A love of cinema is abundantly clear from the moment you walk into Fraser Johnston’s classroom in Falkirk.
Film posters and paraphernalia deck the walls of his classroom at St Mungo’s High School, encompassing a rich range of genres and eras; the mega franchises of Star Wars and Marvel jostling for space with hip titles from indie cinema and game-changing classics from Kubrick and Scorsese.
In June that commitment to film yielded a huge reward: St Mungo’s won the Excellence in Creative Arts category at the Tes Schools Awards 2024, seeing off competition from across the UK.
Film and media numbers ‘through the roof’
Awards judge Lucy Cuthbertson, director of education at Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “The numbers for film and media at St Mungo’s High School have gone through the roof, and it’s fantastic, transforming a fairly marginalised subject within the school to one the whole school can get behind.”
In 2023-24 there were 25 St Mungo’s students taking Higher media (within which film can be studied) and 25 pursuing National Progression Awards in film and media. And, if past years are anything to go by, many will go on to study or work in film and media after they leave school.
The main film pored over in classes last year was Scream VI - “transgressive” horror tropes appeal to teenagers and often prove “really straightforward to teach”, says Johnston - but other films that have connected strongly with students include Aftersun, Parasite and The Virgin Suicides. By contrast, some classics don’t land with this generation, Taxi Driver being a prime example.
“We cover everything from genre to the language of film - so how you communicate ideas for camera shots, colour sound editing. We look at narrative, how narratives are structured,” says Johnston. “We also look at representation of ethnicity and gender. We look at institutional factors, like the rules and regulations put in place for film.”
Film offers compelling entry points for all manner of topics, he finds. The business ethics of The Social Network, the upturning of gender conventions in Mad Max: Fury Road, the skewed morality of Nightcrawler - all have proven fertile grounds for classroom debate.
Johnston stresses, too, that it’s not all about formal qualifications, with students also running a thriving film society.
‘One of the most accessible mediums’
Film, says Johnston, “is one of the most accessible mediums out there”: the prospect of a two-hour movie, for one thing, is often far less daunting to students than the month it might take to read a novel.
While Johnston feels like creative subjects in general are “always battling for their place in the curriculum”, art and music are long established in schools and can always rely on fairly healthy uptake. With both drama and media, by contrast, “you are trying to justify your place to people”.
But things are changing: “The film and TV industry in Scotland is growing” and attempts have been stepped up to give film and cinema a more solid foothold in schools.
Students of cinema at St Mungo’s have embraced the chance to do their own filmmaking, as part of their practical assignment. This leads to films of five to 10 minutes spanning myriad genres - although horror again proves popular. There have also been plenty of documentaries over the years, but students are wary of attempting comedy because it has proven particularly hard to master.
School ‘Oscars’ a highlight of the year
It’s all a far cry from past times in schools when, says Johnston, “media was kind of seen as a dumping ground”, a plan B for those who might struggle to get through Higher English. Indeed, such is the status of filmmaking in St Mungo’s that one of the highlights of the calendar is the school’s “Oscars”, which showcase students’ films - complete with red carpet, golden statuettes and guests dressed to the nines.
Seven years after the St Mungo’s Oscars started, they are symbolic of film’s key place in the school for the rest of the year, too. But Johnston says the Tes Award was added, external “validation” for him and all the students and colleagues who throw themselves into the world of cinema.
“That was huge for us all - really, really heartwarming,” he says.
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