My mother, Olive Howes, who has died aged 98, was a pioneer practitioner of early years education. After training as an infant teacher in the late 1940s, she combined motherhood with work, unusual in the 50s. She set up a private nursery school in a friend’s front room near our home in Romiley, Stockport, teaching with my infant brother on her hip.
She was passionate about the impact of nursery education on the life chances of children – she reiterated frequently that the best and most skilled teachers should be working with the youngest pupils.
