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The Anna Freud Centre Nursery School functions today much as it has since its beginning in 1957, its purpose being to provide the students training at the Centre with the opportunity to observe and study normal child development. It is attended by 13 children, who reflect the multicultural population at large. The age range is 2½ to 5 years. Most children are referred by health visitors or social workers because of a need in their families. There are always one or two children with special needs within the group.
Ongoing observations on the children are recorded daily by the staff; these observations help both staff and students to understand and learn more about young children. The first year students in training at the Centre observe in the Nursery School and meet in a seminar each week to discuss their observations. The Nursery Consultant leads these seminars. In addition, there is a weekly Education Unit Meeting with members of the Centre's staff and students at which a developmental report on an individual child based on the recorded observations is presented and discussed. Anna Freud's developmental viewpoint informs and underlies the work of the Nursery School.
Anna Freud introduced recorded observations in 1937 as part of the work of the Jackson Nursery in Vienna. In her paper for the 30th birthday celebrations of the Anna Freud Centre Nursery, Hansi Kennedy (1988) quoted from a lecture given by Anna Freud in 1966:
The Jackson Nursery was an experimental nursery for children between 1 and 2 years of age… the most underprivileged children that could be found in Vienna… This was an excellent opportunity for us to learn and to test out some of our theoretical ideas in an active plan of day care.
Hansi Kennedy went on to describe one of the monthly seminars set up to discuss the theoretical issues arising from the work in the Jackson Nursery (1 March, 1937).
Amongst other thin