Acton Depot Trip by Erik

  On Friday, 20th May, Year 6 went on a trip to Acton Depot! And the best part..., we went on a classic routemaster! Now that's a much better way to get around than the tube! But, the most important part of the trip is, of course, learning history!


  On the journey, we met an actor who was playing a 'clippie' from WW2. A 'clippie' is a nickname for a female ticket inspectorA ticket inspector would walk up and down the bus, asking everyone for their tickets, making sure they had paid. This was originally a job for men, but most of the men went out the war, and most of the females stayed. therefore, they used the ladies to do the job, as they still had to keep the buses running! They were then given the nickname 'clippies'.

  We also met a man called Cecil, who was from Barbados, and came to what they called the mother country (the called it this as the Queen lives here, and they are part of the commonwealth). But, there was lots of racism at the time, so not everyone was happy about people like him working for such an iconic bitish company-London Transport/Transport for london. However, they ignored these rude people and kepton going (well, most of them anyway...). Cecil worked a s a bus conductor for most of his life.

  Once we got to Acton Depot, we watched a short video about the history of buses. Then, we went into groups and, using the informaton we had gathered from the video, we partcipated in an adaptation of the famous TV show-'Who wants to be a millionare?'... they called it: 'Who wants to be a shillibeer?'

After this, we all had a look at all the veihcles they have in the museum... there were so many! It was lovely...

By Erik, Year 6