Education Week 1925

Young scholars get busy for Newcastle-on-Tyne's 'Education Week' in this charming tour of Tyneside classrooms.

This fascinating study of inter-war schooling documents the exhaustive work of Newcastle upon Tyne's Education Committee during 'Education Week', 1925. A charming catalogue of Tyneside classrooms, the film shows scholars from infant to university level engaged in geography, maths, music, literature, physical training, woodwork for the boys and needlework, cookery and childminding for the girls.

Education Week seems to have been one of several events held nationally in the 1920s, intended to "stimulate interest in education". The film documents an impressive range of activities, including schools for blind, deaf and disabled children; outings and free meals for 'necessitous' children; visits by police road safety officers; and language schools using gramophone equipment. In the final shot, a visit by the Prince of Wales is greeted with a patriotic salute by 9000 children forming themselves into a Union Flag.