[3] Beeby and Clarence studied Education under James Shelley, a newly arrived lecturer from England, and his ideas influenced them.
[citation needed] While raising her young family in Christchurch, Beeby continued her interest in drama and joined the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society, which Shelley had founded in 1928.
[8][9] The aim of the playcentres was to give mothers some relief from single parenting while their husbands were absent fighting in World War II.
[10] On 22 July 1941 the inaugural meeting was held at Wood's home, and the thirteen women who attended agreed to establish a playcentre association.
[3] Beeby's knowledge of the funding system also enabled her to successfully apply for a grant from the New Education Fellowship in 1937,[11] and she attended their conference in 1944 as a representative of the nursery playcentre organisation.
[12] Beeby's life from the 1950s involved accompanying her husband on his international career as a diplomat to France and an educational consultant in the United States and Indonesia.