Breached Trust in Nursery

We trusted him. While choosing a nursery school, everyone recommended Sunshine. We couldn’t expect that a sexual offender would teach our daughter.

When we were looking for a nursery for our daughter Jane, our friend mentioned Sunshine. We searched online, and the place had the best reviews, each time five stars out of five, and we loved their interactive website. Our daughter loved it, too.

When we first visited the place, the nursery manager, Melanie Brickentop, showed us around and ensured the highest-quality standards. We saw multipole tables designed to spend time creatively and valuably. Melanie assured that all facilities at the nursery are built to the highest standard, and that staff are scrupulously and responsibly selected. Nothing suggested a tragedy. So why did it have to happen to us?

Jane often ended the day dirty, as after working at the coalmine. When I asked why she didn’t wash her hands after painting, she said that messy play is supposed to be like that. It's supposed to work after the painting is long completed. And when I asked why nobody had urged her to clean her hands, she looked at me with her big pleading eyes and said that Mr Lee had advised her not to wash them for a while. Now I understand why.

When he was found to be a sexual offender, we were in the greatest shock. How could this have happened? In this country, where is the central system that registers everyone entering and leaving the law? Working with children requires not only patience and communication skills but, more importantly, a clean record. This guy seemed to fail to provide the most crucial proof of his competency, and Sunshine Nursery seemed to go along with it without questioning it.

After the incident, we found out that our daughter’s art teacher didn’t have his references checked or a DBS. Because he wasn’t a qualified art teacher, he didn’t have to provide all these necessary documents and was hired solely by word of mouth. The primary school where he worked before recommended him. That appeared to be enough for the nursery to hire him to teach our daughter.

We trusted the process. We believed that teaching institutions should provide the highest possible standard. We were wrong. A system designed to help not only education providers but, most importantly, the most innocent party involved - our children. What does this mean in the long run? I’m scared to articulate. It will take months, if not years, to process this experience, and even after that, something has to change.

We have to enforce background checks, references, and DBS checks. It should be a new standard in learning settings. We need more explicit guidelines on how to execute them properly, with third-party involvement. We also have to adhere to the existing rules for Early Years Teacher Status, supported by experience. We cannot allow criminals to teach our children. That’s unacceptable.

Abused trust will resonate longer than within the time frame of our daughter’s schooling. It could implicate her future. As she’s now in college, I fear how this can impact her further. So far, she has shown no signs of out-of-the-ordinary behaviour. She has an excellent relationship with her peers, but as her schooling and growth are not yet complete, I fear for her future.

One day in the future, she’ll be a grownup and have access to the case's online material. I wish to explain to her that we’ve done absolutely everything possible to protect her and that we relied on the nursery’s competence. We didn’t know anything else beyond what they had told us. We didn’t know. Is that enough for her to trust us as good parents?