Goodstart Early Learning Hoppers Crossing - Heaths Road

My son attended for about 8months. He was going through development delay and possible on the spectrum. His pre kinda class was not... My son attended for about 8months. He was going through development delay and possible on the spectrum. His pre kinda class was not quite equipped for kids with extra needs. My personal experience was not the best overall but there are some positive feedback too. The negatives: My son came home with unexplained bumps, cuts and bruises. Educators never knew why but some days it was implied that it was his own doing because he's full of energy. I definitely filled out more incident reports there then previous centre. My son wasn't eating the food provided and I was bringing in his lunch box. For awhile someone was taking out half of his lunch items and leaving it the kitchen. When I raised the question why, they couldn't explain. I even asked if there's an issue with the items and they said no. One educator then said another person did it but was trying to teach him something to do with the foods. But she was just guessing cause she didn't know 🤷‍♀️ it stopped after I raised it with a different educator. My son was toilet trained at home (no issues) but he was having accidents at school to the point where they put him back in nappies. (I was struggling to understand why and was asking for help to understand why he wasn't going. Therapist even helped by reaching out to them to help us understand. Being back in nappies, led to a really bad nappy rash from not changing him all day. Educator said its because he refuses to change his nappy. I had to escalate to the director. An educator told me he should be in a special needs school. (My son is not high on the spectrum to the point where he needs special school, otherwise his paediatrician, therapist would have suggested it or their director when we had the tour). No proper consistency when it came to strategies to help my son with anything from regulating emotions to understanding situations because his understanding is clearly different from most kids. I had to ask for reports to pass on to his therapists to give them some understanding of what was going on. (Only one report was given to me to hand over to therapist) I was told they were working on other reports. Never received it. I only got more info when i initiated alot of conversations to try and understand situations that were happening at school only and never at home. I've actually walked in on an educator yelling at him for jumping on the chair with other kids. But just him yelled at, she didn't realise I had walked in. The worst was my son coming home with deep nail marks in his arms that he actually named the educator who did it and i reported it to the director. This was reported to the police and dept of education and after a few months of investigating. It was closed due to not enough evidence. The investigation was interviewing witnesses (other educators so of course it was his word against theirs) I moved my son to a new centre before the results. There's also no camera's in the classrooms so we would never know what happened. My son wouldn't do it to himself. The positives: Kerri was always on to it when I brought things to her attention. She got things sorted straight away. The admin team were great. Teegan was awesome too! Sad to see her go. My son made a few friends there, he couldn't socialise before and had not made friends at previous centre. He has engaged in more group activities then he has in his previous centre, esp happy feet & sports days. So there was some progress with him in some areas from goodstart. Shout out to a couple of educators who really did show empathy and support. Mirtha, Priya & Hima. Hima was extremely helpful and discussed situations in depth to help me understand too and she actually listened when I was raising concerns. Their fees were reasonable. My son has been in his new centre for about 3months now. In these months the difference and improvement has been amazing. I'm not saying I don't recommend goodstart to anyone, I'm just saying with my own personal experience I wouldn't recommend goodstart for kids with extra needs. Read more

Mandy Toomata

Apr, 2024

From what I've seen and experienced in this first week, I am highly impressed and feel at ease taking my two babies here.... From what I've seen and experienced in this first week, I am highly impressed and feel at ease taking my two babies here. The staff have been warm and welcoming helping with the transition for both the children and I. The food smells amazing and my children seem to thoroughly enjoy it Read more

Alana James

Dec, 2022