It started with three toddlers and their teacher in a rented house in the coastal community of Unity Hall in Montego Bay.

Today, some 10 years later, Deborah Azan’s Stepping Stones nursery and pre-school facilitates more than 40 children between the ages of 18 months and five years, on its own land at the foot of Reading Hill in St James.

For the 37-year-old Azan, who was born in Montego Bay to Victor Azan, an accountant, and his wife Margaret, an English nurse, it is a dream come true.

“This is really it for me. I’ve no plans to expand because I’ve seen what that can do,” she told the OBSERVER WEST.

The simple explanation serves as the perfect opener to the rich history behind the establishment of the school, which is ranked highly in educational circles.

The expansion of the Reading Kindergarten further up the road from Azan prompted her to set up her own outfit, which is operated on an educational philosophy that puts children’s social and emotional needs on par with their academics.

“We never try to squash them here, if you know what I mean… We give full licence to their emotional needs to express themselves and be heard…,” she said.

“However, there’s a consequence to that, as when there are no holds on the emotional outlet you get it all… everything… the whole emotional wave and that makes our days here so much more challenging, but then so much more rewarding in the long run,” she added.

Azan’s educational philosophy was formed in part by her training through the Nursery Nursing Education Board (NNEB) in England, where she qualified herself at the Erith College in south-east London.

She had earlier attended the Montessori Centre in Kingston as a child and then the Mount Alvernia High School for girls in Montego Bay.

After Mount Alvernia she attended the Farrington Boarding School for girls in south-east London’s Chiselhurst, where she sat her Ordinary Level examinations in a mixture of mostly arts and science subjects.

She later took a job as a junior clerk in an accounting firm before returning to Jamaica, where she worked as a playmaker for Sandals Montego Bay.

While there, she finally made up her mind to return to England to pursue what she knew would be a career for her.

“I went back to England and worked as a nanny as a sort of try-out. Then I went to study at Erith,” she recalls.

That job, she noted, gave her the first real taste of the discipline and stamina it would require in her work with young children.

After leaving Erith, she returned to Jamaica where she worked as a personal assistant to Kathy Dear at an apartment rental company in Montego Bay’s Freeport.

While there she got a job offer to teach at Reading Preparatory School. It proved a good experience, as she was given free reign to put the skills she had learned at Erith into practice.

There are no regrets, as Azan’s vision of an ideal foundation and safe place for toddlers has been realised through the cooperative efforts of its dedicated teaching staff.