Where do I start.
I would just like to give some feedback regarding the child care centres since First Steps have have bought and taken over in the last couple of months. Please see our honest feedback below:
1. Children getting sick more often. My child was only sick every few months or so, now she is sick every week. At drop off and pick ups, 80% of the children are sick, with green infection around their noses, coughing all over the place. This centre is the most expensive in the area, so we expect a HIGH level of service which we are not getting anymore. Bountiful was known to clean all rooms, all toys with hospital grade disinfect on a daily basis to prevent any outbreaks from happening. This has gone down hill since First Steps has taken over with the amount of sick children daily and the amount of times my daughter has been sick lately. Never in 3 years was she ever this sick.
2. Staff. This is a big one and makes the centre. It is evident that the original staff are no longer happy and are always off sick. Probably looking for new jobs let’s be real here what a shame we are losing great staff. Are they being valued and treated the way they deserve? No. We have lost Tarsha who was a great asset to the company and we are all saddened that she has left. Not even a goodbye post or email was sent out after all her hard work, our children loved her. We feel like First Steps are hiring any one at this point, and losing valuable staff members. The staff members coming in compared to the ones coming out are on a different level. You have the ability to hire good educators so why hasn’t this happened? Please take a look at the new new educators , and then take a look at the patient living and caring educators like Tarsha, Loren, Lucky, Wendy, Reetu. We need quality educators and we are not getting this!!! Bountiful was KNOWN for their high standard of educators, we feel as though First Steps are hiring anyone at this point and do not care about the children or the environment of the centre.
3. Talking about environment, our children are UNHAPPY. The children at this centre are not happy any more. The children use to run in before we could even open the doors, and not even say goodbye to their parents as they were so excited for child care and the fun activities that were ahead, the loving and patient educators. Now it is the total opposite. Our children scream and cry every single day, every morning, as they do not want to attend child care any more and dislike it so much. It is hard knowing that they are having terrible days and we all feel guilty about this and hope every day things will change but it’s only getting worst. No one has he guts to talk because we don’t want our children treated any different.
4. Pets are gone. This was one of the main reasons a lot of us parents enrolled our children into this particular centre, for our children to learn about animals. We miss the chickens, rabbits, gineu pigs, birds and so on, this was great for our children as they could learn about the responsibilities of owning aninals, cleaning after them, feeding them, washing them and the list goes on. Our beloved pets of years are all gone and the centre feels empty. Probably at the pound. Who knows.
I could keep going but I will stop as I hope you get the point. What was once was a beautiful home, is now a boring child centre that is going down hill day by day. Riddled with sick unhappy kids, boring activities, rude educators, loosing valuable caring staff members. The hygiene in the centres are disgusting and need to be cleaned daily, this includes wiping down individual toys, books, tables, chairs and so forth just like Bountiful did. First Steps - make a change or you will continue to loose more families as a lot of us are not happy. Shame that doesn’t matter to you as this isn’t a home anymore this is a business and even though families leave, more families will enrol due to the old reviews stating how great the centre is.
Please fix this mess that has been created in 2 months.
Response from the owner
13 May 2023
Dear Sherry,
We have conducted a thorough review of our enrolment files and have no record of you or anyone connected to you, ever attending our service. You are either a fake reviewer deliberately choosing to spread false and misleading information or a disgruntled ex-employee of Bountiful, well known to us and being investigated for her behaviour towards the Centre.
Your review is highly offensive, to the children, staff and all our families connected to the Centre who know your feedback is simply untrue.
First Steps Learning Academy prides itself on having strong policies and procedures in place for maintaining hygiene levels across the Centre. We have mandatory cleaning that must be completed at regular intervals throughout the day, which are recorded for compliance purposes. We have professional cleaners engaged to deep clean the service once a week including steam cleaning upholstery and soft furnishings and pressure washing hard surfaces. We have a dedicated handyman who attends the service once a week to ensure the environment is free from hazard and any items requiring repair are completed by a licensed professional.
Our Centre uses Abcoe Products who are a national powerhouse of iconic cleaning, sanitisation, and hygiene brands. We record all cleaning that occurs in the Centre, on Toy Cleaning Registers and Bed Cleaning Registers. These are available for parents to view.
When First Steps Learning Academy took ownership of the service it was very clear to management that more staff were required to ensure the Centre was meeting its regulatory obligations for staff to children ratio. Unlike the previous business, we only hire agency casuals in emergency situations and mandate that anyone who is counted in ratio, is actively working on the floor and not in an office.
The Centre has invested in the recruitment of 4 new staff members to the Centre who are all experienced Educators with long standing careers in early childhood education. We announce all new staff members and their qualifications on Storypark, our internal communication tool as well as display their photo in the foyer of the Centre. We proudly announce their qualification, educational philosophy, and personal information about the individual to help families get to know the Educator a little more.
We are very proud to announce that only 1 staff member has left the Centre since we took over. This is highly unusual in early childhood education today and a testament to the amazing work completed by the FSLA Management Team in supporting and guiding the team through the changes. The Team Member who did leave, left the industry completely. A terrible loss for the sector but sadly not something we could control.
The Centre pets were removed by the previous owner before First Steps Learning Academy took over.
Sherry, it’s quite sad that you have chosen to write such a nasty and untruthful review when you have no facts to substantiate your comments and have made no attempt to contact us before publishing these lies. We have an open door policy and welcome any genuine parent to come in and talk to us about any concern they may have about our Centre. As you are not enrolled in our Centre you would not know about this process or about the friendly, welcoming, and highly engaged team we have at First Steps Learning Academy.
We will continue to invest in our team, the environment and in building an amazing Centre as we are proud of the service, we offer our families.
We will celebrate our successes and look forward to growing our strong relationships with the community of Toongabbie.