Film is poised to become a discrete subject in Scottish schools after the conclusion of an ongoing “pilot review” of expressive arts.
Education Scotland is undertaking the pilot curriculum review - preceding a later full review - and has set out its ambition for film education in notes for teachers and other educators attending a recent event about how the process might affect the expressive arts.
These notes state that the pilot review will encompass the established subjects of art and design, dance, drama and music - but also “the proposed introduction of film and screen as a discrete expressive art subject”.
Details remain fairly thin, but in recent months experienced film and screen educators have been working with teachers in secondary schools in Argyll and Bute, Dundee, Edinburgh, Inverness and Shetland - following earlier work with nursery and primary schools - to teach young people about practical filmmaking and the wide range of work it entails.
This work is part of film body Screen Scotland’s ambition to introduce film and screen as an expressive arts subject within the Scottish school curriculum.
Film education in every school
In an online piece in November, Screen Scotland’s head of education Fi Milligan-Rennie said it was “working towards film and screen education being available for every child in Scotland, in every school in Scotland”, and that the expansion of a pilot filmmaking programme into secondary schools was “an important step on the way”.
Tes Scotland has reported in the past that cinema has become a bigger part of the curriculum as a result of pupil demand, specifically within English.
In 2018, for example, a Scottish Qualifications Authority course report showed that more students were choosing to write their Higher English essay on a media text, with popular choices including several horror films or films which deploy horror tropes, such as The Shining, The Sixth Sense, Psycho and Shutter Island.
Cineliterate pupils
Filmmaker and cinema historian Mark Cousins, who has worked on projects with Scottish schools, has seen the plan to make film education available to every pupil in Scotland.
He said: “For me, the two bold and brilliant things are: firstly, this is about making, not analysing, films (though the latter is very important); and secondly, it begins with very young children.
“If it works, and the tutors are good, it could make Scottish kids among the most cineliterate in the world.”
The Education Scotland notes on its event explaining the expressive arts review, held in Stirling on 31 January, underline that the review is in line with a recommendation from a 2021 report on Curriculum for Excellence by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The OECD stated that Scotland should establish “a systematic approach to curriculum review...with a planned timeframe”.
On Wednesday, we reported a proposal that the Scottish curriculum should be reviewed every 10 years; the ongoing expressive arts review may provide an early indication of the sort of ideas and innovations that could result from this process.
Tes Scotland asked Education Scotland if it had published any more details on the expressive arts pilot review and the place of film and cinema within that. A spokesperson said that so far the only further reading was a piece published on LinkedIn this week by Education Scotland senior education officer Neil Millar.
‘Uniquely different’ arts disciplines
Mr Millar does not explicitly mention film, but writes that the 2021 OECD review was “the catalyst for the Scottish government to charge us at Education Scotland to review each of the curriculum areas within Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence”.
He adds: “The intriguing aspect of the expressive arts in Scotland, and globally, is that many people feel each subject area are natural bedfellow; however, I have never shared that view.
“These subject disciplines are uniquely different, both in knowledge and skill set and, consequently, attract a wide range of learners from the introvert to the extrovert and everything in between.”
Education Scotland said there was no specific end date for the pilot review of expressive arts, adding: “It is one of a number of pilot curriculum reviews Education Scotland has organised over the course of the past year and we plan to publish a paper on the key findings after the Easter holiday.”
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