Our Day Out

Our Day Out "Our Day Out" is a 20th century drama play but also contains comedy in particular places. It is written by Willie Russell and is based around a school trip from Inner city Liverpool to Conway Castle, Wales. The trip is organised for the progress class by their teacher Mrs Kay. Mrs Kay wanted to prove to the school that she could take out her class for the day and no trouble would be caused by it. The Headmaster would probably have not let the trip ho ahead in fear of the school getting a bad reputation, so Mrs Kay organised the trip on the sly, and asked permission for the trip to go ahead while the Headmaster was away. The story revolves around the way that Mrs Kay and the deputy head, Mr Briggs interact with the children and their approaches to situations. Mrs Kay is an open-minded, tolerant and kind-hearted teacher, who is affectionate for the children as people. She understands that a lot of the children come from a deprived background and makes allowances for this, she genuinely cares for the children; She tells Maurice "to come away from that road", When they are waiting for the bus, because she is truly concerned for his safety, not because she enjoys ordering her class around. Mrs Kay does not believe in traditional teaching methods of discipline and high standards, she is lost to understand the unfairness of a society which puts these children to

  • Word count: 1060
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Our Day Out.

Guvvi Basra Essay Our Day Out By willy Russel Willy Russel is the writer of "Our Day Out" and was born on the twenty third of August , nineteen thirty seven . Russel attended woolfall secondary school , which he later described as a "badly run school " . Russel left Woolfall at the tender age of fifteen , with no formal qualifications . Life in Liverpool in the 70's was surreal because of the lack of unemployment , and the high level of crime . Poverty Struck the heart of Liverpool . One of the Girls that "Mrs Kay" taught , carol , only had one item of clothing for the week , this is why I called 70's Liverpool surreal . Another reason for the kids bad behaviour was because most of the kids parents had divorced , and this lead to bad behaviour out side the home . Willy Russel found his path to become a teacher , when he went to do an A-Level course at ST Katherine's collage . Since those days in the drugged up 70's collage , Russel has produced Music and poetry and even a novel , but when this failed , he discovered playwriting . I find the main deference's between the characters of Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs are there feelings towards the children that they teach . Mrs Kay has a comfortable relationship with the children . This is evident in the way she talks to Mr Briggs about the children

  • Word count: 871
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Our Day Out by Willy Russell.

Our Day Out Essay Sara Misra Willy Russell was born in 1947 at Whiston near Liverpool. His school career in the 'D-stream' was undistinguished and as a result, he left school with one O-level in English language at the age of fifteen. As there was a strong tradition of story telling in his family, he had a vague notion of wanting to become a writer. He drifted into hairdressing but eventually left that job and began working in several industrial jobs before deciding to return to full-time education. During this time, Willy Russell soon decided to become a dramatist whilst at St. Catherine's college. It was around this time when Willy Russell began writing plays. 'Our Day Out' is set in the inner city of Liverpool. This area had a high amount of environmental problems that included derelict houses, vandalism and a vast amount of pollution and decay. Due to these circumstances, people started to drift away from the inner city and soon enough there was an increase of unemployment and poverty. There were very little facilities available and as a result, only a few people continued to work in Liverpool. One example was education. There were only a limited number of good teachers and children who were willing to learn due to social and environmental limitations. A few children had difficulties learning and consequently were known as the 'progress class.' However, recent

  • Word count: 2939
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Our day out by Willy Russell

Our day out The play is set in 1970's Liverpool; this was when many factories had closed down and the docks were being mechanised, ultimately, this led to poverty. During that time, there were few minorities and therefore racism. There were also many council estates and the pollution levels were high. There was a huge increase in vandalism and prostitution. Any of these factors about Liverpool could have motivated Willy Russell to write the play: this is due to the fact that he was brought up in 1970's Liverpool; therefore could be reflecting his experiences via the play. He may be exhibiting how life can be for inner-city kids. Russell created the characters Mr. Briggs and Mrs. Kay with explicit contrast between the two. Mrs. Kay is a "Woolly-headed liberal..." Whereas Mr. Briggs is more conservative and is a "fool" and the children are working class and "factory fodder." The character Mr. Briggs is depicted as a conservative, bossy and disrespectful person, he accuses Mrs. Kay of being "on their side..." Willy Russell, the playwright, uses second person pronouns "you" to emphasise who the character is addressing, it is also repeated for even more emphasis; the order in which the pronouns are used could indicate anger which shows the audience the sort of person Mr. Briggs is; it also shows disrespect-this is due to the fact that he could be using sarcasm "aren't you?" As

  • Word count: 1152
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Our Day Out, by Willy Russell - review

Draft English Coursework "Our Day Out" is a 20th century drama play. It is written by Willie Russell and is based around a school trip from Inner city Liverpool to Conway Castle, Wales. During the play we see visible differences between the two leading teachers Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs (whose name in the play was just seen as BRIGGS). Although attitudes towards pupils differ greatly and both teachers believe in a different way of teaching and they disagree in the ways which the other one behaves and conducts activities, both teachers finish at the same point - both believe that when they speak, they speak on behalf of the majority. Mrs Kay is portrayed as a kind, warm woman who treats children as if they are on the same level as here as people, but talks down to them as stupid. She reinforces throughout the book that the children are the 'progress class' and although are human beings, can still be seen as young children and to a certain extent stupid. Whilst thinking she is trying to be helpful with the children, it is clear to see how she belittles them. To me a clear example is on page 31, just as Mrs Kay has announced a trip to the zoo. "But Progress Class, we're very lucky today to have Mr Briggs with us..." Clearly here she is reinforcing that the class is the progress class, whereas Briggs would refer to the class as 'kids'. However Mr Briggs is the opposite to Mrs

  • Word count: 1816
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Our Day Out - review.

Introduction This play is set in Liverpool and its about a progress class which is taught by Mrs Kay and who is planning to take her progress class on a trip to Wales and because of all the hard they been doing in the class and it will be good experience for the pupils as well and after planning the trip she tells her class that they are going a trip to Wales the pupils in the class are overjoyed about them going on a trip to Wales. The next day the class arrives in school in the morning and waits for the bus to arrive the bus arrives everyone gets in the bus. Mrs Kay gets in the bus and when it's about to leave the school Mr Briggs is sent on the trip at the last minute by the head teacher making the trip a disaster.Mr Briggs is concerned about the trip which he has not part in organisation should be an educational experience for the pupils and it is appalled both by Mrs Kay in her handling the pupils and when they reach Wales they stop at 4 different places 1st at the shop,2nd at the zoo,3rd at the Conway castle and finally at the beach. At the core lies contrast between Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs and there respective education philosophies.MrsKay is a relaxed and easy going person where as Mr Briggs is a very strict and a man arable person This also shows the clashes between the two characters and in which each makes it clear what they think of each other and their values.

  • Word count: 1739
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay