Launchpad Early Learning Centre

I want to preface this by saying that all the individuals we met at Launchpad were kind people, it is the poor management... I want to preface this by saying that all the individuals we met at Launchpad were kind people, it is the poor management of this facility that is the issue. Our 10 month old started at Launchpad in Jan 2024, and we pulled him out by September 2024. Initially the care in the baby room was good, the problems started happening when our son moved into the toddler room. There were constant issues with staffing. I frequently dropped him off and there would be two young 20-ish year old girls with 13, 14 or even 16 toddlers. They would be trying to call the front desk for support, and were doing there best but it is impossible to care for that many kids and it is not compliant for them to be out of ratio when there should have been at least 4 carers. I saw toddlers hitting one another, or crying and distressed but left by themselves because they were understaffed. Both my husband and I would flag this with the manager but nothing changed. We were told we could try and avoid dropping off at peak times, so I would try to come at 9:30am, but most of the time they were still understaffed. It was so bad some days I felt uncomfortable even walking out of the room and would offer to wait until an extra person came. There were frequently agency staff who we did not know at pick up. Once when I picked up my son in the middle of the day (I had not told them I was coming) all the 12-18 month olds were watching YouTube videos on the ipad. They are not supposed to be having any screen time under 2 years old. We limit our son's screentime and actively avoid CocoMelon, but one time when we were at home, it automatically played after a Miss Rachel video. He wasn't looking at the screen, but when he heard the CocoMelon music, immediately turned around like he recognised it and it makes me wonder what and how often they were watching the ipad. Generally the food was okay, but pretty unhygienic at meal times with food spilling on the floors and it being left for awhile. The kids were allowed to come to the centre with super runny noses (like snot running all down their mouth and chin) and I think this didn't help with the spread of illness. The afternoon snacks are not very nutritious, with puff pastry pinwheels and then the kids are fed cake around 5pm. Our son once came home with melted cheese (it obviously would have been hot when it landed on him) covered in dirt stuck to his forehead, that nobody had bothered to clean off him. He jammed his fingers twice in a toy cabinet, no incident reports written. In 9 months, we had constant colds and illnesses leading to recurring ear infections, plus nastier bugs including RSV, gastro (twice) & hand foot and mouth. It was a nightmare, however, this is not the reason we withdrew him, as it seems to happen at all day care centres. The vibe was off by the end of our time there - the receptionist quit suddenly (no goodbyes) and once I came in one day to see two people separately in tears (it could have been about anything I guess, but who knows). The staffing issue was so bad, and we were so sick, that I began to feel like I was knowingly poisoning him by taking him there, and that I was being negligent. It felt like an accident waiting to happen. I would call it "free range" toddlers - I felt like they were just kind of left to their own devices and to fend for themselves in a pen. Because they were so understaffed, it was a very reactive environment, with no proactive energy to enrich the kids development (there are some incursions and visitors, but I am referring more to the regular educators who were stretched so thin). I want to stress that everybody individually was doing their best, it was just severely under resourced. It really annoyed me when I found out they were building a third centre in Greensborough when they can't even manage the existing one properly and are profiting from the under staffing. We have since moved to occasional care at Eltham Playhouse and it is excellent there, absolutely worlds apart in terms of the level of care, activities, hygiene and always adequately staffed. Read more