Kidscape Lara: Children, staff leave troubled kinder

An experienced educator walked off the job at lunch and another child came home with bite marks. Here’s why staff and families say they are leaving a Lara childcare centre.

HEI schools Lara Early Learning Centre.

Parents and staff are leaving a troubled Lara kindergarten in droves, saying complaints of biting and “extreme violence” have been met with “a brick wall” response from management.

Parent Joshua Guy said over the past six weeks his son, who has attended the centre for most of his life, had come home with visible bruises and bite marks.

He said the family had made the difficult decision to withdraw their child from centre.

“The staff members for us are like family to us, they’ve quite literally been with us since his first steps,” Mr Guy said.

“We really appreciate everything that they’ve done for us, but we’ve been asking questions and (it’s felt like) talking to a brick wall with management for a few months.

“It’s gotten to the point we have to take him out.”

The kinder formerly operated as HEI Lara Centre and was bought by Vantage Education for $1.2m in 2024 after it was forced into liquidation.

The Geelong Advertiser reported last week the Department of Education was investigating the centre following complaints.

Mr Guy said he was worried new management was preventing staff from intervening in arguments between children.

He said his child was hit on the head by an older child when the two were left to “work out” an argument on their own, with staff told not to intervene.

“I understand kids hit and bite each other, but this wasn’t happening under the old ownership,” he said.

Kidscape chief executive Glenn Nguyen said many of the issues raised existed before the takeover and were being actively addressed.

“We are not blaming previous educators or management,” he said.

“We are focused on owning our role as the current provider.”

Kidscape Lara still has its HEI branding. Picture: Alison Wynd

Mr Nguyen said the Department of Education’s involvement was a standard regulatory process, rather than a targeted investigation.

“Violent behaviour among children was a pre-existing issue that had not been properly addressed before our arrival,” he said.

“All childcare centres are required to report incidents such as biting.

“This is part of mandatory compliance, not an indication of wrongdoing.

He said Kidscape had introduced stronger behaviour management strategies and followed a structured learning framework.

An educator with 12 years experience in childcare, who did not want to be named, said she quit after just six hours at Kidscape Lara.

“The violence was just so concerning, because children were just bored,” she said.

“This service was doing nothing.”

Parents said they received online communications from the centre, following the Addy’s report, stating longstanding challenges were being addressed.

Originally published as Kidscape Lara: Children, staff leave troubled kinder