Originally shot on reel-to-reel video, a film produced by Swing Bridge Video about Town Teacher, an urban studies centre on the Newcastle quayside. The centre provides education for children and students of all ages to develop a greater awareness and responsibility to their urban environment. The film looks back on the organisations first year of operation both in Newcastle and at Felling in Gateshead arguing for continued funding to support and expand the service. Title: Town Teacher...

Originally shot on reel-to-reel video, a film produced by Swing Bridge Video about Town Teacher, an urban studies centre on the Newcastle quayside. The centre provides education for children and students of all ages to develop a greater awareness and responsibility to their urban environment. The film looks back on the organisations first year of operation both in Newcastle and at Felling in Gateshead arguing for continued funding to support and expand the service. Title: Town Teacher Archival maps and images of the Newcastle area are used to highlight how inner-city issues today have been created because of years of industrial development. In voiceover a woman explains the working of the Newcastle’s Urban Studies Centre in its’ first year which has exposed children to these inner-city problems and helped develop an awareness and responsibility to the environment through practical work. From the Gateshead side the River Tyne traffic crossing both the Swing and Tyne bridges. The camera focuses in the study centre building on Queen Street just off the Newcastle Quayside. A group of school children come out of the centre and follow a woman up the steps of King Street towards Dog Bank. A man leads another school study group to Newcastle Castle at Castle Garth. Standing outside the children write onto clipboards before heading inside and continuing their work from the roof looking out across the city. A series of still images of children participating in various long-term projects run by Town Teacher around the city changes to another school party being taken on a tour of Trinity House at Broad Chare, again the children wonder around the site writing details onto clipboards. They are taken down onto the Quayside and along a narrow passageway leading to Trinity House. Standing beside a map of Newcastle and Gateshead the Manager of Town Teacher Mike Peterson talks about his team who are made up mainly of unemployed teachers and graduates. He talks about some of the project achievements such as working with very little money to reach many schools in Newcastle and the surrounding area with several high-quality publications being produced. He points at Felling on the map where a second centre has opened and where two of his twelve-person team are based. A printer prints pages from one of a wide range of publications produced by Town Teacher, copies of said publications are dropped onto a table. David Lovey, part of Town Teacher’s Management Team talks about those on the team and what they do. On the walls of an underpass or subway near Pilgrim Street in Newcastle a mural showing views from a train that has been painted by local school children. Mike Peterson speaks with three men about their thoughts on the work, all are very positive. In a gallery or workshop a woman talks about another Town Teacher project to produce a mosaic as part of Newcastle’s 900th Anniversary. The woman running the project explains that in total fourteen panels are being created by pupils from twelve different school in Newcastle each featuring something on the history of the city. She walks around the space pointing out some of the panels that have been returned so far including a panel on Newcastle Central Station, another depicting the Tyneside Keelmen strike and another the launching of the RMS Mauretania. From the Newcastle Quayside the entrance into the Tyne Bridge tower and lift shaft. Inside the bare walls of the tower changes to a mural which is to decorate the lift shaft produced by students at the College of Arts and Technology. Children on and around a climbing-frame build near two high-rise tower blocks on a housing estate at Felling in Gateshead. Mike Peterson interview three students from Newcastle Polytechnic about working with Town Teacher to produce a mural featuring children’s games on a blank wall behind them. A few weeks later and the now completed mural. David Lovey is asked about the mural and believes people on the estate enjoy their lives more and have a better understanding of their surroundings because of it. He welcomes community involvement in the planning process, he believes environmental education is there to help people help themselves to produce a satisfactory surrounding for themselves. Inside the study centre a woman looks through a booklet with two young children, nearby a man leads a discussion with several school children about the city and river based around display of photographs in front of them. Another woman holds a book produced by children on the history of Newcastle, a child reads from it. Sitting around a table Mike Peterson leads a group of teenagers as they discuss producing their own newspaper. During an art day at the Felling urban study centre children with clipboards changes to nearby Brandling Station where children take part in an archaeological dig of an old stable. In two large boxes a selection of their findings. A train passes near to the Brandling Station urban study centre which is based in the old station building. A civic plaque is attached to the wall above the entrance. Inside Graham Lockwood and Helen Knowles who run the centre talk about how local people can use the centre. They hope the centre will develop and attract local groups to us it. They also hope to start working with local schools to develop projects such as a heritage trail around Felling like the one in Newcastle. Standing beside the central motorway crossing the Tyne Bride into Newcastle Mike Peterson concludes the video reflecting in the project Town Teacher are involved in and would like to develop further and the resources required. Credit: Made by Hugh Kelly and Town Teacher End title: With thanks to Council for Environmental Education, City of Newcastle upon Tyne Manpower Services Commission, Task Force North, College of Arts and Technology, Alison Dalwood, Newcastle City Libraries, Newcastle Polytechnic, Newcastle University, Proctor and Gamble, Tyneside Cinema, Tyne and Wear County Council