems we had. The final nail in the coffin for us moving was our son actively saying he did not want to attend the centre, refusing to leave the house on a daycare morning, trying to strap himself back into the car seat, and he was no longer the happy child he usually is. Since he commenced at a new centre in the area, there is a massive difference and I regret not moving him sooner. The recent reviews from other parents removing their children has also helped us to see that it is a systemic issue at Guardian and not just our family, which is what we were often made to feel like from the staff. I could go into more, but the other reviews have covered a lot of the other points.