Into Film is an education organisation providing a unified UK-wide offer for learning through and about film. It is supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) through Lottery funding and its programme includes delivery of the BFI 5-19 education scheme. Into Film's resources range from film discussion guides, to curriculum linked worksheets, lesson plans and presentations. Our resources are tailored to fit the curriculum criteria of each nation, supporting learning outcomes.
Into Film is an education organisation providing a unified UK-wide offer for learning through and about film. It is supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) through Lottery funding and its programme includes delivery of the BFI 5-19 education scheme. Into Film's resources range from film discussion guides, to curriculum linked worksheets, lesson plans and presentations. Our resources are tailored to fit the curriculum criteria of each nation, supporting learning outcomes.
A film guide that looks at Dear Evan Hansen (2021), a coming-of-age musical, based on a hit stage show about a teenage boy suffering from social anxiety who becomes an overnight internet sensation.
This guide is useful for exploring topics including Performing Arts, PSHE Education and Psychology in addition to highlighting themes surrounding music, family, friendships, mental health, growing up and anti-bullying.
A film guide that looks at McQueen (2018), a documentary about the life and work of celebrated fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
This guide is useful for exploring topics including Art and Design, Media Studies, Theatre Studies and Psychology in addition to highlighting themes surrounding fashion, music, addictions, food and health, mental health, fame and consumerism, LGBT issues, and British cinema.
A film guide that looks at Lost Connections (2021), a poetic short film made in response to the Coronavirus pandemic using archive footage.
This guide is useful for exploring topics such as PHSE Studies and Film Studies, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding community, filmmaking and mental wellbeing.
A film guide that looks at The Way He Looks (2014), exploring its key topics and themes through informal discussion.
The Way He Looks is a romantic drama about a blind high-school student whose relationship with his best friend is threatened by the arrival of a handsome new boy in school.
This guide is useful for exploring topics including PSHE Education and Film Studies in addition to highlighting themes surrounding growing up, friendships, disabilities and inclusion, love and relationships, and South American countries.
Using the short film* Black Barbie*, this resource helps students to explore issues around body image and the external factors that influence self-esteem. Using the film highlights, students are encouraged to consider their personal strengths and identity, leading to the creation of a short poem.
This resource is accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation and activity sheets to support learners in class or at home. Where appropriate, suggestions for adaptation for home learning have been included in the teachers’ notes.
Physical Health and Mental Wellbeing: Secondary
The similarities and differences between the online world and the physical world, including through setting unrealistic expectations for body image
Learning Outcomes:
• To define and discuss what is meant by positive and negative body image
• To consider what influences might affect a person’s image of themselves
• To identify and celebrate personal strengths
• To communicate a point of view by combining words, images and colour.
Using the short film The Penguin Who Couldn’t Swim, this resource is suitable for use with pupils aged 7–11 and helps pupils to safely identify and discuss issues around body image while celebrating the differences that make everyone unique. Using images and film highlights, pupils are encouraged to analyse and explore characters before tracking their differing emotional journeys through the entire film.
This resource is accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation with
embedded clips and the teachers’ notes document includes activity
sheets to support learners in class or at home. Where appropriate,
suggestions for adaptation for home learning have been included in
the teachers’ notes.
CURRICULUM LINKS
PSHE education – Relationships Education
Respectful relationships:
• The importance of respecting others, even when they are
very different from you (for example, physically, in character,
personality or backgrounds), or make different choices or have
different preferences or beliefs
• The importance of self-respect and how this links to your
own happiness.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
• To be able to identify similarities and differences in characters
• To recognise that differences are what make us unique
• To use visual clues to identify how a character is feeling
• To understand how differences are viewed by others
• To understand the benefits of positive friendships.
This resource is a PSHE lesson covering topics within media literacy and digital resilience for ages 14–16 through class discussion and an option for filmmaking.
Students will analyse a film which focuses on social media, bullying,
privacy and consent to consider how we present ourselves online and
how this can affect our lives offline. Students will have the opportunity
to reflect on their own experiences with digital media and to speak
about the importance of being critical of the things we see online.
This resource is suitable for in-class teaching and learning but could
also be adapted for home learning or a blended learning approach.
This resource is a PSHE lesson for use with students aged 11–16 covering topics within media literacy and digital resilience through English and drama, with the option to include filmmaking.
Students will consider how relationships can be strengthened
using digital media as well as examining how interacting through
digital media can make us feel. Students can reflect on their own
experiences as well as how relationships with digital media are
depicted in film.
This resource is suitable for in-class teaching and learning but could
also be adapted for home learning or a blended learning approach.
Through using the youth made short films made as part of The Moving Minds 2 Filmmaking project, this resource equips young people aged 11-19 and their educators to confidently:
• Express ideas about mental health using the medium of film.
• Engage with film and filmmaking with increased confidence
in order to articulate ideas about what mental health means to them.
• Raise self-esteem by participating in engaging personal reflective activities in class or at home.
• Work towards their own mental health goals in a personalised Mental Wellbeing Strategies Toolkit.
• Be guided by peers and filmmakers alike to make their own Moving Minds 2: Building Resilience for Wellbeing short film, no matter their skill level or equipment.
Into Film believes that youth-made films are uniquely useful for starting and supporting discussions about mental health, as they enable the viewer to see the subject through young people’s eyes.
It is our hope that youth-made films contribute to destigmatising mental ill health, as well as inspiring engagement with filmmaking as a means to articulate many of the hard to express ideas seen in many mental health conditions.
Take your class on a musical journey inspired by Disney’s animation Encanto.
With support from professional musician and producer Jonathan, children will respond to music from the film through art and design, hands-on participation, and the creation of their own musical compositions. Progressing through this two- lesson resource, learners will develop skills and vocabulary to both discuss and create music.
Inspired by the resilience of the character Mirabel, children will be challenged to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary as they produce their own eco-orchestras – creating rhythms from discarded materials.
There will be an opportunity for children to appraise different skills and talents and how these can be developed through practise and dedication.
This exciting resource brought to you by Into Film and The Boss
Baby 2: Family Business, designed for 6–11-year-olds, combines
core subject learning in maths, English and science alongside a
wealth of opportunities for group work and rich, open-ended
problem-solving. Inspired by the upcoming film, learners will be
encouraged to plan, set goals, problem-solve and reflect on their
learning as they take part in a series of collaborative and creative
enterprise-focused activities.
Our Story Builder resource is aimed at pupils aged 7-11, and enables learners to develop their understanding of the basic building blocks of film - the 3Cs and 3Ss of film, colour, character, camera, story, sound and setting - to create imaginative narratives of their own. They will be able to use our interactive workbook to plan their own films stage by stage.
Each engaging and accessible element of the resource can be used as a stand-alone activity, or combined, so that learners can plan or make a film composed entirely of their own ideas. The resource allows pupils to work alone or collaboratively to develop characters, build their story arc, decide on settings and even design their very own film posters.
Story Builder engages with the curriculum seamlessly, harnessing the unlimited creative talent of young people. There are countless stories in the world, all waiting to be told - help your pupils to tell theirs.
“As a teacher it is heartening to see children so engaged with their imaginations when completing the Story Builder tasks and creating their own unique story”
- Bernadette Boyle, Primary School Teacher
Brought to you by Into Film and The Walt Disney Company, this cross-curricular and adaptable resource is suitable for use with children aged 5–8. During the course of this learning sequence, learners will embark on a quest for kindness as they delve into the world of Disney to identify how a range of characters from the Disney Princess films show kindness, bravery and ultimately friendship during the course of their adventures.
Using our Online Character Story Spinner (characterstoryspinner.co.uk) children will watch the film content to spark their creativity
to carry out a range of range of challenges which incorporate
PSHE Education (for the new curriculum), Citizenship, Art
and Design and English/Literacy designed to deepen their
understanding of what it means to be kind, brave and helpful to
others.
Welcome to this fun and engaging sequence of learning activities where learners will take on the role of Croods, a prehistoric family searching for a place to settle in a Stone Age land.
This practical and thrilling sequence of lessons celebrates the upcoming release of The Croods 2: A New Age, whisking pupils into an adventure-filled journey through prehistoric times where they will develop geography, maths, PSHE education, and design and technology skills. Along the way, your class will learn essential survival skills such as map-reading and shelter-building as well as considering the types of environments and geographical settings that humans can thrive in.
To celebrate the release of Artemis Fowl on 12th June Into Film have partnered with Disney+ to create a package of free home learning resources for students aged 7-14. Inspired by the new release, our Artemis Fowl: Decoding Your World resources combine elements of English, maths and computing, and have been especially designed to support parents whose children are currently learning from home, and educators who are teaching and setting work remotely.
Trolls, fairies and mythical creatures abound in Artemis Fowl, a fantastical film adapted from Eoin Colfer’s best-selling Artemis Fowl book series. Expect stunning special effects and exhilarating action as 12-year-old Artemis battles to rescue his kidnapped father from a fantasy realm. Artemis Fowl is streaming exclusively now on Disney+.
This free resource includes a suite of materials that educators and parents can use to inspire students and explore key themes raised in the film. In Artemis Fowl: Decoding Your World, pupils will be introduced to Artemis through the film’s trailer and tasked with deciphering secret messages using Gnommish code from the film. Students will immerse themselves into the magical world of film and be inspired by a uniquely smart and adaptable lead character. There are four engaging home learning activities which include learning how to decipher coded messages; completing coding puzzles; character analysis through exploration of thoughts and actions and a creative writing competition. The activity sheets are supported by a home learning guide for educators and parents.
Created in partnership with Youth Sport Trust, Sonic Skills: Set for Success
is a PE-led resource for teachers of young people aged 9-13, inspired by
new film Sonic the Hedgehog, in cinemas 14 February 2020. Using the
trailer as its inspiration, the learning sequence gives pupils the opportunity
to explore the benefits of mindfulness and physical activity on our overall
wellbeing. Alongside this, an assembly targeted at 11-13 year olds is also
included focusing on wellbeing techniques inspired the character of Sonic
the Hedgehog.
Learners will take part in a range of simple mindfulness activities before
creating a range of exercises inspired by the speed, enthusiasm and skills
of Sonic the Hedgehog. Using the results of their exercises, pupils will
examine and present their data in a chart before using line graphs as
inspiration for their own Sonic Stories creative writing task. The sequence culminates in a Super Sonic Speed competition to win
exciting prizes.
Each lesson is carefully structured with teachers in mind and features
pupil-friendly activity sheets and engaging homework tasks. All supporting
materials include curriculum outcomes suitable for all nations and regions.
This film is now available to stream for free on Into Film+ https://www.intofilm.org/films/19519
A film guide that looks at Rafiki (2019), exploring its key topics and themes through informal discussion.
Into Film is the UK’s leading charity for film in education. We support educators to unlock the power of film to deliver transformative learning outcomes for children and young people aged 5-19 in class, extra-curricular settings and in cinemas. Designed in partnership with educators, our programme features the UK’s only school-specific film streaming service(Into Film+), online teaching resources and training, careers information, cinema screenings and a network of extra-curricular film clubs. The core Into Film programme is free for UK state schools thanks to funding from the National Lottery (through the BFI), Cinema First and Northern Ireland Screen
A film guide that looks at He Named Me Malala (2015), exploring its key topics and themes through informal discussion.
This film is now available to stream for free on Into Film+ https://www.intofilm.org/films/18442
A film guide that looks at Ready Player One (2018), exploring its key topics and themes through informal discussion.
This film is now available to stream for free on Into Film+ https://www.intofilm.org/films/19193