Working for children and social change Tracing the endeavours of three Scottish lady teachers who immigrated to New Zealand in the early 20th century

This is a story of three lady teachers whose teaching careers and endeavours on behalf of women and children have been mainly forgotten. It is an incomplete story, lacking in photographic records and collated from a myriad of fragmentary news clippings, writings, sightings and reports gathered over some years. Misses Agnes Inkpen and Isabella Jamieson emigrated together from Edinburgh, Scotland, to New Zealand in 1908. Miss Isabel Little, also from Edinburgh emigrated in 1912. All three women were primary school teachers, trained in Edinburgh, with interests and/or qualifications in kindergarten and teaching infant classes. This was a long journey for three single but intrepid women to undertake from a long established and reputable education system in Scotland to the fledgling school infrastructure in New Zealand. But there were opportunities for single women teachers in a country that gave the vote to women in 1893. This was a new century and a new country interested in social reform and opportunities for all. The careers of our three teachers flourished in this environment. Their arrival coincided with the growth of the kindergarten movement in New Zealand and a school system cautiously welcoming of the modern methods of new education