The banner of NALRWU unveiled at Burston, 1917

Kitty Higdon at the First Anniversary celebrations
The first year of the strike passed and there were celebrations, marches, speeches and presentations. The lease of the old carpenter's shop was soon to expire and a National Appeal for funds was launched. By 1917 some £1250 had been raised from Trades Unions of Miners and Railwaymen; Trades Labour Councils; Independent Labour Party branches and Co-operative Societies.

Pupils on the Strike School steps, 1920s
Tom on the left in the background

A prime site in the village was acquired and a new building equipped as a living movement of educational and social activity; a school as a monument celebrating their triumph. On 13 May 1917, before a crowd of one thousand people, Violet Potter, the leader of the striking children in 1914, spoke; "With joy and thankfulness I declare this school open to be forever a School of Freedom".

 
Kitty Higdon's approach to teaching was child-centred: she identified talent and enthused her pupils to academic heights unknown in that era. The pupils learned to express themselves, their feelings, their opinions. She instilled the sense of fairness and justice; she taught them to be open-minded; she gave them political awareness.