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Why Princess Beatrice booked an expensive Norland nanny early in her pregnancy

The uniform is distinctive but can be regarded as a security risk for high-profile families 
The uniform is distinctive but can be regarded as a security risk for high-profile families

Not many nannies come trained in skid-pan driving and physical defence techniques, as well as the latest in baby psychology and gourmet cooking. Even fewer start earning money months before their newborn charges appear.

But that’s what the latest employee to join Princess Beatrice’s household can offer, which is why the Queen’s granddaughter has snapped up a Norland nanny well before her autumn due date.

Princess Beatrice, who married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi - an Italian property developer - last summer, isn’t unusual, according to Julia Gaskell, who runs the in-house agency that matches Norlanders with prospective employers: some people get in touch as soon as they find out they’re pregnant. Babies create work, after all, even before they arrive.

Norland students in a nutrition class
Norland students in a nutrition class

“[Families] get support with the decoration of the nursery, [buying] the nursery equipment, plus nannies get to know the family, and the extended family,” adds Ms Gaskell. Norlander fans include the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, George Clooney and Mick Jagger; Boris Johnson and his three siblings were also partly brought up by one.

Not that it’s easy to secure the services of the original Mary Poppins - Norlanders inspired PL Travers’s practically perfect nanny - even for a salary of more than £2,000 per week in some cases. “There are seven possible jobs for every Norlander,” says principal Janet Rose, who has turned the 129-year-old institution into one with degree-awarding powers. Some families want more than one nanny, employing one for each child. Others employ several on a rota basis for round-the-clock cover, a new trend since the pandemic, she adds.

Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who are expecting their first child in autumn - PA
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who are expecting their first child in autumn - PA

To become a Norlander, candidates apply via UCAS. The four-year training course, which includes one year working as a probationary nanny, costs around £15,000 per year but graduates are guaranteed a job, earning an annual average of £40,000. “We have several six-figure jobs at the moment,” says Ms Gaskell, who worked as a Norlander for three families in the 1980s.

“Why wouldn’t you go for the best of the best?” says one current employer and mother of two girls under three. “We wanted the best for our children. And [Norland nannies] are just incredible. They’ve studied this for three or four years. If you were employing anyone else, you’d go for someone who was highly trained and highly qualified.”

Norland students in their uniform
Norland students in their uniform

She interviewed a combination of Norlanders and other potential nannies who hadn’t come from the Bath-based college. “The difference was quite remarkable. This is a decision we’d make time and time again. We would always go with a Norland nanny. It’s the level of detail they go into in terms of planning and the way they approach everything. It’s so theoretical. You just feel this complete sense of trust.”

Like most current Norlander employers, she doesn’t require her nanny to wear the famous uniform, which was introduced by founder Emily Ward in 1892 and is required attire for students. Two different shades of gloves, a felted hat, and a bespoke Norland tweed blazer are all compulsory; other items such as a Norland crested umbrella - which lacks a parrot-head handle - is optional, as is wearing a dress: men began graduating as Norlanders in 2018. A gender neutral uniform is imminent, says Dr Rose. “We are keen to encourage people who are gender neutral to apply,” she adds.

The college at Bath Royal Crescent
The college at Bath Royal Crescent

Wearing the distinctive uniform on London streets is considered a “security risk” by many families, adds Ms Gaskell. Norlanders, however, are trained in “personal security”, spending two months before graduation on all the “James Bond meets Mary Poppins stuff”, as Dr Rose puts it, which means Norlanders are as unruffled by darning clothes as escaping at speed from the paparazzi.

Read more:

An exclusive interview with developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Princess Beatrice's new husband

Princess Beatrice is pregnant - this is how the super-rich have babies

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