In 1904 the Froebel Society took part in a Joint Conference at Bradford, where one sitting was devoted to “The Need for Nursery Schools for Children from three to five years at present attending the Public Elementary Schools.”  The speakers were Mrs. Miall of Leeds, and Miss K. Phillips, who had wide opportunities for knowledge of the unsuitable conditions generally provided for these little children.  Among those who joined in this discussion was Miss Margaret M’Millan, so well known for her pioneer work in connection with School Clinics, and more recently for her now famous Camp School.  Miss M’Millan had already done yeoman service on the Bradford Education Committee, but was now resident in London, and she had been warmly welcomed on the Council of the Froebel Society.  It was from the date of this Conference that the name Nursery School became general, though it had been used by Madame Michaelis as early as 1891.  In the following year, 1905, the Board of Education published its “Reports on Children under Five Years of Age,” with its prefatory memorandum stating that “a new form of school is necessary for poor children,” and that parents who must send their little ones to school “should send them to nursery schools rather than to schools of instruction,” to schools where there should be “more play, more sleep, more free conversation, story-telling and observation.”  It would seem that the recommendations of 1905 may begin to be carried out in 1919, a consummation devoutly to be wished.

In the meantime voluntary effort has done what it could.  Birmingham had good reason to be in the forefront, since many of its public-spirited citizens had in their own childhood the benefit of the excellent works of Miss Caroline Bishop, a disciple of Frau Schrader.  The Birmingham People’s Kindergarten Association opened its first People’s Kindergarten at Greet, in 1904, and a second, the Settlement Kindergarten, in 1907.  Sir Oliver Lodge spoke strongly in favour of these institutions, calling them a protest against the idea of the comparative unimportance of childhood.

Miss Hardy opened her Child Garden in 1906, and that work has grown so that the children are now kept till they are eight years old.  The Edinburgh Provincial Council for the Training of Teachers opened another Free Kindergarten as a demonstration school for Froebelian methods, a practising school for students, and also as an experimental school, where attempts might be made to solve problems as to the education of neglected children under school age.  It was the Headmistress of this school, Miss Hodsman, who invented the net beds now in general use.  She wanted something hygienic and light enough to be carried easily into the garden, that in fine weather the children might sleep out of doors.

Another Sesame House student, Miss Priestman, opened a Free Kindergarten in the pretty village of Thornton-le-Dale, where the children have a sand-heap in a little enclosure allowed them by the blacksmith, and sail their boats at a quiet place by the side of the beck that runs through the village.