Board School dramatises a day at Kirkstall Board School in 1875. It was made to commemorate the centenary of the Forster Education Act (1870). The film begins with a soundtrack of children singing playground rhymes as an inspector leaves his house on pony and trap. Also seen are barefoot and ragged children leaving their house. The film then moves to children in a school yard followed by the important elements of a school day. At the sound of a whistle, children form into lines and process...

Board School dramatises a day at Kirkstall Board School in 1875. It was made to commemorate the centenary of the Forster Education Act (1870). The film begins with a soundtrack of children singing playground rhymes as an inspector leaves his house on pony and trap. Also seen are barefoot and ragged children leaving their house. The film then moves to children in a school yard followed by the important elements of a school day. At the sound of a whistle, children form into lines and process to an assembly where the register is read. The two ragged children, who work part time at a local mill, are late. The Headmaster delivers a lecture on truancy, spending lunch money on sweets, cleanliness and antisocial behaviour including bad language and urination in public. After the assembly, children are in classes learning arithmetic and literacy by rote. Class monitors are bored by the lessons. As a form of punishment, the Headmaster canes the noisy children on the hand. Some of the school children have a yard drill with a sergeant from Carlton Barracks (most likely a volunteer Leeds Rifles or Cavalry.) HM Inspector arrives and speaks with the Headmaster about struggling with school attendance, especially on feast days or when parents remove their children. The inspector tours from class to class and observes the differing teaching standards. A teacher in a sewing class chaotically chastises and bullies the students. Another teacher engages and controls his class in an object lesson on the properties of wool. And yet another demonstrates learning by rote in a British geography lesson. The day concludes at 4:30 pm, and the inspector is due to return to examine teachers in a few days. The film closes with external shots of the school, walls, and gates. The headmaster finds a boy still on the school steps as his mother does not come home from work until 6 pm. "All Things Bright and Beautiful" is the accompanying soundtrack to these images. Cast features the Headmaster and pupils of Kirkstall Primary School, staff and students of the City of Leeds & Carnegie College including Judith Bond, Ian Birrell, Charles Kitchell, M Green, Tony Gummerson, David Marsh, Janet Roberts and David Sharp.