Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Commonwealth Bank – The School Bank (1951)

A video which normally appears on this page did not load because the Flash plug-in was not found on your computer. You can download and install the free Flash plug-in then view the video. Or you can view the same video as a downloadable MP4 file without installing the Flash plug-in.

Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Before school education content clip 2

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Children make their way to school. On arrival, they realise their dog has followed them. Before lessons begin, school banking deposits are taken in the classroom by the children’s teacher Mr Lowe. Mr Phillips, of the Commonwealth Savings Bank, arrives and is introduced to Mr Lowe by the Principal. The bell rings and the children desperately try to send their dog home.

Curator’s notes

The clip provides an illustration of school banking procedure in the early 1950s. At the time, it was commonly carried out before school on a weekly or fortnightly basis. In the clip the teacher accepts small deposits from each child and notes them in a log. School Savings Bank accounts earned interest in the same way as other savings accounts. When the child completed schooling, the School Savings account was transferred to an ordinary bank account.

The clip, like the rest of the film, has some amusing tangential segments, generated by the actions of the children. It’s a delightful insight into school life at the time. One of these is the narrative of the dog following the children (who walk and ride bikes) to school – obviously scripted, and obviously designed to capture the attention of the target audience at the outset of the film. Such events were very familiar to schoolchildren at the time. Someone’s dog wreaking havoc on the morning assembly was great fun and a very welcome distraction. Today, it’s much less common for children to walk or ride bikes to school. In addition, being unwittingly followed along the street by the family dog can lead to punitive consequences for it being off the leash. The sequence is a nice example of period-specific humour.

The primary school in the film is very probably Burwood Public School in Sydney’s inner west. At the time of the film’s production, the Australian National Film Board, established only six years earlier, was located at Conder Street, Burwood.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Before school from the sponsored film Commonwealth Bank – The School Bank as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
cbanksch1_pr.mp4 Large: 21.9MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
cbanksch1_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.3MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: