Highlights from our Film Education Forum in Scotland

This January, we held a Film Education Forum in Glasgow, bringing together film and arts organisations from Scotland. The morning was a fantastic opportunity to network and build new local connections with those that are equally passionate about film in education.  The event brought together those in the film and arts youth sectors to explore the new film and screen curriculum and how Into Film's resources and training can support its delivery in practice.

Developed in partnership between Education Scotland and Screen Scotland, the roll out of film and screen into the Curriculum for Excellence as an expressive art is currently taking place in schools and early years settings across Scotland. Into Film's resources for filmmaking, learning about film and screen, and engaging with the industry through events and careers provision all play an important role in supporting educators as they start to embed the new curriculum.

The event was co-hosted with Children's and Youth Arts Advocacy (CYAA), and in his introduction their co-chair Neil Fox emphasised the importance of youth access to diverse and inclusive arts experiences. As the new film and screen curriculum is part of the wider expressive arts curriculum, this was a valuable opportunity for professionals from arts education, including galleries, heritage and dance, to come together with film educators. A short reel shown during morning registration included examples of filmmaking already created by Feis Ros, Ydance and Into Film, with young people in formal and non-formal education.

In a packed morning, we welcomed Neil Millar, Senior Education Officer at Education Scotland, and teacher Bethany Davis from Drummond Community High School, to explain the new film and screen curriculum and how this is being delivered in practice. Drummond have fully embraced the new curriculum, embedding it at all levels, and it was especially useful for the audience to learn what is being studied, how practical the teaching is, and the impact on the young people.

Throughout the morning there were many opportunities for participants to learn about the role of Into Film in supporting the teaching of film and screen across the curriculum. Into Film's resources and training are widely used by teachers across Scotland to support both cross-curricular learning with film and practical filmmaking. Our careers information and industry engagement activity supports young people considering pathways into the screen industries.

During the breakout sessions, participants could gain practical experience of two areas of Into Film's work: filmmaking and screen careers. Attendees enjoyed working with filmmaker Yasmin al Hadithi through the exercises in our 15 Minute Filmmaking resource, while others learnt about our wide suite of career resources, which provide practical advice and support to young people and career professionals.

We'd like to extend our special thanks once again to our speakers Neil Millar from Education Scotland, Neil Fox from CYAA/NYOS, and Bethany Davis from Drummond Community High School, for giving such informative and galvanizing talks.

If you would like to connect with our Scotland Team to explore collaboration or get involved in any of our programmes, we'd love to hear from you via edinburgh@intofilm.org.