Stepping stones children's nursery in Paphos Cyprus

Welcome to Stepping Stones!

Stepping Stones was set up by nursery nurse and teacher Joanne Webster in March 2007, reacting to the supply and demand needs of young children with Special Educational Needs. The school has grown from strength to strength, accepting children from all abilities, cultures and nationalities. The school serves the immediate community, but has attracted children from Peyia, Konia, and Aphrodite Hills. Children are registering and attending from world wide and the school website has daily enquires from families abroad. Currently the school does not receive funding, and all money is put back into the school. Now that Cyprus is a member of the European Union, funding applications are on the horizons, as well as registration to provide validated child care courses – a first for Cyprus!

What we are

Stepping Stones Nursery comprises our staff, our premises and our children.

Our staff

All our staff are highly trained and/or experienced child carers. We provide care for up to 20 children and at all times maintain the ratios of adults to children laid down in the UK National Care Standards and appropriate to the children’s ages and stages of development. (1:3 for babies, 1:4 for two year olds and 1:8 for three to five year olds.) The Director is supernumerary to these legal requirements and will generally float from room to room to provide extra assistance, as do any volunteers and those working in the Nursery on student placements. The legal ratios are a standard we never fall below and generally in each room the number of adults for each group of children is higher than this requirement. We have a pool of our own bank staff to draw upon when required to cover holiday, sickness and training so that even such cover staff are familiar with the setting’s aims and procedures and known to the children.

Although the Nursery is open from 8am to 5pm our staff work a set pattern of hours with a significant break in addition to the lunch shared with the children. This is taken either off the premises or in the well-appointed staff room. Staff are therefore fresh, alert and child-focused at all times when they are on duty.

We believe in the importance of staff training and we are committed to accessing training opportunities available and provide in-house training covering first aid, child care, food hygiene and health and safety, enabling all our staff to realise their full potential. The Nursery Director and the assistant manager deliver a programme of in-house workshops on under fives issues and we close to children three days a year for inset days to enable the whole staff team to undertake training together, keeping up-to-date with current developments and good practice.

Our children

As a dedicated day nursery our provision revolves entirely around the children in our care and, as a non-profit making organisation, once our costs are covered all excess income is ploughed back into the facilities for these children.

What we provide and how

We offer day care services for the parents of children from 0 months to, in theory, four years 6 months, although it is anticipated that most children will leave sometime early in their fourth year to start at school reception. We provide for 6 babies, [7] two year olds and [14] three and four year olds in the Pre-school. Part-time places of 8am until 1pm, or 1pm until 5pm are available in addition to a full time place of 8am until 5pm











	Welcome to Stepping Stones! Stepping Stones was set up by nursery nurse and teacher Joanne Webster in March 2007, reacting to the supply and demand needs of young children with Special Educational Needs. The school has grown from strength to strength, accepting children from all abilities, cultures and nationalities. The school serves the immediate community, but has attracted children from Peyia, Konia, and Aphrodite Hills. Children are registering and attending from world wide and the school website has daily enquires from families abroad. Currently the school does not receive funding, and all money is put back into the school. Now that Cyprus is a member of the European Union, funding applications are on the horizons, as well as registration to provide validated child care courses – a first for Cyprus! What we are Stepping Stones Nursery comprises our staff, our premises and our children. Our staff All our staff are highly trained and/or experienced child carers. We provide care for up to 20 children and at all times maintain the ratios of adults to children laid down in the UK National Care Standards and appropriate to the children’s ages and stages of development. (1:3 for babies, 1:4 for two year olds and 1:8 for three to five year olds.) The Director is supernumerary to these legal requirements and will generally float from room to room to provide extra assistance, as do any volunteers and those working in the Nursery on student placements. The legal ratios are a standard we never fall below and generally in each room the number of adults for each group of children is higher than this requirement. We have a pool of our own bank staff to draw upon when required to cover holiday, sickness and training so that even such cover staff are familiar with the setting’s aims and procedures and known to the children. Although the Nursery is open from 8am to 5pm our staff work a set pattern of hours with a significant break in addition to the lunch shared with the children. This is taken either off the premises or in the well-appointed staff room. Staff are therefore fresh, alert and child-focused at all times when they are on duty. We believe in the importance of staff training and we are committed to accessing training opportunities available and provide in-house training covering first aid, child care, food hygiene and health and safety, enabling all our staff to realise their full potential. The Nursery Director and the assistant manager deliver a programme of in-house workshops on under fives issues and we close to children three days a year for inset days to enable the whole staff team to undertake training together, keeping up-to-date with current developments and good practice. Our children As a dedicated day nursery our provision revolves entirely around the children in our care and, as a non-profit making organisation, once our costs are covered all excess income is ploughed back into the facilities for these children. What we provide and how We offer day care services for the parents of children from 0 months to, in theory, four years 6 months, although it is anticipated that most children will leave sometime early in their fourth year to start at school reception. We provide for 6 babies, [7] two year olds and [14] three and four year olds in the Pre-school. Part-time places of 8am until 1pm, or 1pm until 5pm are available in addition to a full time place of 8am until 5pm