Give a chance
You know, of course, of Miss Margaret McMillan and her nursery school for poor children at Deptford. Can you have this and similar places reported on fully?
What is needed is the establishment of nursery schools in every district where the children may early in life be taught cleanliness, self-respect and be accustomed to comfort and decent surroundings. Be treated in short like human beings and given some inducement to live. The poor parents - wretchedly poor through no fault of their own are for the most part (there are always exceptions) - only too willing to co-operate and let their children have the advantages denied to themselves.
13 January 1926
Coping well
The nursery is in a desperately poor part of London, close to Guy's Hospital by London Bridge Station, but the babies and small children looked remarkably well. Indeed, the medical officer in his 1938 report said that it was surprising how well the children kept, apart from the chronic nose infections which seem to be inevitable in poor homes.
No doubt the work the nursery does has a lot to do with it. They take babies from three months old, all day from half past seven in the morning until about half past five in the evening when the mothers, back from work, come and fetch the children home again. They are given all meals. The charge for this is ten pence a day, and when mothers are too poor to afford this the Committee helps them. 28 December 1938
Personal space
One of the essentials of childhood is that the children should feel that there are places and things which are really their own. There are certain places which are 'Mummy's' and 'Daddy's' and 'Nurse's' and there should be places, too, which belong, equally definitely, to the children. The nursery school is, I think, the best means of providing this, but with careful thought it can also be arranged at home. Because of this the children are allowed to move freely from room to room, and use the apparatus and toys as they wish. When children can get this feeling of ownership they take real pleasure in looking after their property. I find the only occasion on which I ever have to make a suggestion about the careless use of a toy or the rough use of apparatus is with a new child, and even then it is almost always done for me by the other children. 25 January 1939
24/7
In order to meet the ever-growing need for war-time nurseries in Glasgow, the Glasgow Public Health Department is starting a huge drive in which new nurseries are planned and many day nurseries transferred to 'round the clock' duty. On February 1st, the first of three 24-hour nurseries started to cater for women on night-work. The first nursery to be opened for night and day is Eastpark, Maryhill. Munition workers are to get first preference and next on the list will come transport workers. The matron of the nursery, Mrs Currie, expects that when mothers are on night-shift, the children will stay in the nursery all the time, except week-ends.
11 March 1943
Social life
Nursery schools do not exist only to make good deficiencies in the home, but to provide for the child's needs on the social side. Good family life is the most stabilising influence on a child's upbringing and the nursery schools set out to preserve and build up that family life by keeping many of the qualities of the home and having close contact with the mother. 24 May 1945
Meeting needs
Eight points about nurseries were presented by the London Women's Parliament in a recent deputation to the Ministry of Health. The points were:
1) A public statement to be made by the Minister of Health on his attitude to nurseries
2) Continuation of nurseries for children under five with the 100% Government grant for a further period
3) Nursery provision to be compulsory on all local authorities and not permissive only as at present
4) Speeding up of training for the new national nursery certificate
5) Clarification of the meaning of the new Education Act in regard to nursery schools
6) Some guarantee of immediate plans for development of nursery school provision
7) Speed-up of training for nursery school teachers
8) Additional facilities in nursery schools for holidays, etc, to meet the needs of mothers who are at work.
22 November 1945
Great importance
'The importance of the nursery school is out of all proportion to its numbers,' says a new handbook about Health Education published by the Ministry of Education (HM Stationary Office, 4s. Postage 81/2d). It goes on 'probably no other kind of school has done so much to build up the health of the children coming to it and much of what has been worked out here has been subsequently put to good use 2in the infant and junior schools.'
28 February 1957
In defence
After reading 'Toinette's' letter I felt I must write in defence of nursery schools and the mothers who seek their help.
'Toinette' has been very lucky to have the patience, knowledge, the space and the money to do everything that is done in nursery schools.
Some mothers, who love their children dearly, do not have the patience or the knowledge to do everything that we, as nursery staff, can do. 2 September 1965
Closing nurseries
All nursery schools and classes in Slough may be abandoned. Berkshire Tories plan to cut nearly 2m off the education budget next year and closing nurseries is one of several drastic proposals being considered to achieve the saving. In Slough alone more than 1,000 children attend nurseries and Slough Labour councillor Peter Jones said the proposal would be a disaster. Closing all the county's nursery schools would save more than 250,000 and scrapping nursery classes attached to primary schools would save a further 92,000. 20 October 1977
Out-of-school
There is also a healthy demand for the centre's latchkey service.
This is an innovative and well-used provision. All the new family nursery centres are designed or adapted to include community rooms which are used for the care of five to seven year olds before and after school and in the school holidays - an absolute boon to working parents. 22 May 1986
Odd man out
Less than 45 per cent of British four year olds receive fulltime pre-school education, making Britain the odd man out in the universal trend towards pre-school education for the over-threes.
3 July 1986
Joined-up
Hilary Armstrong, Labour's spokesperson for primary education and the under fives, says: 'We need a properly co-ordinated plan for our under fives.
'In some areas today working parents have to arrange for their children to go to three or four different locations in any one week in order to cope.
We want to make sure they have a real set of choices and just as important, have full details of what is actually available for them. We might consider a network of children's centres, for instance, where parents could go to find out such information.'
She makes the point that at the moment less than a quarter of Britain's three and four year olds get a chance of a place in a nursery school or class and the country is among the three with the lowest level of publicly-funded child care within Europe. 13 July 1989
All included
A Scottish council is promising to provide a publicly funded nursery education place for every four-year-old child in its region by the end of 1993.
This commitment by Lothian Regional Council involves the creation of over a thousand new places which will cost, in total, about 340,000.
Already 82 per cent of children in Lothian attend nurseries for at least a year before entering primary school, but the council is determined to make sure that every child in the region takes up this opportunity. 1 October 1992
Racing ahead
Nursery schools have taken up the gauntlet thrown down by the Government and are racing ahead in the challenge to develop and extend their services.
Initiatives range from providing care for younger children and those with special educational needs to extending the nursery day and disseminating good practice.
Early years minister Cathy Ashton praised nursery schools at the Maintained Nursery Schools Conference earlier this year and stated, 'This Government is committed to the maintained nursery school sector. We are clear about the particular and vital role they can play in taking forward the ambitious agenda we are setting for the development of early childhood services in this country.' 31 October 2002
