New nursery venture starts after closure

7:53am Wednesday 30th April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A NURSERY manager from York has started a new venture after the closure of the city's 130-place Primary Step Nursery.

As The Press reported at the time, Nicola Cooper, from Osbaldwick, said a tearful farewell to toddlers and their parents at Primary Steps, based at Next Generation Gym in Hull Road, last year.

It came after the company which ran Primary Steps/Creative Education Corporation went into administration, putting 15 nursery staff out of work and leaving about 130 children without childcare.

At the time, mum Rachel Smith, of Bishopthorpe, who works part-time as a project manager for City of York Council, spoke to The Press as her one-year-old son, Dylan, went to the nursery.

She said: "I'm really devastated. When you go through the choices of where to send your child you agonise and think long and hard about where to send them and I picked this as the best choice and, when you find out that's been taken away from you, it's just heart-breaking."

Now Nicola has bought a nursery at York Business Park in Nether Poppleton with about 60 toddlers on the books. Formerly Papoose Nursery, Nicola has named her new venture Liliput Day Nursery.

She said: "It was a really awful and sad time for everyone involved, for the staff, parents and children when the nursery closed. It's been months now, but a lot of the parents said at the time they'd like to follow me if I set up elsewhere and I thought it was time I let them know.

"It's a lovely nursery and I have ten staff at the moment. It's going really well. I was out of work from October to March, but I have been focusing my time on getting as prepared as possible."

Nicola is coming towards the end of a three-year Open University course to get a Foundation Degree in Early Years. Anyone wanting to contact Nicola at the nursery to enrol can phone 01904 786541.

Next Generation was not involved in the running of Primary Steps; it simply provided the space.