In the 19th and 20th centuries many children attended Sunday school. They went for religious instruction, but also for social and educational purposes. Some parents used Sunday schools as a kind of babysitting service. This Socialist Sunday school is off for an outing in Auckland in the 1920s. Socialist Sunday schools were a secular alternative to traditional church Sunday schools. The banners read 'Socialist Sunday School to teach us freedom of thought and freedom of self-expression', 'We desire to be just and loving to stand up for the weak and oppressed', and 'We want a new society founded on truth love and justice.'