The college was founded as a women's teacher training college in 1892 by followers of Friedrich Fröbel. The Froebel Society had been formed in 1874 and in 1892 Julia Salis Schwabe led an initiative to found a college for training teachers. It was imperative that the trainee teachers should be allowed to practice whilst they were learning so a school/nursery was established in parallel.[1] The college became co-educational in 1965.[2]
Emilie Michaelis (1834–1904) was the First Principal of Froebel College serving from 1892 until 1901.[3] She was succeeded by Esther Lawrence (1862–1944) who led for over 30 years finishing in 1932.[4] The third Principal was Eglantyne Mary Jebb MA (1889–1978) who led until 1955[5] when she was replaced by her friend Molly Brearley.[6]
Brearley created courses where teachers could gain diplomas and the college became involved in cross-curricular Bachelor of Education courses. In their first year, students would learn about child development, while simultaneously learning about subjects like maths and science. The college's ideas were contained[6] in, Fundamentals in the First School, which was a book that Brearley and Raymond Bott edited and published in 1969.[7] Brearley retired in 1970.[6]
In 1975, the college became part of the Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, which became Roehampton University in 2004.
^Weston, Peter (2002). The Froebel Educational Institute: The Origins and History of the College. London: Roehampton University. p. 91. ISBN1902743458.
^ abCathy Urwin, ‘Lowenfeld, Margaret Frances Jane (1890–1973)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 4 Sept 2015
