An amateur film shows activities taking place at Percy Hedley School in Newcastle. Children arrive at school, They participate in classroom activities including lessons, baking in a kitchen and knitting. Outside they play games, ride tricycles and garden. Pupils are also filmed working one-to-one with members of staff during physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions. Children are also recorded participating in Girl Guide and Scouting activities at the centre. The later section of the film...

An amateur film shows activities taking place at Percy Hedley School in Newcastle. Children arrive at school, They participate in classroom activities including lessons, baking in a kitchen and knitting. Outside they play games, ride tricycles and garden. Pupils are also filmed working one-to-one with members of staff during physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions. Children are also recorded participating in Girl Guide and Scouting activities at the centre. The later section of the film shows a number of children being bathed and crawling along a corridor before bedtime. The final part of the film shows older pupils weaving baskets in a workshop and playing cards. The film opens as a small boy in a maroon blazer and cap, is carried from a car by a member of staff into the school. A man follows, possibly the driver of the car or taxi, who carries a young girl to the entrance. Another girl is carried to school by a man from a Vauxhall saloon car. An ambulance or special bus for transporting patients arrives at the school, a young boy, with the driver’s help, gets off the vehicle and is able to walk into school, a young girl follows as other pupils enter the building. Two more arrive one pushing her friend in a wheelchair. The driver carries a young girl off the special bus and into school. A group of boys hang up their coats and get themselves ready for class. A member of staff adjusts a chair for one of the children. The class sing as a staff member plays piano. Two women, one carrying a young girl wearing a coat, walk past the camera. They enter a room where there are two beds, the young girl is placed sitting on the mattress edge of one bed. General views show other furniture and other facilities in the room, including a cot. A member of staff stands at a sink filling a kettle. She pours water into a cup for a colleague to have tea. The young girl seen being carried to the bedroom sits at the table with them with a biscuit or small cake on a plate in front of her. The film moves on to another member of staff as she helps the girl play with a wooden puzzle on the floor. The girl is then shown putting a number of wooden cylinders into a rack that has corresponding sized holes to accommodate each cylinder. The member of staff watches her progress. A similar exercise follows using different shapes of wood which fit into corresponding spaces on a flat wooden panel. The girl is carried to another room and placed on a treatment table with a thin mattress. A physical assessment follows with staff checking her limbs and back strength. The film moves outside and a view of a small wooden chair with a footrest, straps are also attached to the chair A member of staff carries a young girl and places her on the chair. Using the straps she secures the girl in the chair. Back inside, a girl looks at cards with labeled pictures. The labels describe the picture on the card. The film cuts to a girl who holds up a piece of paper with an additional sum on it, ‘4 + 3 =’. A boy holds up his card with the answer, a number seven. A boy writes with chalk on a board at his desk, a girl sorts picture cards and places the correct label next to them. On the floor, another girl connects large dominoes with slots at the top like a jigsaw piece, with another piece which displays the number the domino dots represent. Other children use various devices and exercises to sort numbers or match labels with the correct picture along with other similar exercises. In another area, a girl wearing an apron uses a hand mixer to mix some food ingredients in a bowl. Another girl helps her by adding sugar or flour from a plate. She then uses scales’ to weigh other ingredients; a girl next to her prepares some tin pie dishes for cooking. Other girls prepare items for baking. One, who has finished mixing items in a bowl, pours the mixture into one of the pie dishes. The dish is placed in a small electric oven A boy is creating a colourful item by threading wool or something similar on a semi-circular piece of card. Another boy works with clay while another boy works weaving wool on a card as does the girl next to him. A girl working at the same table knits, another girl nearby sews using a sewing machine Another pupil with more severe mobility problems uses a special machine to help turn the pages of a book. Some others concentrate on what appears to be arithmetic as they write in exercise books. A music session shows pupils using percussion instruments to keep time with music that is being played at the piano. The film moves outside where two boys sit in chairs and watch while another places fresh straw in a rabbit hutch. Another boy strokes the rabbit, while the hutch is being made ready. The boy puts a tray for food or water in the hutch. A budgerigar in a cage gets a lot of attention. Staff supervise the outside play area [blurred] two girls amuse themselves on a see-saw, A boy rides in a pedal car and is give a helpful push by a staff member. Two girls in wheelchairs throw a football to each other while a young girl goes gently back and forwards in a swing, another pupil with some assistance gives the swing a push. Others use other pieces of equipment to play or relax, one girl paints at an easel and two boys play in a sandpit. A member of staff helps a boy set off in his pedal car. She points at the camera to encourage him to ride towards it. Two boys on tricycles follow the pedal car. Two other boys on tricycles follow on and they all head back towards the start and begin another circuit. A gardener is busy at a flower bed and two boys help him. One waters the plants with a watering can, another boy arrives with a small wheelbarrow. The boys also help with turning the soil over and weeding with small hand forks. The boy with the wheelbarrow loads it with weeds and other debris. Inside the boys who have been helping in the plant borders wash their hands In the kitchen, food is made ready by the staff for serving. Plates and dishes are put on a trolley and wheeled out of the kitchen. Staff help to serve out the food onto plates, which is then served to the children at a dining table. Outside on a lawn, three children reading books lie on a mat on their stomachs. The film goes back inside to a door with a sign which reads, ‘Physiotherapy’. Two children are taken down a corridor each helped by a member of staff. The children get ready for their therapy and a nurse helps one whose legs are weak. Another boy throws and catches a ball A girl climbs up some steps and is helped onto a treatment table which is covered by a thin mattress. Four members of the therapy staff, pose for the camera while standing next to a goldfish tank Another member of staff goes through a therapy routine with one of the children [blurred]. Another appears to be being helped with her breathing. A pupil reads into a microphone, as part of a speech therapy exercise. Electronic apparatus nearby maybe sound recording equipment. In another room, a girl in a wheelchair hoists a Union Jack flag up a short flagpole. The two girls who accompanied appear to be in Girl Guide uniforms and are making a salute. The girl in the wheelchair has a coloured ribbon attached to her tunic by a senior member. The girl gives a salute A boy appears on screen in a Scout uniform. In another room boys in Cub Scout uniform are having their hands examined. The Cubs then practice tying knots. A girl in a wheelchair in a Brownie uniform sits at a desk, as she sorts plastic spoons. The Guides and Brownies join hands and sing in a circle. A girl climbs some stairs, and staff assist some of the children to get ready for bed. General views follow of wash basins and two baths. A member of staff helps one of the children bathe. A girl makes her way along a corridor on all fours, two boys do the same. A young girl sits waiting in a chair. A boy is already in bed, sitting up he shows the camera the book he’s reading. Its title is ‘Black Bob’ perhaps a story about a sheepdog, a picture of which appears under the title. Another boy sitting up in bed shows off a hand puppet. Some of the children read to themselves some others have a story read to them. One of the girls knits before sleeping. The film cuts outside to a slide which is built onto an exterior wall. A member of staff releases a young boy at the top of the slide and a staff member at the bottom catches him. Inside an older boy is pushed along a corridor in a wheelchair. The woman pushing him shakes hands with one of the therapy staff. The three of them sit in an office where the therapist talks to the boy and the woman. The boy is then shown making a basket, alongside others who are making other items, one girl makes a lampshade. Two women, one in a wheelchair play a game of draughts. Most of the participants seem to be older children probably teenagers as well as adults, all taking part in handicrafts or playing table games. The film ends as two men study a large sheet of paper, possibly a map