THEY are the elite among nannies, the special forces of childcare providers. They will parachute in and create order and calm in the nursery before you can say ‘spit spot’—all while running up a fancy-dress costume from curtains and making shepherd’s pie for tea. It’s why Norlanders have long been the nanny of choice for royalty (the Cambridges have Maria Borrallo and The Princess Royal also employed one), high-net-worth individuals and celebrities such as Sir Mick Jagger.
Echoing that other quintessentially British institution, Eton, any innovation at Norland commands inches of newsprint. ‘Mary Poppins meets James Bond’ was one excitable headline, on the news that students were receiving lessons in self-defence and counter-terrorism. ‘Mary Poppins learns to escape the paparazzi’ was another, after it emerged that skid-pan training had been added to the curriculum.
‘It’s not for escaping the paparazzi!’ exclaims Norland College principal Dr Janet Rose. ‘The skid-pan training is really about driving in icy conditions at the end of a long day, with two fretful children in the back.’ As with all new additions to the course, it’s about giving families confidence, explains Dr Rose. When former military-intelligence officers come into college, it’s to raise students’ awareness of personal security online. ‘Things such as being tech-savvy about the use of social media; not giving away your geographical location,’ Dr Rose divulges.
Norland through the years
1892 Norland Institute is founded in Norland Place, Holland Park, London W11, by Emily Ward. She was an advocate of the ideas of Friedrich Fröbel, inventor of the kindergarten system
1895 The uniform is introduced, supplied by Debenham & Freebody of Kensington
Denne historien er fra December 02, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra December 02, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prÞveperiode pÄ Magzter GOLD for Ä fÄ tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766â68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artistâs first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
