Flying
Start was set up to:
"To provide high quality childcare
and education in Cornwall" |
| Flying Start was founded
in 1990 in Bristol by Steve and Sharon Cowburn. Sharon,
a qualified teacher with a young child, was frustrated
at how difficult it was to get back to work whilst Steve
was working as a management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand. Flying Start began
life as a consultancy offering childcare advice to the
private, public and voluntary sectors. Early clients included
Hewlett Packard, Interlink Express, the Employment Service
and the Inner City Task Force. Flying Start ran a mobile
crèche, childminder training and set up a nursery
and managed it for a private client. |
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In May 1990 we moved to Cornwall (back
to Cornwall for Sharon) and acquired our first nursery
in Camborne renaming it Flying Start. Sharon managed
the nursery whilst Steve ran the business side doing
the accounts and paperwork.
After numerous false attempts at expansion we bought 4
existing nurseries 1995. These were at Bodmin, Penryn,
Cornwall College and Goonhilly which later moved to Helston.
Sharon also took on a number of other responsibilities
including training as an NVQ assessor and verifier and
as an Ofsted inspector. She also became Chair of the National
Private Day Nurseries Association (Cornwall) and worked
extensively with the Early Years Development Childcare
Partnership. |
The opportunity then came to extend our
links with Cornwall College and open new settings at
Saltash College and Duchy College in 1999. This also
coincided, in the same year, with an offer to move our
Head Office and open a centre in Redruth taking the group
to 8 centres. Working closely with Sure Start in Kerrier
we opened our first "not for profit" crèche
expanding the group to nine centres, over 90 staff, 266
registered places and over 500 children on roll.
Flying Start is driven by quality and was set up originally
to support all parents, including those who work. We are
very proud of our excellent Ofsted results and continually
strive to improve. In 2002 we completed the Investors in
People award and were highly commended for our provision
of extensive in-house training and for the way in which
we try to develop our staff team. |
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