The initiative and the capabilities to create Maxilla Nursery Centre (later to become Maxilla Children’s Centre) were founded in the strong heritage of community action and voluntary organisations in North Kensington/Notting Hill. During the 1960s the local community had created numerous projects, notably Notting Hill Carnival, Notting Hill Social Council and the People’s Association, to protect and strengthen local people against the corrosive effects of poverty, poor housing conditions, exploitative landlords (‘Rachmanism’) and racial prejudice, and to help people live well together.
The building of the Westway motorway had produced local resistance, and this led to the creation of the North Kensington Amenity Trust (now Westway Trust), founded jointly by the borough council (Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea) and the local community to develop the land under the elevated road for community benefit, including the site for the Maxilla Nursery Centre.
By 1972 the local community had gained skills in organising and in collaborating with local authorities and other bodies, as well as a commitment to community empowerment.
Maxilla is a unique outcome of this heritage. It represents an outstanding example of people’s history, to be celebrated and also enlarging understanding of community action.
To meet the needs of local children living in conditions of social deprivation, and of working parents, Westway Nursery Association drew on three heritages in under 5s services: from nursery education they drew the commitment to the quality of children’s learning and development, from day care they drew the year round, full-day programme to support parents in employment and in education, and from the playgroup movement they drew on the importance of parent participation.
An interview with Jenny Williams,
Maxilla Nursery Centre founder
Excerpts from an interview on 07/02/2016 — 18min17secs
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