Tess Robson, who has died of cancer aged 63, was an inspirational teacher of young children. For more than 20 years she was head of the state nursery school, Tachbrook, rated “outstanding”, in the heart of the Peabody Estate in Pimlico, west London.
The eldest of four children, and raised by her mother, Margaret Hodgkinson, after her parents divorced she was educated at the Ursuline high school in Wimbledon, south-west London, retaining strong friendships from her time there. Studying for a degree in medieval history at Manchester, she met the architect Dave Robson, and they married in 1976.
In the 70s she trained as a nursery teacher at Froebel College in Roehampton. This was a choice of career which surprised no one who had ever seen the rapport Tess had with children of all ages. Telling stories and playing games, she drew on her love of myths and legends and her knowledge of the natural world as well as a sometimes anarchic sense of humour to communicate in an extraordinary way.
She moved to Pimlico for the last 10 years of her career, delighted to be part of a local community where she at times welcomed a second generation of the same family to the school. She delighted, too, in learning about the stories and traditions of the many cultures children brought to the nursery, creatively helping them adapt to their new lives in the safety of Tachbrook, where the 60 children might speak as many as 28 different languages.
Among other achievements, she created a wonderful garden for the nursery where children, many from inner-city flats, had the opportunity to make fires and woodland camps, or grow and cook vegetables – and, most important of all, could play whatever the weather, occasionally turning a blind eye to health and safety regulations.
Friends tried to persuade Tess to take a higher profile in the world of early years education, but she never wanted a public role, although she was always happy to share her ideas and show the work in progress at Tachbrook.
She had just embarked on a busy retirement, looking after the two-year-old daughter of an unwell friend, taking singing lessons, learning Norwegian so that she could chat to her sister Veronica’s sons and grandsons in Oslo, volunteering as an usher at Cadogan Hall and at the educational charity Roots and Shoots in Lambeth, south London, and planning more travels with her friends. Only 15 months into this happy time she learned she was terminally ill, a turn of events she bore with her usual pragmatism and humour.
Tess and Dave divorced in the 1980s. She is remembered with great love and affection by her many friends and by generations of children at Tachbrook.
