FLYING START
- 1, TRELAWNEY ROAD
TR14 7LN CAMBORNE, CORNWALL
Phone: 01209 715543
Fax: 01444 456354
E-mail: Send message
Short profile:
Flying Start Nurseries offer high quality care for babies, toddlers and children in Cornwall and Plymouth
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.
Detailed description:
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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