Description: Compilation of amateur films shot at Hackney Downs School following the fire in 1963. Begins with film of the construction site for the new school building with workmen and machinery. A teacher presents how the new school will look to a group of pupils using a large-scale model raised on a table beside the fence surrounding the construction site. He indicates where different parts of the school will be in the cleared area, and the boys look through the fence at the building work. At the Office of the Clerk of Works a man looks through papers at his desk by a window looking out on the site. A cement mixer delivers material to the area, pouring directly into the ground for the foundations. Elsewhere on site, the digging of foundations continues with men using pickaxes and spaces. At a later date the construction site is filmed under a shallow covering of snow, while some boys have a snowball fight nearby. There are some views of a later stage of construction with scaffolding raised and work on the walls commenced. An earthmover takes out rubble from the old building and loads into the back of a truck. There are further shots of the new school now three storeys high but without a roof or external walls. Builders transport materials around the site and pour concrete into shuttering. The views of the building site are interleaved with brief views of life about the school including: shots inside a schoolroom, showing a class takes place; and boys working at their school desks in another room, with views of the construction site through the windows beyond. There are scenes from a swimming gala taking place at an indoor pool, with boys competing in various races while an audience looks on. On a hot day, some pupils play cricket in the schoolyard, while others sit on chairs and read and talk and a pair of shirtless boys spar, playing at being boxers. There are also scenes from an official event relating to the new school. Pupils and teachers mill outside the school, where seating has been laid out and the school brass band plays. Several adults rest in the chairs and at the front sit local dignitaries including the Mayor. There are speeches and the ceremonial placing of a foundation stone in the new building. The film ends with views of a rubble-strewn area including the old school building damaged in the fire. Some significant carved stones featuring heraldic devices have been removed from the walls and are filmed on the ground. Material shot inside the building reveals the ingress of water and the extent of the fire damage. A crane with a wrecking ball takes down the remaining walls, while a bonfire consumes wooden wreckage. Some pupils watch the destruction from a (just about!) safe distance.