Bernadette originally trained as a teacher and during the last 30 years she has worked in a wide range of settings in the maintained and voluntary sectors. Bernadette is Head of the Thomas Coram Centre in Camden which was one of the first schools to be designated as a Children’s Centre and has been identified as a particularly successful school by Ofsted. The Centre offers fully integrated care and education for young children in partnership with their parents and local community.
Bernadette has contributed to a range of publications and is the author of Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years published by the Open University Press. She is co-editor with Dame Gillian Pugh of Contemporary Issues in the Early Years published by Sage. Bernadette is a speaker on a wide range of Early Years’ issues in this country and abroad.
Bernadette was part of the working parties which devised the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, Birth to Three Matters and the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. She is currently a member of the expert panel reviewing the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. Bernadette has also been a member of a number of advisory committees for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and the Qualification, Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
Bernadette is a Vice President of the British Association for Early Childhood Education and trustee of the Incorporated Froebel Institute. She was on the advisory committee of the Cambridge University Primary Review and is an external examiner for the Open University. Bernadette was made an OBE in 2005.
