Boarded Out In The Cottage Homes Of England

Children under the care of foster parents during World War II.

The first live film scenes show a steam train approaching a railway platform on which a woman waits. She greets three boys and leads them away from the station. At her house she gives them tea. There are scenes of children playing in a playground. Several foster-mothers are shown waving their charges off to school. There are interior classroom scenes showing pupils on forms and a mathematics class in progress. After school the children are seen leaving the school gate into an English country village scene, including a church and thatched cottages. There are scenes from the interior of a house showing children taking tea. There are scenes of a family in a garden; the father and the child play on a see-saw. There are interior scenes from another foster home where the foster mother sits with a baby and two older boys. One of the boys is reading. Two young men arrive at a house by tandem. They are greeted and help to chop wood. There are scenes of boys, aged about ten, picking blackberries and of girls playing with dolls. An inspector visits two Barnardo's foster-homes. At the first she leaves her car and enters the garden. Suspending a set of scales from the porch (the children use it as a swing) she weighs and measures the height of the children. She inspects their teeth. At a second home, she visits a sick child in bed. The next scene shows a typical English cottage next to a church. Children enter the church for Sunday School. Scenes from a Technical Centre show boys training in metalwork and printing. In the printshop they produce a poster for Dora's Cafe, Walsall. Boys are being taught shoemaking and one boy shows his finished product to the camera. There are also scenes from the woodwork room.

Keywords

Child care; Children; Dr. Barnado's; Foster parents

Intertitles

Most people think of Dr. Barnardo's Homes in terms of Village Centres, Technical and Nautical Schools, Ever-Open Doors, or the many smaller Homes scattered up and down the country; few realise that, numerous and diversified as these branches are, they deal with little more than half the great Barnardo family of 8,250 children, and that some 3,800 youngsters are boarded out in the care of foster-mothers in no fewer than 2,500 private households in rural districts. On admission to the Homes, all children are medically examined and placed in the centre best suited to their needs. If of normal health and stamina, the younger ones are usually earmarked for boarding out and taken to their new homes in the care of travelling matrons. A foster-mother awaiting the arrival of her young charges, and conducting them to her home where a meal is ready. The children quickly settle down in their new surroundings. And soon make friends. Barnardo's are helping to repopulate some of our rural areas. In one village school with a role of 40 scholars, 17 were Barnardo's boys and girls. Barnardo's carefully watch over the education of their children and where special aptitude is shown, higher education is made available. One boy had recently won his way to a University. At this school an adjoining meadow makes a natural playground for organised games and physical exercise. Lessons over: now for tea! The happiness of the home circle engenders a real and lasting affection between Foster-Parents and their children. Indeed so strong does the bond become that former wards often return to spend their holidays with their old foster-parents long after they have left their care. Here are two lads on such a visit, lending a hand with the chores! Men must work! And women must -! The general supervision of boarded out children is carried out by a staff of lady inspectors - all of them trained nurses - and a lady doctor who pay periodical and surprise visits to all children and furnish reports upon them. A lady inspector at work - visiting a home, measuring and weighing, medical inspection, and attending a sick child. Religious instruction is imparted to the children according the known beliefs of their own parents. Children off to Sunday School. Boarded Out In The Cottage Homes Of England. On reaching their 'teens, boys and girls are withdrawn to the Technical centres of Dr. Barnardo's homes where they receive vocational instruction to fit them to earn their own living.A busy scene at the Barnardo Technical School. So day by day the work of Dr. Barnardo's Homes goes on - their one aim is to rescue and protect friendless boys and girls, to love and nurture them, to teach them trades that thy may be able to support themselves, to help them to become upright men and women and a strength to the community in which they live. Is it not an undertaking that calls for your sympathy and practical help? The Cottages of England By thousands on her plains, They are smiling over silvery brooks, And round the hamlet fanes.Through glowing orchards forth they peep, Each from its nook of leaves, And fearless there the lowly sleep, As the bird beneath their eaves.

Background Information

Thomas Barnardo was born in Dublin in 1845. He came to London in 1866 to study medicine, intending to be a medical missionary. He was horrified by the poverty of London at this time and decided to become a home missionary instead. He began preaching his message on street corners. He maintained that all children deserved the best possible start in life, whatever their background. He was abused and pelted with rotten eggs. In 1867 he set up a ragged school for children in the East End of London. In 1873 he opened the first Village Centre for girls at Barkingside, Essex. He believed that children should be part of a family and introduced 'boarding out' schemes.' He fell foul of the authorities on many occasions. By 1889 he had appeared in Court 88 times accused of kidnapping, or to use his own phrase 'philanthropically abducting,' children from violent or cruel parents. He was accused of financial malpractice in 1877, along with charges of cruelty, lack of moral and religious training and of keeping children against their will. He was cleared of all serious charges. His fundraising practices were also criticised. 'Before' and 'after' pictures of children were circulated that were often false. When he died in 1905 Barnardo's was ?249,000 in debt.Boarding Out. This was an early form of fostering that had been accepted practice in Scotland since the sixteenth century. Barnardo was concerned that orphanages were not natural places for children. He believed that the would be happier with foster parents. In 1887, the first 330 children were sent to boarded out homes. Foster parents had to be God-fearing people, earning their living in an honest manner and living in clean homes. They were paid five shillings a week. Families were told to treat the children as equals, to eat with them and to involve them in family life. Unfortunately for Barnardo's and the children for whom they cared, these schemes did not catch the public imagination. In 1896 ?1000 was donated for the homes but only ?35 for boarding out. Within ten years more than 4,000 children were boarded out.