School and Family Outings 1950s

The engagement with his pupils shines through in this grainy film made by Bridlington teacher Bill Freeman. A concern for a broad education clearly animates the visits by these children, on the cusp of senior school, to York, Beverley, Flamborough and Goole and Hull Docks. They travel by boat and steam train on railway lines soon to be closed by Beeching, always well behaved and fascinated by what they see. A generation that clearly was lucky at least in some respects.

School and family outings merge together in these films made by Hilderthorpe Primary School teacher Bill Freeman, who clearly took his pastoral and teaching responsibilities seriously. Although the outings include museum visits, they also take in working environments, such as the docks, which provided experience of the wider world. Visiting institutions of educational value was counted as part of the school day from 1896, but this very much expanded and increased in scope after the 1944 Education Act. This film provides an opportunity to observe school outings in the 1950s, although it is an open question as to how typical these outings were for that time.