So the Primary Strategy is to be a thing of the past shortly. What I found so constraining about the Literacy strategy, when I was teaching in primary, was that it took me away from drawing on the children’s own experience. With the rigid timetabling I didn’t feel free as a teacher, to build on the engagement and language that a collaborative project like creating a stop-motion animation project created in the classroom.  
 

Of course, then there was a lot of emphasis from the Primary Strategy on embedding language in the curriculum. We didn’t have to chop up the time, we were encouraged to develop longer units of study. 
 

And then earlier this year Sir Jim Rose, in his proposed overhaul of primary schooling in England, recommended that information and communication technology should be central to the curriculum alongside English, maths and personal skills. He mentioned this kind of work for early years …”to try out a range of tools and techniques with a range of materials for artistic purposes…appropriate tools including technologies such as computer animations, videos and so on.” He went on to say “ Children should learn about how the arts are created and enjoyed today, how they have changed over time, and the contribution they make to our lives and culture. Children should learn how to combine art forms imaginatively and in complementary and enhancing ways. They should perform and exhibit for a range of audiences, and should be introduced to the appropriate language of the arts, and learn how it can be used for graphics, animations, videos and sound sequences etc.” Things have moved a long way – the time is right for film animation in the primary curriculum. 
 

Across the South West we have been running a series of stop-motion film animation workshops (Aardman is based in the South-West, after all).  Working with our expert animator for education, Oscar Stringer, what have we found out? - Lots about techniques and the best hardware and software for the job. How to upload children’s films so we can all share what they have created. In the review of how the workshops supported schools, teachers are telling us lots of ways that they are using film animation work to support a wide range of teaching and learning. One teacher told us how they had started with the book Dinosaurs and all that Rubbish by Michael Foreman. She explains how she organized her class as the work progressed. The children have gained hugely as they worked collaboratively to produce their part of the story.  
 

And now, many schools are entering their animations into the local authority film animation competitions. With many competitions closing at the end of term, it’s not too late to enter. Find out more about our Film Animation Competition at www.swgfl.org.uk/Learning/Film-Animation-Mini-Site/About.