Cottage Homes

A fund-raising film for Dr Barnado's Homes showing their work in boarding out children during World War II.

The first live film scenes show a young girl accompanied by one of Barnardo's travelling matrons arriving at her foster-home, where she is greeted by the family's children. They enter the house. Inside they take tea as a family. Another girl in a foster-home, outside a thatched timbered cottage, goes to the village store and collects some basic groceries. Children are shown attending school where they drink school milk. They are seen attending Church, eating a school meal and then catching the school bus. Some children join a joint scouts/cubs/guide/brownies session that covers knot tying and first aid. The next sequence shows a home visit by one of Barnardo's inspectors, Mrs. Rabbage. She enters the bungalow and talks to the foster-parents before talking to the girl. She checks the girl's teeth and footwear before inspecting her wardrobe. Barnardo's stresses educational opportunities. A local headmaster in interviews and three Barnardo's children who have won scholarships. A girl is seen leaving a foster-home in a nurse's uniform. There are scenes from workshops at the Technical Centre showing bootmaking, printing and woodworking. A Barnardo's boy is seen leaving his home with his bicycle and then at work at a garage. A group of girls, all in uniform, pile into the back of a lorry to spend their holidays with their foster-parents. A group in nurses uniform wave goodbye to them. Two of the girls are seen walking along a lane with suitcases and into a bungalow. There are scenes of a Christmas party at which there is a magician and father Christmas. The film ends with an appeal for more foster-carers.

Keywords

Children; Christmas; Dr Barnado's; Foster care

Intertitles

A happy home life and the prospect of a successful career is the goal at which Barnardo's aim for every child committed to their care. By reason of disabilities or other special circumstances many of their children are unfitted to enter into family life and require the care that can only be given of residential centres best suited to their needs; but a large number of normal healthy children are suitable for boarding out and these are placed with kindly Christian folk whose homes and family life become the determining factors in the children's rehabilitation. A newcomer to Boarding-Out arriving at her new home. The way to a child's heart is known to every foster-mother. Here is another foster-home in which a child is happily settled. Like most children she loves to run errands for 'mother'. Board-out quickly settle down, attending day school and Sunday School, joining the Scouts or Guide movement and generally taking an active part in the life of a community. School Scenes.Cubs and Brownies, Scouts and Guides find many devotees among our children. Trained staff keep in touch with the children, the foster-homes, and with those whose influence helps to mould these young lives. Every child is visited three or four times a year (without notice) and details of height, weight, general health and school progress are regularly forwarded to Headquarters. A Boarded-Out inspector at work: 1) Visiting a foster-home 2) A personal chat with foster-child. Every child's educational progress is closely watched and where the necessary aptitude is shown higher education is made available. Our inspector interviewing a local headmaster. Here are three children who have won scholarships. When the time comes to consider careers for the children, the necessary training takes place either at a Barnardo's Training Centre, or locally if the prospect is a good one. This girl is training for hospital work....whilst these lads will eventually become printers, bootmakers or carpenters. This lad wishes to become a motor mechanic and as local training and prospects are good he is learning his trade in the neighbourhood of his foster-home. A strong bond of affection springs up between foster-parents and their children which often remains unbroken even during training days and long afterwards. It is a commonplace to find trainees leaving a training centre to spend their 'holidays' at 'home'. Birthday parties and children's treats are high lights in most children's lives; our foster-mothers certainly see to it that their young charges are not disappointed. These youngsters have very warm-hearted 'parents'.Cottage Homes. The homes are always on the look-out for suitable foster-homes especially for boys, and enquiries from those willing to offer such homes are warmly welcomed. If Boarded-Out interests you, full particulars may be obtained from Headquarters at Stepney Causeway, London, E1.