The Learning Sanctuary Pakenham

Stay far away from this place!!! Our experience here has been nothing short of a nightmare, and I would never recommend this place to anyone who cares about their child’s health and wellbeing. The 4 months of our enrolment (July-October) have been an endless cycle of sickness. At the centre, our child contracted multiple colds and nappy rashes (one of which led to a UTI), an ear infection, gastro and hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFM). 1-2 days of attendance were followed by 1-3 weeks of recovering from some kind of sickness at home. The centre’s complete lack of care and transparency has made this an absolute disaster. The HFM outbreak has been dragging on for almost five weeks now (since the start of October), and the information we got from the centre was all over the place. On 10th October, I spoke with Madeline (second in charge of the centre), who confirmed at least two HFM cases earlier that week. Yet, on 15th October, Amber (the room lead educator) claimed there had been no cases since 7th October, despite the centre having sent a warning to parents on 8th October. The inconsistencies are blatant, and it is clear they don’t have a grip on the situation at all. Couple weeks ago, gastro also started spreading, and this is where things got even worse. We were the first reported case in the nursery, and I notified Madeline, on Monday, 21st October. On Wednesday, 23rd October, another parent from the same room also reported gastro, yet the centre still did absolutely nothing. I sent two urgent emails and made multiple calls, yet no warning to other parents, no follow-up, no nothing. Even after Madeline promised over the phone she’d send out a communication about the outbreak, nothing happened. It feels like they are more concerned with covering up the problem than actually dealing with it. According to their own policies, two cases within a few days should trigger an outbreak warning, but they just ignored it. This isn’t just poor communication - it is negligence. Their hygiene practices (or lack of thereof) are revolting. On multiple occasions, I’ve seen educators not wearing gloves while changing nappies or wiping kids’ noses, and toys that went straight from one kid’s mouth to another with no cleaning in between. Nappies were too small, leaving red marks on the kids’ legs, and one time a child was wearing a jumper, a puffer vest and a beanie indoors on a 20+ degree day while other children were in T-shirts. It’s absolutely unacceptable. The centre’s approach to communication is beyond frustrating. Whenever you ask about your child’s day, be prepared to get a standard “I don’t know, I just got here.” There is absolutely no handover between educators throughout the day, no consistency, and certainly no accountability. For a place that is supposed to care for children, they sure don’t seem to know what’s happening with them. And whenever you contact them about something important, like a health issue, it takes days to get a response. Yet, they’ll reply to emails about money or enrolment forms within an hour. The priorities here are completely messed up. After yet another round of sickness following our last day at the centre, we finally pulled our child out because we couldn’t trust the centre to keep them safe. If you’re thinking about enrolling your child here, DON’T. They always seem to have spots available, and now I understand why. It’s not worth the constant illness, the stress, or the frustration of dealing with a centre that doesn’t take basic health and safety seriously.