The First Two Years at School

This 1950 documentary about early primary school education was made by pioneering female director Margaret Thomson, who rated it her favourite NZ work. The survey of contemporary educational theory examines the new order in 'infant schooling' (though some things never change, like tadpoles and tidy up time). It is broken into sections: ‘Play in the Infant School’, ‘Doing and Learning’, ‘Learning to Read’, ‘Number Work’ and ‘Living and Learning’. The National Film Unit doco was made for the Department of Education. Douglas Lilburn composed the score.

You needed a lot of film stock and you just mooched around with the children until they forgot about you.

– Director Margaret Thomson

Key Cast & Crew

Douglas Lilburn

Composer

Margaret Thomson

Director

Stanhope Andrews

Producer

A.W.E. Bailey

Camera

Claude Wickstead

Sound

Alan Whittle

Camera