Brenda Crowe (child educator)

Brenda Iris Gunary (1920–?), married name from 1942 Chell, married name from 1949 Crowe, was an English nursery teacher and author, from 1967 to 1970 the initial National Adviser to the Pre-School Playgroups Association (PPA).[1]

Background

Her father was Ernest Edmund (or Edmond) Gunary (1887–1971),[2][3] a farmer and market gardener in areas near Rainham, formerly in Essex, that are now part of the London Borough of Havering. The family business, Samuel Gunary & Sons, farmed at South Hall, Rainham, and Wennington Hall in the period c.1914 to c.1969.[4] Her mother was Marjorie Iris Bird, her parents having married in 1919.[5][6]

Education and career

Brenda Gunary was a pupil at Sidcot School, from 1935 to 1938. She was then trained as a nursery teacher, attending for three years the Bedford Training College, on a course consisting largely of practical work, influenced by the ideas of Friedrich Froebel. Subsequently she taught in Leicestershire.[7][8][9]

During World War II Gunary, from 1942 Chell, worked in a day nursery.[10] Later at the Mid-Essex Child Guidance Clinic, in Chelmsford, she was a remedial teacher for special needs.[11][12] She qualified as an NNEB (Nursery Nurse Examination Board) tutor.[13]

In 1966 the PPA was awarded a government grant to fund the salary of a full-time National Adviser, and Crowe was given the position, for a three-year term.[13][14] Joan Conway of the Welsh PPA wrote:

Her commitment was total and she travelled all over the British Isles meeting people and children, speaking to numerous audiences about the Playgroup Movement and promoting the role of parents.[13]

Stephanie Mathivet has proposed that "it was the arrival of Crowe that heralded the clarity and refinement of the evolving PPA philosophy and pedagogy."[15] In 1968 Crowe conceded that the PPA model was not applicable to areas afflicted by social deprivation.[16]

With an increase of grant from the Department of Education and Science in 1971, Crowe gained a colleague in her work, Maude Henderson.[17] A further grant in 1974 allowed the appointment of a third adviser with a remit including special needs.[18] Funding in the 1980s came from the Department of Health and Social Security.[19]

Crowe was a consultant involved in the 1983 ITV series Understanding Toddlers presented by Anna Ford.[8][20] She continued her speaking career, in 1985 leading with Michel Odent a National Childbirth Trust study day on "Instinctive Parenting".[21]

Works

  • The Playgroup Movement (first edition 1973, George Allen & Unwin; 4th edition 1983.) The later editions, revised by Meg Burford, had a foreword by Mia Kellmer Pringle.[22]
  • Living with a Toddler (1982)[23]
  • Play is a Feeling (1983, reprint 2024).[24] In it Crowe "recalls and interprets the feelings of childhood (hers and others) from the memories of intense sensory experiences."[25]
  • Your Child and You (1986), collected articles from Woman's Realm.[26][27]
  • People Don't Grow by Being Measured: Recollections and Reflections of a Dyslexic Grandmother (2008), introduction by Anna Ford[28]

Honours and awards

Brenda Crowe was awarded a honorary degree by the Open University in 1979.[12]

Family

Brenda Gunary married firstly, in 1942 at St Mary and St Peter's Church, Wennington, Peter Chell of the Essex Regiment, elder son of Lieut.-Col. Randolph Arthur Chell of the Essex Regiment and his wife Lucy Ashforth Stafford.[29][30] Peter Chell was killed in action in Normandy on 12 August 1944.[31]

She married secondly, in 1948, Harold Michael G. Crowe (Mick), an insurance broker who died in 1996.[8][32][33][34] They had a son Simon and a daughter Amanda, living first at Wethersfield and then at Boxford, Suffolk.[8]

Legacy

Papers from Brenda Crowe's time with the Pre-School Playgroups Association are held by the Institute of Education Archive of University College London.[35]

Notes

  1. ^ Abrams, Lynn (2023). Feminist Lives: Women, Feelings, and the Self in Post-War Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-19-289699-5.
  2. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  3. ^ "No. 45577". The London Gazette. 20 January 1972. p. 831.
  4. ^ Doubleday, Herbert Arthur (1978). A History of the County of Essex. Boydell & Brewer. p. 186.
  5. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  6. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  7. ^ "Class notes" (PDF). Sidcotian Friends (Spring/Summer). Sidcot School: 22. 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d Russell, Steven (26 January 2009). "I was diagnosed dyslexic - at age of 80!". East Anglian Daily Times.
  9. ^ "History of Teacher Training - beds.ac.uk, University of Bedfordshire". www.beds.ac.uk.
  10. ^ Davis, Angela (30 July 2024). Pre–school childcare in England, 1939–2010: Theory, practice and experience. Manchester University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-5261-8569-3.
  11. ^ McKechanie, Alison. "Toys That Open Up A New World". Wolverhampton Express and Star. No. 23 November 1967. p. 40.
  12. ^ a b Knowles, Rita (25 July 1980). "Oh! those despairing moments of motherhood". Hemel Hempstead Gazette. p. 6.
  13. ^ a b c Bray, Judith; Conway, Joan; Dykins, Marjorie; Slay, Leontia; Webster, Ivy; Hawkins, Wendy, eds. (2008). Memories of the Playgroup Movement in Wales 1961-1987 (PDF). Aberystwyth: Wales Pre-School Playgroups Association. p. 6.
  14. ^ Education. Vol. 129. Councils and Education Press. 1967. p. 527.
  15. ^ Davis, Angela (30 July 2024). Pre–school childcare in England, 1939–2010: Theory, practice and experience. Manchester University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-5261-8569-3.
  16. ^ Abrams, Lynn (2023). Feminist Lives: Women, Feelings, and the Self in Post-War Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-19-289699-5.
  17. ^ The Medical Officer. Vol. 28. 1971. p. 126.
  18. ^ Crowe, Brenda (15 April 2013). The Playgroup Movement. Routledge. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-135-03134-3.
  19. ^ Crowe, Brenda (15 April 2013). The Playgroup Movement. Routledge. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-135-03133-6.
  20. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Ford, Anna (1943-) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  21. ^ "Spotlight on 'natural way' to childbirth". Skegness Standard. 18 October 1985. p. 9.
  22. ^ Crowe, Brenda (15 April 2013). The Playgroup Movement. Routledge. p. vi. ISBN 978-1-135-03134-3.
  23. ^ Crowe, Brenda (1982). Living with a Toddler. Unwin Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-04-649015-7.
  24. ^ Crowe, Brenda (1 November 2024). Play is a Feeling. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-27500-9.
  25. ^ Sayeed, Zahirun; Guerin, Ellen (12 October 2012). Early Years Play: A Happy Medium for Assessment and Intervention. Routledge. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-136-62529-9.
  26. ^ Crowe, Brenda (1986). Your Child and You. Unwin Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-04-649039-3.
  27. ^ Adoption & Fostering. British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering. 1986. p. 71.
  28. ^ Crowe, Brenda (2008). People Don't Grow by Being Measured: Recollections and Reflections of a Dyslexic Grandmother. Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906510-29-9.
  29. ^ "Wedding of Capt. Peter Chell and Miss Brenda Gunary". Chelmsford Chronicle. 14 August 1942. p. 12.
  30. ^ Kelly's (1962). Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes. Kingston upon Thames: Kelly's Directories. p. 4521.
  31. ^ "In Memoriam: Chell". Chelmsford Chronicle. 17 August 1945. p. 1.
  32. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  33. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  34. ^ "L-55053-019 Crowe Harold". thegazette.co.uk.
  35. ^ Abrams, Lynn (2023). Feminist Lives: Women, Feelings, and the Self in Post-War Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-19-289699-5.
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