
Britain's first open-air school was established by sisters Margaret and Rachel McMillan in 1914 in London's poverty-stricken Deptford. Their pioneering work laid the foundation for a century of campaigning to establish nursery education for all children.
Margaret McMillan became the first president of the Nursery School Association (now The British Association for Early Childhood Education, known as Early Education), which was set up in 1923 to develop nursery education through specialist schools. To mark its Golden Jubilee in May 1973, The Nursery World reported that Margaret Thatcher, who was education minister at the time, gave an opening address. The article said that the idea seemed ‘nothing short of revolutionary’ at the time.
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