Year 10 animations on themes around mental health.

[Oscar Stringer]

I've just spent four days working at Bewdley High school with year 10. The money was raised, by a small team of students to cover the costs from a local charity. Each workshop was two days long and over the four days 14 short films were produced. Next term DVD's of the films are being sent out to local schools as a resource for teachers to use with year 7,8 and 9 to start classroom discussion on these tricky areas of mental health. Animation is a great medium for exploring these issues.

There are two films which I've posted to the video section which I think are very good. There's one on the subject of eating disorders which uses an approach to drawn animation that the students invented them selves.

They tackled the horror of the subject with beautiful emotive art work and ideas, this is a major challenge for filmmakers. But these year 10's did it brilliantly. The film is called kalypso.

There is also a film about the side effects of smoking cannabis.

[Lisa Stevens]

This whole project seems a brilliant example of what can happen when you give teenagers a challenge that engages them. The videos show invention as well as a maturity and sensitivity to the subjects tackled. And, as you say, they're such an excellent resource for PSHE lessons as conversation / discussion starters.