Olive Howes: A Trailblazer in Early Childhood Education
Olive Howes, who has died aged 98, was a pioneering practitioner in early years education whose career spanned decades and left a lasting impact on countless children. Trained as an infant teacher in the late 1940s, she remarkably combined motherhood with professional work during the 1950s, a period when such a balance was highly unusual for women.
Founding a Nursery School from a Front Room
Her innovative journey began when she established a private nursery school in a friend's front room near her family home in Romiley, Stockport. With her infant son often on her hip, Olive taught young children, demonstrating her deep commitment to early learning from the very start. She was a firm believer that the most skilled teachers should work with the youngest pupils, a principle she frequently reiterated throughout her life.
The Plowden Report and a Groundbreaking Pilot Project
The publication of the influential Plowden report in 1967 provided Olive with a significant opportunity. Cheshire County Council commissioned her to set up a pilot nursery school with a dual rationale: to enable professional women to return to the workforce by offering free childcare, and to provide children from Educational Priority Areas with a solid foundation before starting primary school.
Located in Woodley, near Stockport, this nursery served a diverse community. Olive quickly became a trusted adviser to the families of the children in her care. She carefully selected two nursery nurses who helped develop exemplary educational practices over the 15 years the team operated there, nurturing many young learners.
Early Life and Wartime Challenges
Born in Stretford, Manchester, to Carrie (nee Wheelan) and John Shaw, Olive survived a premature birth long before the existence of special care baby units. She began her education at a local council primary school but was sent to live with an aunt in Blackpool when the Second World War broke out, as the Manchester Ship Canal became a potential target.
Her Aunt Gertie enrolled her at Arnold School, where Olive excelled at sports and passed her school certificate in 1944. Aspiring to continue her education and study biology at Liverpool University, she faced disappointment when her father deemed the expense unnecessary.
From Department Store to Teacher Training
Olive initially worked in a department store before joining the Women's Royal Naval Service in the mid-1940s, inspired by the sight of a Wren's seamed black stockings on a bus. In 1949, she began teacher training at Drake Hall College in Staffordshire as part of the postwar emergency scheme designed to boost teacher numbers.
It was there that she met Kenneth Howes; they married in 1950 and settled in Romiley. Olive taught large reception classes in Hyde and Woodley primary schools before taking on the nursery project. In the late 1960s, she finally attended university, studying for a term at Manchester to strengthen her knowledge of contemporary educational theory.
Retirement and Later Years
After retiring in 1986 and moving to Marple, Greater Manchester, Olive remained active in her community. She ran a local charity shop and continued to support fundraising activities for several local organisations, often taking on organisational roles.
She maintained a love for her garden and enjoyed crossword-solving, sewing, and knitting. Committed to fitness, she attended exercise classes and swam regularly until her mid-80s. In her late 80s, she cared for her husband, Ken, who died in 2015. She also experienced the loss of her younger son, Nigel, in 2019.
Olive Howes is survived by her daughter, leaving behind a legacy as a dedicated educator who championed the transformative power of early years education.
