Do you work with young children in Rutland or nearby? Would you like to take part in our online course? This scholarship could be yours!
Thanks to the generosity of the family and friends of Mrs Dorothy Riddle, we are able to offer a fully funded scholarship for the Froebel Trust's Online Course, which starts in September 2025. If you work with young children in Rutland or a nearby town (e.g. Leicestershire, Lincolnshire) you are eligible to apply for the scholarship.
To express an interest, please email courses@froebeltrust.org.uk.
If you are awarded the scholarship, you will be committing to attending 24 course sessions on Zoom between September 2025 and July 2026. Certificates of completion are awarded for each of the six Elements covered in the course. A short report (up to 2 sides of A4) will be required at the end of the course and it will be shared with the family of Dorothy Riddle.
Dorothy Riddle (1930 – 2024)
Dorothy developed her love of nature and the outdoors during a childhood spent in and around the Welbeck Estate, Nottinghamshire where her Grandparents were tenant farmers.
She trained to be a nursery school teacher at the Rachel McMillan College in Deptford, east London. Margaret and Rachel McMillan founded a nursery school in Deptford, in 1911 where they developed a unique curriculum model inspired by the work of Friedrich Froebel and Maria Montessori. The training college developed from the school and opened in 1930.
Dorothy took her learning from Deptford to become a nursery and infant school teacher where she had a career of over 30 years mostly looking after the nursery and reception classes at Evington Valley School, Leicester. She was a firm believer in the power of play and tapping into a child’s imagination as the basis for them to learn in their own way and at their own pace.
Her classroom was a creative space with seasonal displays, a nature table and a dressing up box. Plants would be grown and measured and stick insects fed in order to understand nature’s lifecycles. Sand and water play were frequently used for science, maths and language development; with sand trays used to help children form letters.
One of her favourite activities would be sitting under the shade of a tree with her class reading a story at the end of day.
She became an inspiration for many children as well as her colleagues and her own daughters.
