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An Aardman Roadshow and a series of BBFC seminars are just two of the highlights of Film Education’s Fifth – and most ambitious yet – National Schools Film Week which runs nation- wide from October 6-13.
Fresh from the success of Chicken Run, eight Aardman animators will be out on the road sharing some trade secrets with students in Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, London, Southampton, Tyneside, Warwick and Whitley Bay.
With, doubtless, plenty of extra interest drummed up by its latest stance on sex, drugs and violence, the BBFC will be explaining its methods of film classification to young audiences in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Leicester, London and Southampton.
Along with half a dozen regional previews of Purely Belter, the annual Weekispartof FilmEducation’scon- tinuing determination, according to its head Ian Wall, “to grow and prosper.”
With two years remaining of its sponsorship funding from AIM/Barclays, Film Education is taking stock of its achievements, and looking to the future and ways it can capitalise on the work done over the past three years.
Working on an annual budget of about £300,000 – a third of which comes from the BFI, the rest from grants and sponsorship - Film Education’s aim is to promote the study of film and cinema within the school curriculum.
In its new document, titled ‘A Plan For The New Millennium’, the organisa- tion lays out the ways it feels it should progress, looking to a combination of new technology and old to help teach- ers and students embrace the possibili- ties of learning through film.
The core areas of development include further use of the internet as well as special CD-ROMs; in service training for teachers; expansion of the popular In Cinema sessions; continua- tion of Film Weeks and further develop- ment of commissioned educational tele- vision programmes. Film Education is
also involved in Film and Citizenship, a new curriculum area that will be intro- duced to schools nationwide in 2001. Hence the organisation of the Film and Citizenship conference being staged at BAFTA on October 5.
For Ian Wall the continued availabil- ity of sponsorship over the past few years has enabled Film Education to grow and prosper. “We benefited from BAFTA/Shell sponsorship for four years in the early 1990s, and then got money through AIM, and this has enabled us to grow and spread.
“Before AIM our staffing was just five people and now we are 20. And through the work we have done we have been able to offer more and more. The schools love it!
“Now, in the next six to eight months we are going to have to
sit down and take a good look at our future. It is question of looking at get- ting more sponsorship funding – we are looking at a number of different areas there – and also looking at ways of gen- erating income internally,” he added.
Film Education launched its new website on August 21, 2000, which has been redesigned to make it more easily navigable. One major development is that each month Film Education plans to put a film study guide onto that site which is only available on the internet,
the idea being that this will encourage repeat visits and will gradually prepare the ground for making all materials internet only.
Film Education has developed gradually over the years to a posi- tion now where it is an important link for teachers looking for a way to use film. “During British Film
Photo: Film Education’s head Ian Wall
Year we had a database of 2,000 prima- ry school teachers,” said Ian Wall. “Now that database stands at some 15,000 secondary school teachers and 9,000 primary school teachers.
“But even after 14 years we still find some teachers haven’t heard of us. This is why we attend the National Literacy Conferences, and why we feel there is still a lot of work to do,”
“The great things about having the additional sponsorship funding has been that we have been able to do proper advance planning,” added Wall. “Before this funding came on board it was very much a year to year existence.”
That stability has enabled Film Education to build relationships with pro- duction companies and work on long- term projects. The successful production of the popular CD-ROMs for educational work in films such as Chicken Run and The Prince of Egypt have been the result of these relationships.
“Both Aardman and Dreamworks were brilliant to work with,” said Wall. “They were very happy to provide information and clips while they were still working on the films, and the CD- ROMs have been very received by teachers and pupils. When we get that sort of co-operation we can produce something very special.” ■ Mark Adams
NOTJUSTKIDS’ STUFF
WITH THE FIFTH BAFTA CHILDREN’S AWARDS SET FOR NOVEMBER 12, FILM EDUCATION’S IAN WALL ALSO AIMS TO PROMOTE PUPIL POWER
Film Education
NOTJUSTKIDS’ STUFF
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www.filmeducation.org