Film Club Success

6 December 2013

(Image of Wanstead High School students receiving the ‘Best Film Club Award’ at the National Youth Film Festival Awards © Invision for National Youth Film Festival/AP Images)

At Wanstead High School we have recently been celebrating after receiving a Best Film Club Award at the National Youth Film Festival Awards, held at Leicester Square. The awards were the culmination of the first National Youth Film Festival, a UK wide celebration of film and education, especially for schools and youth groups.

The Festival built on the work that FILMCLUB has been doing to bring the world of film to young people. The charity helps schools set up clubs that provide young people with the chance to watch, discuss and review a diverse range of films – feeding their imagination and nurturing their social and intellectual development.

Wanstead’s relationship with FILMCLUB began when we set up our first club in 2008 with about 15 year 7 students. Today we have two flourishing clubs with over 40 members, one for students in years 7-9 and a newly revamped sixth form club. We were selected for the Award for our dedication to running the two regular weekly film clubs and tapping into the numerous resources on offer to inspire pupils and reinforce the curriculum – from review writing, learning about piracy and filmmaking to creating film themed art and performances as part of a whole school film festival.

The school’s two film clubs include students with learning needs, who thrive in a supportive atmosphere, and students who have been involved in the club throughout their whole secondary school experience and are now supporting the younger members by passing on their wealth of understanding, experience and confidence.

Over the years we have also welcomed some great visitors to our film club, from film directors demystifying careers in film to our school’s coordinator developing film literacy through bespoke workshops. We were particularly excited to welcome FILMCLUB founder Beeban Kidron and BFI Chairman Greg Dyke to share their favourite films with our young members.

The opportunities FILMCLUB has offered our students have been amazing; from our younger students attending free previews of Toy Story 3to sixth formers visiting 10 Downing Street for a special film screening.

Our membership of FILMCLUB has had a very real impact on our school. Not least most of the original members from 2008 are now confident members of our sixth form, many studying media and helping to introduce film to our new film club members.

Receiving a Best Film Club Award

As to our recent award, Melanie Warner, Assistant Headteacher commented:

"We are thrilled to have received this award. It means so much to the school and all the members of our FILMCLUB. The excitement of our students who attended the awards event was really contagious and the impact winning has had is amazing. It was great to see our young people being interviewed about the award, with their confidence to do so largely down to their involvement with the club."

The award was really just the icing on the cake though of what has been an exciting partnership and one which we would recommend to all schools, especially since it is all free!

To find out more about the award, and to read about some of the other fantastic clubs from around the country who were also nominated please click here.

FILMCLUB is a film education programme that runs as part of Film Nation UK (the new organisation formed earlier this year by FILMCLUB and First Light). Initially launched in 2007, FILMCLUB helps schools set up and run weekly film clubs for young people from all backgrounds to watch, discuss and review quality films from over 100 years of cinema, reaching 220,000 young people each week in over 7000 UK schools. Through weekly screenings, online reviewing, industry events and hands-on support the charity promotes learning in an informal setting while encouraging critical engagement from young people, with proven academic and social benefits.

The National Youth Film Festival, a new part of the film education activity through Film Nation UK, is a new UK nationwide event that aims to inspire and educate young people through the medium of film, enabling young people (aged 5 to 19) across the UK to engage with a wide variety of films, learn about filmmaking and the industry, and take part in exclusive workshops and Q&As with film industry professionals. The Festival aims to bring learning to life for young people all around the UK by using film as an innovative tool to support education and personal development all while igniting a lifelong passion for film, and is supported by the BFI, Cinema First, RealD 3D, the TES and First News.