Olive Howes obituary

Other lives: Teacher who was passionate about the impact of nursery education

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.

The Plowden report (1967) gave her the opportunity to set up a pilot nursery school for Cheshire county council. There was a dual rationale: to allow professional women to return to the workforce by providing free childcare, and to give children from Educational Priority Areas (EPAs) a sound grounding for starting primary school. Our locality, in Woodley, near Stockport, provided a healthy mix, and Mum quickly became a trusted adviser to the families of the children in her care.

She selected two nursery nurses who supported the education of the many children who attended the nursery during the 15 years her team worked there to develop exemplary practice.

Born in Stretford, Manchester, to Carrie (nee Wheelan) and John Shaw, Olive survived a premature birth long before special care baby units. She began her education in the local council primary school, but was sent to live with an aunt in Blackpool when the second world war broke out and the Manchester ship canal became a target.

Her Aunt Gertie enrolled Olive at Arnold school, where she excelled at sport, and passed her school certificate in 1944. She wished to continue her education and study biology at Liverpool University. Her father deemed the expense unnecessary.

She began work in a department store and then, seduced by the seamed black stockings of a Wren travelling on her bus, she joined up, serving in the mid-1940s.

In 1949 Olive began teacher training at Drake Hall College in Staffordshire, as part of the postwar emergency scheme designed to boost teacher numbers. There she met Kenneth Howes; they married in 1950 and settled in Romiley. Olive taught (huge) reception classes in Hyde and Woodley primary schools before taking on the nursery. In the late 60s she finally got to university – studying for a term at Manchester to strengthen her knowledge of recent educational theory.

After retirement in 1986, and by now living in Marple, Greater Manchester, she ran a local charity shop and continued to support the fundraising activities of several local bodies – she organised everyone.

She loved her garden, and enjoyed crossword-solving, sewing and knitting. She continued to attend fitness classes and went swimming regularly until she was in her mid-80s. In her late 80s she cared for my dad.

Ken died in 2015, and my younger brother, Nigel, in 2019. Olive is survived by me.