Thanks Mike. The clippings give us some good background about the school/college.
In 1914 the school was offering the National Froebel Certificate. This was training for would-be teachers based on the philosophy of Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852). Training offered by the school therefore included the training of young women to become teachers. By adopting the Friebel philosophy, Miss Baily was offering teacher training which was highly desirable and was later strongly advocated by the Board of Education. A description of the approach is below (from the roehampton.ac.uk site):
"It reformed educational methods and teacher training, emphasising development of the whole person/child. Through play, supported by adults, children tease out and explore situations. Children become increasingly abstract imaginative, symbolic and creative thinkers. Froebel valued close partnership with parents and open community schools, founding the ‘Kindergarten’ for very young children. He pioneered the idea that women should be highly educated and trained as teachers, and was mocked for promoting this in his first teacher training college.
In 1920 the FEI was recognised by the Board of Education, and the length of the training course was raised to three years – one year longer than non-Froebelian training colleges, because the Froebel training included more arts education and time spent in the study of nature, movement and dance.
Froebelian methods and teacher’s qualification for the education of young children were strongly advocated by the “Hadow Report”, published by the Consultative Committee on Infant and Nursery Schools of the Board of Education in 1933.
Graduates received awards from the National Froebel Union (National Froebel Foundation from 1938), the Teacher’s Certificate was highly desirable until it ceased in the 1960s when a three year training course for all teachers was introduced."
Viv