ISLINGTON

There’s probably no other nursery school like the Margaret McMillan. It has more than 180 babies and toddlers on roll; 14 fully integrated children with special needs; 32 members of staff; a career structure for nursery nurses; means-tested fees; and an exceptional headteacher.

Margaret McMillan is three years old and heavily subsidised by the London borough of Islington where it is based. Run by the education department it is an amalgamation of a nursery school, a social services day centre and a special school - and has been chosen as the Labour party’s model of the ideal nursery.

And just to make McMillan extra special, it has a small community swimming pool and a “treasured” experienced male teacher - a rare breed in the nursery world.

But this school with an excellent reputation had a difficult birth and, say some, is unlikely to be copied in the near future. It was conceived in the rubble of the Inner London Education Authority, delivered by three women with a vision and nurtured by the Labour borough. Even its name has resonance - Margaret McMillan was a Christian socialist who pioneered nursery schools for working women 100 years ago.

The school’s size alone makes it unusual, but its turbulent history makes it unique. In 1990, when the Government toppled the ILEA, Margaret Hodge, then leader of Islington Council, and now MP for Barking and head of Labour’s under-fives taskforce, Mary Hart, head of Highgate nursery school, and Barbara Riddell, an education consultant, got together with Chris Webb, then the borough’s chief education officer. They persuaded Islington to merge Highgate nursery, Beacon nursery for children with severe learning difficulties and a children’s day centre. They also wanted to introduce means-tested fees.

They succeeded, but not without a battle. Barbara Riddell remembers the “dreadful arguments”, the “prejudice”, the “enormous resistance to fees”. Now, three years on, the waiting list runs into hundreds.

Walk around the school and it’s difficult to pick out the children with visual impairment, hearing loss or autism, and it is impossible for the casual visitor to tell the difference between the 22 nursery nurses and the 10 teachers.

Yet these issues were crucial during the merger discussions. Hodge, Riddell and Hart, who is now Margaret McMillan’s head, wanted a nursery school run by a headteacher. There was no place for any of the management team from the day nursery at the new institution.

Understandably, the day nursery staff and their union felt they were being treated like second-class citizens. How could a teacher know how to care for a two-year-old, they demanded. But “was wiping that bottom done in an educational way,” retorted Mrs Riddell, condemning the “spurious” division between education and care.

There was also opposition from the nursery-school parents. They did not like the idea of their children associating with toddlers who had been referred to the day nursery by the social services because there were problems at home, or because, for example, a parent was disabled. The day-nursery stigma was strong.

But now, although many of the day nursery staff refused jobs at the new institution, all three of the special responsibilities at the school this year - IT, bilingual support and resources - have been given to nursery nurses.

To those who say the school is too big, Ms Hart says the numbers give her the flexibility to create a career structure for her staff.

Ms Hart, a 46-year-old self-confessed “soft socialist”, said of the early days: “You had the right combination of people, people who were quite sure about their role and confident. If you are doing something radical, you have to be prepared to abandon the shibboleth.”

Parents have accepted the fee system which operates on two sliding scales. At the bottom end of the scale for babies, a full-time place for parents on family credit from 8am to 5.45pm is Pounds 10.75 a week plus Pounds 5 for lunches. Five points up the scale, a family earning Pounds 25,000 a year, pays Pounds 108.75 a week plus the lunch Pounds 5 for the same hours. Working parents have priority over the first and last sessions.

Islington subsidises poorer families by 90 per cent and better-off parents by about 10 per cent. The fees generate Pounds 65,000. The budget is Pounds 750,000 a year.

Thanos Morphitis, an assistant education director for Islington, says the Margaret McMillan is not expensive for what it provides but says it would be difficult to copy because finding an appropriate site and converting the buildings is expensive. And: “Not many people are as good as Mary,” he added.

Mrs Riddell agreed: “Mary is a Margaret McMillan of her generation. She’s extraordinary because of her passion which is integrated with her intellectual persuasion about why children learn. She’s able to pass that on to the staff. They get excellent training.”

But, Mrs Riddell stressed, there were lessons to be learnt about organisation and management. Islington had tried to put teachers into day nurseries but the added education element had created tension. At Margaret McMillan quality education was integral. It was both a school and a day nursery and the stigma had been stamped out.