This summer, 40 primary and secondary school teachers are taking part in a unique summer school aimed at introducing filmmaking as a newly available subject in Scottish schools.
The two-week course represents a further step towards the establishment of Scotland’s first Film and Screen Curriculum. Developed by Screen Scotland, working with Education Scotland and the SQA, the curriculum will enable pupils in Scottish primary and secondary schools to study “Film and Screen” as an expressive arts subject* for the first time in the coming school year.
Screen Scotland has partnered with Screen Education Edinburgh to deliver the fortnight-long summer school at Forth Valley College’s Stirling campus. This programme aims to equip teachers with practical filmmaking skills, enabling them to test a potential new school subject, “Film and Screen”.
Kirsty Davis, Auchenharvie Academy, Stevenson, North Ayrshire said: “The Film and Screen Summer School has been fantastic! It's designed in such a way that teachers will be able to transfer their learning into the classroom quickly and easily. Learning a new curriculum has also offered me the unique position of feeling like a student again and the whole experience has made me a more insightful teacher. I’ll definitely have more empathy for my learners and not just for teaching Film and Screen.”
Over the past two years, the draft film and screen curriculum has been piloted across early years, primary and secondary settings in five Scottish local authorities, delivered by specialist Screen Educators in Residence.
The summer school, led by Screen Education Edinburgh and fully funded by Screen Scotland and hosted by Forth Valley College, will enable a significant increase in the number of schools delivering film and screen education provision across Scotland. It will also allow further evaluation of the draft curriculum by teachers and pupils.
Fi Milligan-Rennie, Screen Scotland’s Head of Education said: “The response to our summer school offer has been overwhelmingly positive. By creating opportunities for teachers to learn how to deliver and film and screen as an expressive art in their classrooms, and for them to evaluate the success of every element of the draft film and screen curriculum, we are creating a blue print for a film and screen curriculum that is tried, tested and developed as a fully creative and collaborative work. Our ambition is to provide access to film and screen education to every pupil in Scotland.”
Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said: “We welcome this new training initiative which highlights the importance of investing in our talent pipeline. Training teachers and opening up new opportunities for our school pupils will help ensure authentic Scottish voices are represented in the future of our screen industry.
“The Scottish Government continues to support screen skills and education, working closely with Screen Scotland to support programmes across the sector.”
Neil Millar, Senior Education Officer for Expressive Arts, Culture and Creativity at Education Scotland said: “Education Scotland is delighted to continue its support in the development of the next stage of pilot testing of the Film and Screen curriculum. High quality professional learning for teachers is critically important for the profession in order to explore and enhance the knowledge and skills of pedagogy to enable successful facilitation of this added dimension to Scotland’s expressive arts curriculum.
“To have 40 teachers representing not only a large number of local authorities, but also the independent sector, at the Film and Screen Summer School is just great to see and endorses the view that this innovation of Scotland’s curriculum is not only needed but also wanted by the profession, and the beneficiaries of all this will be our children and young people across the country.”
More information
* “Expressive arts” subjects are practical, hands-on courses, where pupils make films as well as studying them.
Image credits
Header image courtesy of Julie Howden