Cine Hubs has become something of an inspiration within schools across the East Midlands. The initiative grew out of recognition that schools were experimenting with film content but required an intervention to move them to the next level of production values and understanding of the medium. Screen Agency EM Media began collaborating with Derbyshire County Council in 2006 to create and test a model of delivery that became known as Cine Hubs. The project went regional in January 2009 with investment from Local Authorities and the Film: 21st Century Literacy Strategy, involving 20, mostly Primary, schools. The project is managed by EM Media.
The Cine Hubs project functions through a needs-led intervention but is fluid enough to be utilised and owned by individual schools. The central principle of Cine Hubs hinges around placing industry practitioners into the classroom to work alongside teachers. Of course, filmmaking in schools has been around for over three decades in one form or another so the idea of using film and filmmakers in schools is not new. Cine Hubs has never aimed or claimed to reinvent the wheel. But as technology grows ever more affordable and media ever more pervasive, Cine Hubs aims to normalise the use of film within curriculum delivery, rather than as an additional enrichment, time-bound or after school activity. The goal is for the schools to become self supporting and continue using film as soon as they are able, rather than a window of activity with no legacy.
Cine Hubs operates through a principle of ownership: a cluster of schools host a filmmaker whom works in a peripatetic manner across the cluster, assisting teachers and children to produce film content that is creative and self-determined, yet relevant to children’s learning and teachers’ pedagogy. Achievement is measured through mainstream curriculum outcomes. Schools are able to share resources, training and experience amongst the cluster. Once the schools are confident in their use of film the filmmaker is able to move on to develop more schools. Very simple in the abstract but a huge initial commitment from a school with high stakes – get it wrong and grades drop, parents question.
The success that we have encountered in the East Midlands lies in the subtleties of Cine Hub. Each school has been able to shape the project and embed the activity in the curriculum areas of their own choosing. The approaches and skills of the filmmaker are matched to the cultures and requirements of the schools. The curriculum, particularly at the Primary level, has proved itself to be flexible enough to incorporate direct film production interventions and wide ranging enough to encompass a broad scope of film outcomes. In short, no two Cine Hub projects are the same. We have had films of French speaking teeth, Victorian ghost stories, Brian Clough, Community cohesion, Animated Egyptians, Captain John Smith, Ninja-Bread Girls and Space Agents to name a few. Through this method of ‘learning by doing’ schools were able to put theoretical knowledge into practice and observe for themselves the methodology, challenges, frustrations and rewards of making films within the school environment, deciding for themselves if they felt that the results are worth it.
Our Cine Hub teachers did decide that the results were worth it. The majority of the schools involved in the project had not used film in an extensive way within the classroom prior to the project. Teachers spoke of film being “an invaluable aid to learning across the curriculum” and welcomed the opportunity to introduce children to methods of learning that they might not otherwise encounter, broadening children’s experiences. Child development was the other important aspect alongside grades. Teachers frequently pointed out that children had gained in confidence and found new competencies and interests. Media literacy is innate here. Some quotes:
“Every teacher knows that in order to teach effectively it is important to captivate the whole class. By using film, we are tapping into technology that children are used to accessing. Editing images and manipulating sound for atmosphere, creating story boards and bringing them to life is something that children can relate too”.
“The children learned a lot about themselves”
“(The filmmaker) was able to give the children a full experience, it was very aspirational –as an enterprise college this is important to us”.
“Film is valuable; working with the filmmaker has reminded teachers that they can do something different. Sometimes schools need to take a risk”.
School management and teachers have reported that standards have been raised across the year groups that have taken part in the Cine Hubs project. Although we should appreciate an element of caution here as other factors can be brought into the equation, what does seem clear, certainly from the results and testimony of the schools themselves, is that film has cross-curricular benefits and through creative approaches to learning children can still achieve within and be measured against mainstream curriculum outcomes.
The Cine Hub schools took on the project and shaped it to their requirements. They were positively affected through using film in the classroom and are moving their use of film forward delivered by teaching professionals who themselves believe that the methods are a worthwhile undertaking. Cine Hubs set out to weave film into an indispensible curriculum aid and some of the schools have taken that ambition and owned it. One can deduce that such an intervention can be scaled up if resources are suitably directed, the cost of the intervention is modest, but the benefits vast and we have only scratched the surface. With the right conditions set in motion, the results could be spectacular with heavy adoption of film within the school system, on its own terms.
Antony Thomas
Education and Film Heritage Executive
EM Media
antony.thomas@em-media.org.uk
