Prior to the project, we used film in our school Film Club, and intermittently to support literacy, if there was a film of a novel being studied by a particular year group. The Into Film project was brought to my attention by one of the teachers, who not only has a passion for film but was both our Literacy Co-ordinator and Film Club organiser. The teacher training has been in two phases: firstly, sessions for using film to support literacy and numeracy and, in the second year, training for teachers become a film leader, responsible for cascading the learning to other teachers. The first year was great for supporting literacy and numeracy in KS2, having two teachers and two classes involved with the project. In the second year, more of our teachers benefitted as our Film Leaders conducted film CPD for other staff.

Film literacy has made the whole staff think ‘film' as well as written texts when planning literacy lessons and it has been an enhancement to novels and topic-based literacy. This has had a great impact on the engagement of all pupils, particularly those for whom written texts may prove a barrier. Teachers have already begun using film as a resource in many lessons. Several have begun using animation, or ‘greenscreen' for filmmaking, with their class for topic work. The children are very motivated and have a high level of engagement in these tasks. In the new school year, several teachers are planning to use the film literacy in their curriculum. This was a great project to be part of. It was new and fresh and the Film Leaders were very enthused by the high-quality training they received and were keen to implement their new skills and knowledge with their classes.