Children in the Picture

Richard Baker presents the work of National Children's Homes in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.

As a camera crew films Richard Baker, a parent is apparently coaxed into a film role visiting two neighbouring children's homes with his wheelchair-user son. At Elmfield residential school, children with physical disabilities are busy in the classroom and at play. Next, Highfield which supports children from broken and unhappy homes, where father joins a kickabout and volunteers football coaching. We see the nursery school art work and lunch in one of the cottage homes.

The 'film within a film' device allows a glimpse of the Gateway film crew and their red van. Richard Baker was a familiar face and voice, having been the first person to present BBC television news in 1954 and continuing as newsreader until 1982. Highfield, opened 1913 and closed 1985 at Harpenden, Hertfordshire, was one of the largest homes run by National Children's Homes. The buildings followed the 'cottage homes' layout around a central green, with up to a dozen children living in each unit supervised by a house-mother or sister. The chapel was built 1928 with a gift from Joseph Rank. Nearby Elmfield was originally a tuberculosis sanatorium, opened 1910, and became a NCH residential school in 1955.