And in the very year in which we were plunged into war Miss Margaret M’Millan put into actual shape what she had long thought of, and opened her “Baby Camp” and Nursery School, with a place for “toddlers” in between, the full story of which is told in The, Camp School.  In the Camp itself the things which impress the visitor most are first the space and the fresh air, the sky above and the brown earth below, and next the family feeling which is so plain in spite of the numbers.  The Camp existed long before it was a Baby Camp and Nursery School, for Miss M’Millan began with a School Clinic and went on to Open-Air Camps for girls and for boys, before going to the “preventive and constructive” work of the Baby Camp.  Clean and healthy bodies come first, but to Miss M’Millan’s enthusiasm everything in life is educative.

The war has increased the supply of Nursery Schools, because the need for them has become glaringly apparent.  Many experiments are going on now, and it seems as if experimental work would be encouraged, not hampered by unyielding regulations.  The Nursery School should cover the ages for which the Kindergarten was instituted, roughly from three to six years old.  Already there are excellent baby rooms in some parts of London, and no doubt in other towns, and the only reason for disturbing these is to provide the children with more space and more fresh air, or with something resembling a garden rather than a bare yard.

One school in London has a creche or day nursery, not exactly a part of it, but in closest touch, established owing to the efforts of an enthusiastic Headmistress working along with the Norland Place nurses.  Its space is at present insufficient, but the neighbouring buildings are condemned, and will come down after the war.  They need not go up again.  Then the space could be used in the same way as in the Camp School.  That would be to the benefit of the whole neighbourhood, and there could be at least one experiment where from creche to Standard VII. might be in close connection.

Miss M’Millan’s ideal is to have a large space in the centre of a district with covered passages radiating from it so that mothers from a large area could bring their little ones and leave them in safety.  It would be safety, it would be salvation.  But, as the Scots proverb has it, “It is a far cry to Loch Awe.”

Another question much debated is, who is to be in charge of these children.  The day nursery or creche must undoubtedly be staffed with nurses, but with nurses trained to care for children, not merely sick nurses.  There are, however, certain people who believe that the “trained nurse” is the right person to be in charge of children up to five, while others think that young girls or uneducated women will suffice.  We are thankful that the Board of Education takes up the position that a well-educated and specially trained teacher is to be the person responsible.