Theresa Ellerby began forty years in early education working in local committee-led pre-schools in in Grimsby in the 1970s, offering much needed support to local families. She moved on to be the Manager of the area’s first workplace nursery for ten years providing care and education to many hundreds of local children. During this time she trained as a Montessori teacher and teacher trainer qualifying in 1990.
In 2000 she began a working partnership with her twin sister Sylvia (also an early years educator) to build a nursery in Stallingborough — the children’s house.
Theresa introduced the Montessori method of education for the first time in this area, providing a high-quality child centred centre where none had existed before. She has championed the highest quality resources, environments, and staff training to support children which has all had a tangible and notable impact on children’s development.
Theresa and Sylvia expanded the original nursery and developed a new-build neighbourhood nursery in 2003 to create a state-of-the-art centre which raised the bar on quality environments for young children in the area. Developed as a beacon of excellence, Theresa role modelled the highest standards of early education to others. The development of the nursery has enabled many hundreds of local families to take up employment and/or training whilst their young children flourish and thrive in their earliest years. The Centre has consistently achieved ‘outstanding’ gradings from OfSTED.
Under her steer, several of the staff team have undertaken Level 4 Montessori teacher training qualifications. Theresa led the development and growth of a Montessori teacher training centre on site teaching diploma qualifications to over twenty staff. In addition, she led many introductory courses to other early educators and to numerous parents to support their parenting role. She has delivered Montessori training to many other centres and local authorities and despite semi-retirement is currently delivering training to a Montessori school in Wales. She also trained as an early years OfSTED inspector.
In addition to this work, Theresa has been keen to support other centres, going the extra mile as an active member of several Montessori charities. Theresa has shared her knowledge at conferences and regional meetings inspiring and supporting other Montessori teachers.
We are very proud of Theresa’s achievements.
