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The Nursery School

Margaret McMillan (1860-1931) and sister Rachel McMillan (1859-1917) were social
reformers in England tackling the problems of poverty as a result of the Industrial
Revolution. The sisters were born in the US, but after the death of their father, they
moved back to Scotland, their family's original home. As adults, Rachel and
Margaret moved to England in search of work.They began to visit the homes of the
poor, leading them to lives of social activism, focused on improving the lives of the
"slum child." They advocated for school meals and open one of Englands first
school-based health clinic. In 1911, they began the Open-Air Nursery School and
Training Centre in London, which was attended to by 30 children between 18
months and 7 years old. A play-oriented, open-air environment was born out of
their response to health problems they were witnessing in poor communities and
was meant to be a model for other schools as well as a training center for future
and current teachers.

They called their program a "nursery school", to demonstrate their care and
concern with nurture as well as learning. They reocognized that many poor children
in England were lacking both care and education in their most formative years. The
school had its foundation in the work of Darwin, Plato, Rousseau, Froebel, and
Owen (Feeney, Mravcik, Nolte, Christensen 2010). Besides providing care and
education, the program was designed to identify health problems before they
entered into formal schooling. The sisters focused on education via a child's 'sense
of wonder' and believed teachers must know what attracts children and engages
their attention. They also wished to help parents learn how to interact in a positive
manner with their children.

Early Nursery Schools in the US

As kindergartens were growing and expanding quickly across the US, nursery
schools gained speed in efforts to meet the needs of children younger than
kindergarten-age. Inspired by the English nursery schools, they were also
influenced by Freud's ideas about developmental psychology and progressive
education philosophy. One of the very first nursery schools in the US was the City
and Country school, opened in New York City in 1913 by Caroline Pratt. Three years
later, the Bureau of Educational Experiments opened a laboratory nursery school
under the direction of Harriet Johnson. Nearly a decade later, other nursery
schools were popping up throughout the United States, including Patty Smith Hill's
program at Columbia Universiy Teachers College in New York City, as well as the
Ruggles Street Nursery School and Traning Center in Roxbury, MA, directed by
Abigail Eliot. Eliot studied with Margaret McMillan and observed her London
school, and returned to Boston in 1922 where she continued her education. 8 years
later, she was one of the first women to receive a doctorate from Harvard
University. Eliot's Ruggles Street Nursery School followed the McMillans example
of providing full-day-care for working families, but did not have the same focus on
the physical health of the children, rather focusing on creating an intellectually
stimulating, child-centric environment and invloving parents (many of whom went
on to become teachers) in the program.

In 1916, parent-cooperative nursery schools began with the creation of the

University of Chicago Cooperative Nursery School. Similar to traditional nursery
schools in that they provided supervised learning and socialization opportunities,
they were different in that they were operated by parents and a teacher together,
with parents being required to assist in the execution of the daily program. This
benefited families by providing low-cost childcare, more free time, opportunities to
work with young children and learn about child development, a sense of
community, and of course, a way to be with their children during the day without
staying home.

Meanwhile, child-study institutions with laboratory schools were being founded.

Yale University's Clinic of Child Development, The Iowa Child Welfare Research
Station, and the Merrill-Palmer Institute, in Detroit, Michigan. After visiting the
McMillan's England Nursery School in 1921, Edna Noble White established her
Merril-Palmer Institute. Interested in more than providing care for the children,
Edna extended her mission by providing "motherhood training" and would later
become world-famous as a center for parental and pre-parental education. During
the 1920's and 1930's, college home economics departments included nursery
schools to train future homemakers and to serve as research centers. Early nursery
schools focused on the 'whole' child, incorporating social, emotional, and physical
development, paying less attention to the intellectual and more attention to free-
play, plenty of outside play, and a learning environment that was designed with
children in mind.

Today's nursery schools still reflect the basic principles of earlier nursery schools.
Childern are still seen as learning through interactions with people and with their
environment. "The role of the school is to keep the paths of exploration open so
children can develop in their own unique ways." (Feeney, Mravcik, Nolte,
Christensen 2010). Daily schedules are generally large blocks of time where
children are free to choose their activitiesand engage in them for long stretches of
time. Classrooms are divided by area, with spaces for block construction, dramatic
play, arts and crafts, sand and water tables, science centers, math centers, and
language centers. The teacher's role is to facilitate an environment that fosters
learning, supports the childs emotional development, social development, and
provides children with the tools they need to explore and experience their
environment.

Rachel McMillan was born in New York on 25th

March, 1859. Her sister, Margaret McMillan,
was born the following year on 20th July, 1860.
Their parents, James and Jean McMillan, had
originally come from Inverness but had
emigrated to America in 1840. In 1865 James
McMillan and his daughter Elizabeth died.
Margaret also caught scarlet fever and
although she survived it left her deaf (she
recovered her hearing at fourteen).

Deeply upset by these events, Mrs. McMillan

decided to take her two young daughters back
to Scotland. Rachel and Margaret both
attended the Inverness High School and were
able to make good use of their grandparents
well-stocked library. When Jean McMillan died
in 1877 it was decided that Rachel would
remain in Inverness to nurse her very sick
grandmother, while Margaret was sent away to Rachel McMillan
be trained as a governess.

In 1887 Rachel paid a visit to a cousin in

Edinburgh. Her cousin took her to church
where she heard an impressive sermon by
John Glasse, a Christian Socialist. Rachel was
also introduced to John Gilray, another recent
convert to this religious group. Gilray gave
Rachel copies of Justice, a socialist newspaper
and Peter Kropotkin's Advice to the Young.
Rachel was impressed by what she read. She
particularly liked the articles by William Morris
and William Stead.

During the following week Rachel went with

Gilray to several
socialist meetings in Edinburgh. When she
arrived home in Inverness she wrote to a friend
about her new beliefs: "I think that, very soon,
when these teachings and ideas are better
known, people generally will declare Margaret McMillan
themselves Socialists."
Rachel's grandmother died in July 1888. Freed
of her nursing responsibilities, Rachel joined
Margaret McMillan in London and the two
remained together for most of the rest of their
lives. Margaret, who was employed as a junior
superintendent in a home for young girls,
found Rachel a similar job in Bloomsbury.

In London Rachel and Margaret attended

socialist meetings where they met William
Morris, H. M. Hyndman, Peter Kropotkin,
William Stead and Ben Tillet. They also began
contributing to the magazine Christian
Socialist and gave free evening lessons to
working class girls in London. Margaret later
wrote: "I taught them singing, or rather I talked
to them while they jeered at me." It was at this
time that the two sisters became aware of the
connection between the workers' physical
environment and their intellectual
development.

In October 1889, Rachel and Margaret helped the workers during the London
Dock Strike. The continued to be involved in spreading the word of Christian
Socialism to industrial workers and in 1892 it was suggested that their efforts
would be appreciated in Bradford.

Although for the next few years they were based in Bradford, Rachel and
Margaret toured the industrial regions speaking at meetings and visiting the
homes of the poor. As well as attending Christian Socialist meetings, the
sisters joined the Fabian Society, the Labour Church, the Social Democratic
Federation and the newly formed Independent Labour Party (ILP).

Margaret and Rachel's work in Bradford convinced them that they should
concentrate on trying to improve the physical and intellectual welfare of the
slum child. In 1892 Margaret joined Dr. James Kerr, Bradford's school medical
officer, to carry out the first medical inspection of elementary school children
in Britain. Kerr and McMillan published a report on the medical problems that
they found and began a campaign to improve the health of children by arguing
that local authorities should install bathrooms, improve ventilation and supply
free school meals.

The sisters remained active in politics and Margaret McMillan became the
Independent Labour Party candidate for the Bradford School Board. Elected in
1894 she was now in a position to influence what went on in Bradford schools.
She also wrote several books and pamphlets on the subject including Child
Labour and the Half Time System (1896) and Early Childhood (1900).

In 1902 Margaret joined her sister Rachel in London. The sisters joined the
recently formed Labour Party and worked closely with leaders of the movement
including James Keir Hardie and George Lansbury. Margaret continued to write
books on health and education. In 1904 she published her most important
book, Education Through the Imagination (1904) and followed this with The
Economic Aspects of Child Labour and Education (1905).

The two sisters led the campaign for school meals and eventually the House of
Commons became convinced that hungry children cannot learn and passed
the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act. The legislation accepted the argument
put forward by the McMillan sisters that if the state insists on
compulsory education it must take responsibility for the proper nourishment
of school children.

In 1908 Rachel and Margaret McMillan opened the country's first school clinic
in Bow. This was followed by the Deptford Clinic in 1910 that served a number
of schools in the area. The clinic provided dental help, surgical aid and lessons
in breathing and posture. The sisters also established a Night Camp where
slum children could wash and wear clean nightclothes.

Rachel and Margaret McMillan both supported the campaign for universal
suffrage. They were against the use of violence and tended to favour the
approach of the NUWSS. However, they disagreed with the way WSPU
members were treated in prison and at one meeting where they were protesting
against the Cat and Mouse Act, the sisters were physically assaulted by a
group of policemen.

In 1914 the sisters decided to start an Open-Air Nursery School & Training
Centre in Peckham. Within a few weeks there were thirty children at the school
ranging in age from eighteen months to seven years. Rachel, who was mainly
responsible for the kindergarten, proudly pointed out that in the first six
months there was only one case of illness and, because of precautions that
she took, this case of measles did not spread to the other children.

Rachel McMillan had suffered from poor health for a long time and died on 25th
March, 1917.

(1) In 1927 Margaret McMillan later recalled her first experience of schooling in
Inverness.

Our mother was possessed by one aim - to give us children a proper education.
She spared nothing in the pursuit of this end. The first experience of school
was a little disconcerting and in some ways even alarming. The children sat in
large room with a desk that looked like a pulpit. This desk contained, as we
afterwards learned with horror, a tawse, or leathern strap, with four tongues,
which the masters used with energy, not indeed for the punishment of girls,
but only of boys. In spite of our immunity, we were filled with anxiety and
distress, and had a deep sympathy with the unruly boys.

There were other things that were disturbing. The schools of that day, even for
well-to-do children whose parents paid high fees (our mother paid them with
difficulty), had a low standard in respect of hygiene. Dusty walls, greasy slates,
no hot water and no care of the physical body.

(2) After attending her first Christian Socialist meeting in Edinburgh, Rachel
McMillan wrote to her cousin about her new views (24th March, 1887)

I am sending with this letter some of Mr. Gilray's pamphlets on Socialism. I am

very glad to have had them, and could never have collected them for myself. I
think that, very soon, when these teachings and ideas are better known, people
generally will declare themselves Socialists. They are bound to do it, if they
think at all. I instinctively felt they were good people, and now I believe they are
the true disciples and followers of Christ.

(3) In 1892, F. W. Jowlett of the Social Democratic Federation, asked Rachel

and Margaret McMillan to move to Bradford. Margaret Mcmillan wrote about her
experiences in her book, The Life of Rachel McMillan that was published in
1927.

We arrived on a stormy night in November. Coming out from the entrance of

the Midland station, we saw, in a swuther of rain, the shining statue of Richard
Oastler standing in the Market Square, with two black and bowed little mill-
workers standing at his knee.

Next morning we awoke in a new and quite unknown world. It was a Sunday,
and the smoke cloud that usually enveloped the city had lifted. Tall dark
chimneys reaching skywards like monstrous trees, made dark outlines against
the faint grey of the sunny morning. On weekdays these big stone monsters
belched forth smoke as black as pitch that fell in choking clouds.

The condition of the poorer children was worse than anything that was
described or painted. It was a thing that this generation is glad to forget. The
neglect of infants, the utter neglect almost of toddlers and older children, the
blight of early labour, all combined to make of a once vigorous people a race
of undergrown and spoiled adolescents; and just as people looked on at the
torture two hundred years ago and less, without any great indignation, so in
the 1890s people saw the misery of poor children without perturbation.

(4) In 1913 Rachel and Margaret McMillan attended a meeting called to protest
against the Cat and Mouse Act.

When the Cat and Mouse Bill came into operation we joined a committee
formed by Sir Victor Horsley, and went with many other women in the House
of Commons, with a protest signed by a great number of people. It was a
beautiful day in August when we set off, all full of zeal, across the paved lawns
about St. Margaret's, till we reached the House and mounted the steps leading
to the foyer in front of the ante-room, whose swinging doors were closed to us.
There we stood a long time. An old lady was on the step above us - she was
dressed very daintily in amethyst silk, her hair swathed in lace, among whose
fold gleamed a thin gold chain. I was looking admiringly at her when suddenly
a force of policemen swung down on us like a Highland regiment. We were
tossed like dust down the steps. A moment later I was on the floor, the crowd
behind flung over me in their wild descent. There was a big meeting that night
at which I was to speak, but, of course, I did not speak at that meeting, nor at
any other - for weeks.

Margaret McMillan was born in Westchester County, New York, on the 20th
July, 1860. Her parents, James and Jean McMillan, had originally come from
Inverness but had emigrated to America in 1840. In 1865 James McMillan and
his daughter Elizabeth died. Margaret also caught scarlet fever and
although she survived it left her deaf (she recovered her hearing at fourteen).

Deeply upset by these events, Mrs. McMillan decided to take her two young
daughters, Margaret and Rachel McMillan back to Scotland. Rachel and
Margaret both attended the Inverness High School and were able to make good
use of their grandparents well-stocked library. When Jean McMillan died in
1877 it was decided that Rachel would remain in Inverness to nurse her very
sick grandmother, while Margaret was sent away to be trained as a governess.

In 1887 Rachel paid a visit to a cousin in Edinburgh. Her cousin took her to
church where she heard an impressive sermon by John Glasse, a Christian
Socialist. Rachel was also introduced to John Gilray, another recent convert to
this religious group. Gilray gave Rachel copies of Justice, a socialist
newspaper and Peter Kropotkin's Advice to the Young. Rachel was impressed
by what she read. She particularly liked the articles by William Morris and
William Stead.

During the following week Rachel McMillan went with Gilray to several socialist
meetings in Edinburgh. When she arrived home in Inverness she wrote to a
friend about her new beliefs: "I think that, very soon, when these teachings and
ideas are better known, people generally will declare themselves Socialists."

Rachel's grandmother died in July 1888. Freed of her nursing responsibilities,

Rachel McMillan joined Margaret in London and the two remained together for
most of the rest of their lives. Margaret, who was employed as a junior
superintendent in a home for young girls, found Rachel a similar job in
Bloomsbury.

Rachel converted Margaret to socialism and together they attended political

meetings where they met William Morris, H. M. Hyndman, Peter Kropotkin,
William Stead and Ben Tillet. They also began contributing to the magazine
Christian Socialist and gave free evening lessons to working class
girls in London. Margaret later wrote: "I taught them singing, or rather I talked
to them while they jeered at me." It was at this time that the two sisters became
aware of the connection between the workers' physical environment and their
intellectual development.

In October 1889, Rachel and Margaret helped the workers during the London
Dock Strike. The continued to be involved in spreading the word of Christian
Socialism to industrial workers and in 1892 it was suggested that their efforts
would be appreciated in Bradford.

Although for the next few years they were based in Bradford, Rachel and
Margaret toured the industrial regions speaking at meetings and visiting the
homes of the poor. As well as attending Christian Socialist meetings, the
sisters joined the Fabian Society, the Labour Church, the Social Democratic
Federation and the newly formed Independent Labour Party (ILP).

Margaret and Rachel's work in Bradford convinced them that they should
concentrate on trying to improve the physical and intellectual welfare of the
slum child. In 1892 Margaret joined Dr. James Kerr, Bradford's school medical
officer, to carry out the first medical inspection of elementary school children
in Britain. Kerr and McMillan published a report on the medical problems that
they found and began a campaign to improve the health of children by arguing
that local authorities should install bathrooms, improve ventilation and supply
free school meals.

The sisters remained active in politics and Margaret McMillan became the
Independent Labour Party candidate for the Bradford School Board. Elected in
1894 and working closely with Fred Jowett, leader of the ILP on the local
council, Margaret now began to influence what went on in Bradford schools.
She also wrote several books and pamphlets on the subject including Child
Labour and the Half Time System (1896) and Early Childhood (1900).

In 1902 Margaret joined Rachel McMillan in London. The sisters joined the
recently formed Labour Party and worked closely with leaders of the movement
including James Keir Hardie and George Lansbury. Margaret continued to write
books on health and education. In 1904 she published her most
important book, Education Through the Imagination (1904) and followed this
with The Economic Aspects of Child Labour and Education (1905).
The two sisters joined with their old friend, Katharine Glasier, led the campaign
for school meals and eventually the House of Commons became convinced
that hungry children cannot learn and passed the 1906 Provision of School
Meals Act. The legislation accepted the argument put forward by the McMillan
sisters that if the state insists on compulsory education it must take
responsibility for the proper nourishment of school children.

In 1908 Margaret and Rachel McMillan opened the country's first school clinic
in Bow. This was followed by the Deptford Clinic in 1910 that served a number
of schools in the area. The clinic provided dental help, surgical aid and lessons
in breathing and posture. The sisters also established a Night Camp where
slum children could wash and wear clean nightclothes. In 1911 Margaret
McMillan published The Child and the State where she criticised the tendency
of schools in working class areas to concentrate on preparing children for
unskilled and monotonous jobs. Margaret argued that instead schools should
be offering a broad and humane education.

Rachel and Margaret both supported the campaign for universal suffrage. They
were against the use of violence and tended to favour the approach of the
NUWSS. However, they disagreed with the way WSPU members were treated
in prison and at one meeting where they were protesting against the Cat and
Mouse Act, the sisters were physically assaulted by a group of policemen.

In 1914 the sisters decided to start an Open-Air Nursery School & Training
Centre in Peckham. Within a few weeks there were thirty children at the school
ranging in age from eighteen months to seven years. Rachel, who was mainly
responsible for the kindergarten, proudly pointed out that in the first six
months there was only one case of illness and, because of precautions that
she took, this case of measles did not spread to the other children.

Rachel McMillan died on 25th March, 1917. Although devastated by the loss of
her sister, Margaret continued the run the Peckham Nursery. She also served
on the London County Council and wrote a series of influential books that
included The Nursery School (1919) and Nursery Schools: A Practical
Handbook (1920).

In her later years Margaret McMillan became interested in the subject of

nursing. With the financial help of Lloyds of London, she established a new
college to train nurses and teachers. Named after her beloved sister, the Rachel
McMillan College was opened in Deptford on 8th May, 1930.

Margaret McMillan died on 29 March, 1931. Afterwards her friend Walter

Cresswell wrote a memoir of the McMillan sisters: "Such persons, single-
minded, pure in heart, blazing with selfless love, are the
jewels of our species. There is more essential Christianity in them than in a
multitude of bishops."
(1) In 1927 Margaret McMillan later recalled her first experience of schooling in
Inverness.

Our mother was possessed by one aim - to give us children a proper education.
She spared nothing in the pursuit of this end. The first experience of school
was a little disconcerting and in some ways even alarming. The children sat in
large room with a desk that looked like a pulpit. This desk contained, as we
afterwards learned with horror, a tawse, or leathern strap, with four tongues,
which the masters used with energy, not indeed for the punishment of girls,
but only of boys. In spite of our immunity, we were filled with anxiety and
distress, and had a deep sympathy with the unruly boys.

There were other things that were disturbing. The schools of that day, even for
well-to-do children whose parents paid high fees (our mother paid them with
difficulty), had a low standard in respect of hygiene. Dusty walls, greasy slates,
no hot water and no care of the physical body.

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/women/wh31.htm
http://earlychildhoodhistory.weebly.com/the-nursery-school.html

The McMillan Sisters and their Open Air Nursery

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One of the more interesting regular South East London Open House venues is the
Rachel McMillan Nursery in Deptford; it is an open-air nursery that evokes a time
of the pioneering health care already covered in the blog in relation to the ground
breaking work done in Bermondsey by the Salters and then taken up by the then
Borough of Bermondsey at Solarium Court.

The Open-Air Nursery School & Training Centre, set up by the McMillan sisters,
Rachel and Margaret, opened in 1914. Their philosophy was that children learned
by exploring and would achieve their full potential through first-hand experience
and active learning. They stressed the importance of free play, particularly with
craft and water activities, and also outdoor play – providing large and varied
external areas for this. Such views seem commonplace now, but were very different
to the teaching methods generally used at the time.

The new school consisted of a series of ‘shelters’ which each had

bathrooms, there was a clear daily routine

 The school opened at 7:30 am;

  Most children were dropped off between 08.00 and 09.00 by their mothers on
their way to work in factories – often taking on roles traditionally undertaken
by men, who were then on the WW1 front;
 Breakfast with porridge and milk at 9:00 am;
 The mornings were spent doing hand work or playing in the garden (or in the
shelter in poor weather);
 Lunch 11.30 and 12 noon;
 as part of the war effort;
 The afternoon activities consisted of free play, music and games;
 Tea at 4:00 pm; and
 Collection of the children between 5:00 and 5:30 pm.

In the wake of the LCC establishing the initial open air schools for delicate children
of school age, there were moves from the voluntary sector to apply the same
principles to very young children from the poorer working-class districts of
London. Pioneers in this regard were two sisters - Rachel and Margaret McMillan.

The McMillans, both Christian Socialists and educationalists, campaigned for the
improvement of education and health of slum children and, in 1908, had
established a London School Clinic in Bow. Early in 1910 they moved the Clinic to
Deptford, one of London's more deprived areas. The Clinic provided dental and
medical care, as well as lessons in breathing and posture. The children were
generally debilitated and 80% had rickets.

In 1911 the Clinic was located in Evelyn House, at No. 353 Evelyn Street, which had
been given rent-free to the sisters by Mr and Mrs John Evelyn (who joined the
managing committee). A small Nursery School and Baby Camp was established in
the garden of Evelyn House. Within a few weeks of its opening, the School had 30
children, their ages ranging from 18 months to 7 years. Later, a Girls Camp was
established so that girls over the age of 8 years slept in the garden at night. A Boys'
Camp was set up at No. 24 Albury Street and, by 1912 a 'night camp', where 12 to
16 boys over the age of 8 years could sleep in the open air every night among the
tombstones in the old churchyard of St Nicholas. The younger siblings of the
children attended the Nursery School during the day.

In 1913 the LCC was approached by the American philanthropist, Joseph Fels, the
manufacturer of naphtha soap, with regard to an acre of vacant land off The
Stowage at the top of Deptford Church Street (this part of the road, and the adjacent
Wellington Street, were later renamed McMillan Street) for the Camp Schools. The
site had been set aside by the LCC for a future elementary school, but offered the
potential of more substantial quarters for the Schools. The LCC agreed to lease the
land at a nominal rent of one shilling (5p) a year (on the understanding that the
arrangement could be terminated at a day's notice) and, in March 1914, the
McMillan Camp Schools moved to the new location.

A Baby Camp was established initially for 6 children. By the summer some 29
children, aged from 3 months to 5 years, lived at the School and slept in the open
air at night.

At the outbreak of WW1, the sisters approached the Ministry of Munitions via the
Board of Education, offering to take the children of married women working in
munition factories. For this, the School received a grant of 7d (3p) a day for each
child of a munition worker.

Rachel McMillan died on her birthday, 25th March 1917. In the summer of 1917 the
School was extended and the new buildings opened by the Minister of Education,
Mr H.A.L. Fisher on 3rd August. The School was renamed by Margaret as the
Rachel McMillan Nursery (as its entrance is still styled).

The new School consisted of several 'shelters' or pavilions which could hold
between 35 to 50 pupils each. The simply furnished shelters, reputedly designed
by Rachel, were deliberately light timber and asbestos constructions, intended to
be modified or replaced easily, to support changing numbers of pupils and
requirements. When later constructions included a considerable amount of glass,
the result was said to resemble a greenhouse environment.

The shelters contained cupboards to store the beds and blankets. Tables and
chairs were put away each afternoon at the end of the school day. Each shelter
had its own bathrooms, with the one used by the toddlers fitted with several pot-
baths. Each bath and sink had its own hot and cold water taps.

The doors of the School were open at 07.30 hrs, when the mothers could drop their
children off on the way to their factory work. Most arrived between 08.00 and 09.00
hrs and first of all visited the bathroom to wash and clean their teeth. Each child
was provided with a peg on which to hang their bag containing a flannel, a towel
and a toothbrush. After a breakfast of porridge and milk at 9 o'clock, 'lessons'
began. The mornings were spent doing hand work or playing in the garden (or in
the shelter in poor weather).
At lunchtime, held between 11.30 and 12 noon, children over 3 years of age were
allowed to help themselves from a little serving dish passed round by a 'monitor'
(another child).

After the 2-course lunch the older children helped to clear the tables and set out
the camp beds and blankets for the midday rest.

The afternoon activities consisted of free play, music and games.

Tea was served at 16.00 hr and school finished between 17.00 and 17.30 hr, when
the working mothers would collect their children

While beginning entirely from the voluntary (charitable) community, the Education
Act, 1918, permitted local education authorities, such as the LCC, to support
nursery schools, both financially and with medical services. The McMillan Nursery
was soon recognised and aided.

In 1919 the LCC agreed that Margaret McMillan could continue with the Nursery for
five years, on condition that she relinquished all claim to the property (including
the buildings) in September 1924. In 1924, and in subsequent years, the agreement
was renewed.

In 1920 the School received its first grant from the LCC. Brick offices (WCs) were
built for the shelters. The Nursery was recognised by the Board of Education as a
Teacher Training Centre.

In the summer of 1921 some 135 children were attending and the School had to
turn away pupils. Margaret McMillan approached the LCC with a view to extending
the School with an extension to accommodate 100 children. The LCC agreed and
the new extension (funded by the LCC) was completed on 5th September and was
officially opened by Queen Mary on 22nd November 1921.

During the 1920s, the School functioned as parallel voluntary and state (LCC)
establishments sharing the site and the same superintendent. In 1923 the Nursery
and School contained 300 pupils aged from 2 to 12 years, 212 of whom were under
the age of 5 years. The 300 meals for the children were prepared by one cook and
one helper.

In 1924 temporary premises to provide more School places were obtained in

Wellington Street.

By 1927 another shelter was built. The School had 260 places, of which 160 were
in the voluntary part and 100 in the LCC's part.
In 1930, with financial help from Lloyds of London, new buildings for a training
college for teachers and nursery nurses were set up in Creek Street. The Rachel
McMillan Training College opened on 8th May 1930 (it became part of Goldsmiths
College in 1976).

In 1931, on the death of Margaret McMillan, the entire School came under LCC
control.

In 1932 the premises in Wellington Street were required for a housing

scheme. Another shelter was built on the Stowage site, although the pupil
complement of 260 places remained the same. A weekly charge of 1s 8d (8p) was
paid by the parents who could afford it.

Throughout the 1930s the School had been extended and improved; the earliest
shelters were replaced in 1936. The six open air shelters stood in a large garden
and were self-contained, with separate cloakrooms, bathrooms and sanitation. The
garden had an attractive playground with a slide, a 'jungle gym' and little
pathways. Rabbits and guinea pigs were kept as pets, and there were an aviary
and a dove cot. LCC doctors visited weekly and, if any child needed treatment,
they were referred to the Rachel McMillan Treatment Centre in Reginald Square.

From the beginning, graduates from the Open Air Nursery were found to have a
considerable advantage in weight and general health, compared to their peers, on
entering primary school at the age of 6 years.

http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/mcmillanoans.html

https://runner500.wordpress.com/2015/12/02/the-mcmillan-sisters-and-their-open-
air-nursery/