Educational benefits

Broaden students’ knowledge of film

The programme of films screened during National Schools Film Week range from the latest blockbuster to independent productions and international titles. Most of the films have been chosen as a result of our research with teachers to support the work that you do in the classroom with your pupils. During film week, you can bring students to see films they would probably never otherwise see in the cinema and thus widen their perception, knowledge and understanding of different types of film.

 

Expand students’ social and cultural experiences

The experience of watching a whole film in the cinema has a socially cohesive impact unrivalled by watching DVD in a classroom over a couple of lessons. For some students, going to the cinema to watch a film will be a new opportunity that has not been offered at home due to economic or social factors. All students will benefit from sharing the viewing experience in the most immersive of settings then having time back in school to discuss and analyse what they saw.

 

Extend students’ perception of learning environments

By bringing your students to film week, you are making a clear and important statement to them that learning does not just take place within the confines of the school.  The resources available to teachers attending film week, as well as those on the main Film Education site, provide a framework for further learning once you are back in the classroom and consolidates the educational experience for students. Using the resources and study guides available, teachers can turn their ‘free trip to the cinema’ into a valuable, immersive cross-curricular project or a strongly focused unit of work in one curriculum area.

 

Develop students’ literacy skills

Apart from showing children a world beyond their normal existence, the films screened during film week provide a range of opportunities for developing students’ literacy skills.  Our Young Film Critic competition encourages students to send their reviews - filmed or written - of any film that they have seen at the cinema this year. Actively evaluating films in this way helps to develop higher order thinking, presentation and communication skills.  Whilst some of the accompanying resources specifically focus on literacy activities, every film can provide stimulus for speaking and listening, reading and writing tasks.  Furthermore, by introducing students to concepts of film literacy, such as exploring the effect of different camera shots, lighting, soundtrack etc, students become more aware of the constructed nature of film texts; this awareness can be highly beneficial when working with students constructing and deconstructing written texts.

 

Deepen students’ curriculum knowledge

The range of films available during National Schools Film Week is so broad that there is something relevant for almost every curriculum area at secondary level and for many primary topics. Some films screened have obvious curriculum links such as book to film adaptations in English (like Private Peaceful, Great Expectations and The Lorax) and films set in the past can provide excellent material for learning in history (such as War Horse or The Counterfeiters).  Animated films (such as Arrietty and Eleanor’s Secret) and the skills needed to produce them can provide a stimulus to learning across the curriculum – especially in art and design, ICT, science and literacy, whilst some films are based on ancient stories, retold time and time again for new audiences (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Tree of Spirits and Whale Rider) teach students to value and appreciate other cultures as well as our own. The natural world and its inhabitants make for fascinating subject matter in some films (such as African Cats and Beasts of the Southern Wild) allowing important, complex issues of sustainability and conservation to be made accessible and comprehensible when explored later in the geography classroom. For students learning modern foreign languages at both primary and secondary level there are lots of films (such as Le Petit Nicolas and Monsieur Lazhar) that provide imaginative access to a variety of authentic voices in ways that challenge learners to think about and investigate language.

 

Establish positive attitudes to life-long learning

By encouraging your students to attend National Schools Film Week as part of their curriculum learning, you will be embedding the concept that cinema, film and education are inextricably connected.  By so doing, you will be contributing to developing film-literate audiences of the future and establishing film as part of your students’ cultural heritage. Students who appreciate the educational benefits of film will have attitudes towards learning that will extend well beyond the limits of their school years.