Early Life
Born as Margaret Ann Brown, the daughter of a Royal Air Force officer, in Inverness, she attended Nairn Academy; Bodmin County Grammar School (closed in 1973); Bushey Grammar School and the Polytechnic of South Bank, London, where she was awarded a BSc in Sociology in 1967, and was elected vice president of the students' union).
She attended Walsall College of Education (where she received a PGCE in 1971 and qualified as a teacher; and University of Manchester where she obtained her MSc in psychiatric social work.
She began her career as a trainee social worker with the Walsall Social Services in 1971. In 1972 she became a social worker with the Birmingham City Council, moving to Gwynedd County Council in 1973 and the Metropolitan Borough of Wolverhampton in 1974, then to the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in 1975, moving once more in 1982 to the Cheshire County Council. In 1988 she became the fostering team leader with the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham until her election to parliament.
Read more about this topic: Ann Coffey
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)