We were delighted to hear that one of the first girls to attend Hymers College before it became co-ed, Lucy Driver, OH 1981-83, has been awarded an OBE in the 2025 New Year’s Honours List for her outstanding services to Early Years Education.  Since leaving Hymers College, Lucy has worked in the Education sector, and has been a Headteacher for 25 years and has worked as a National Leader of Education. She is now Executive Headteacher at St Pauls Nursery School in Bristol and leader of a South West Regional Early Years Stronger Practice Hub.

Lucy's family have a strong connection to Hymers College, with her Great Grandfather, John Percival Lockwood, OH 1893-95 being one of the first students to study at Hymers College when it first opened.  His name is still in the Main Hall, on the Honours Board as he became a scholar at Queens College, Cambridge in 1895.

Lucy followed her older brother, Jon Driver, OH 1970-80 to study at Hymers College.  He went on to become a psychologist and neuroscientist, and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College, London, and one of the world’s leading experts on the workings of the brain.  In 2009, Jon was one of only six scientists from around the world selected for a Royal Society Anniversary Research Professorship.  He sadly passed away in 2011.  More recently, her great nephew has just started at the school.

Below, Lucy shares how her passion for Early Years Education led to her receiving an OBE:

It’s was such a surprise to open my letter to say I would be receiving an OBE. It had been sitting on my stairs for days unopened!

I’m so honoured by this and I accept it on behalf of all the inspiring Early Years (EYs) educators, family support workers, and leaders I have had the privilege to work and learn with at St Paul’s Nursery School, within Bristol Early Years and beyond.

There is a compelling rationale for committing to the early years, for getting the start of a child’s life right. It’s those early relationships, attachments, experiences and learning that informs our future pathways. The right early interventions for children who may need that bit extra, improves life chances and reduces cost in later life. Yet the work we do in the Early years often goes unnoticed, and can be undervalued and underfunded.

So, thankyou whoever, for recognising the contribution that I and many many others make to early education.

The early years sector is hugely diverse, but one thing we all have in common is great ambition for our youngest children. It’s a sector that is led by principles and where there is always creativity, innovation and optimism. How can you not be optimistic when you work with young children; they are such an inspiration and delight.

I am grateful everyday to have found my place in the world professionally. I trained to be an EYs teacher in Bristol, where I fell in love with Nursery Schools and was immersed in brilliant strong EYs pedagogy. My early years journey took me from Bristol to Oxford and back again, always keeping links with my hometown Hull. It’s enabled me to work in an integrated setting, across a few settings, with our Local Authority, but all the time looking out and beyond to where other exceptional practice was happening.

It’s been a passion of mine for 35 years, and the more I experience the richness of the sector the more determined I am to get this phase in life right for our youngest learners.

I know I am so fortunate. In leading an EYs National Teaching School and now the regional EYs Stronger Practice Hub ‘Bristol and Beyond’ in addition to the brilliant St Paul’s Nursery School, it has enabled me to connect with wider partners over the years: great leaders in nursery schools, private voluntary and independent nurseries and childminders. Inspiring EYs teams in Bristol and other local authorities, Family Hub and Children’s Centre teams, health professionals, primary and secondary colleagues, and research partners.

It’s these connections that continue to ignite my drive for continued improvement, integration and development in the early education and care.

In collaborating together during those first years, building a team around the child and family which is both respectful and empowering, we know we can really make a sustainable difference.

There is no better sector to work in.

Lucy Driver OH 1981-83

Related Articles:

• St. Pauls Nursery’s Lucy Driver Awarded OBE (External website)
• Nursery owners and managers recognised in Honours List (External website)