Awards ceremony for safe-travel film makers

Pupils from four Leeds secondary schools attended their very own film premiere and Oscars-style awards ceremony earlier this week as part of a film-making project aimed at helping younger pupils with their transition to high school.

The Hyde Park Picture House hosted the film premiere and awards ceremony for the year seven and eight students from Benton Park School, Brigshaw High School, Corpus Christi Catholic College and Horsforth School who took part in the film-making project.

The students had all been involved in creating; directing and starring in short films aimed at helping year six pupils make a smooth transition to high school. The films focus on safe and sustainable ways to travel to school and use entertaining themes including a zombie apocalypse (Brigshaw High), video gaming (Corpus Christi Catholic College), and parodies of Star Wars (Horsforth Academy) and James Bond (Benton park) to get their messages across.

The students were awarded golden owl statues and prize vouchers for their achievements in five categories. Horsforth School picked up the award for best storyline; Corpus Christi Catholic College won most successfully delivered message; best actress and best actor went to students from Brigshaw High and Benton Park School respectively. The best picture award was scooped by Brigshaw High School.

The panel of judges who had the difficult task of picking the winners was made up of: Councillor Gerry Harper, the council’s deputy executive member for regeneration, transport and planning; Mark Burns-Williamson, the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire; Andrew Hall from Leeds City Council; Mike Nolan, from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and; Caroline Downey from Sustrans.

Councillor Gerry Harper, deputy executive member for regeneration, transport and planning said:

“All of the students involved in this innovative project have done a fantastic job helping to reduce traffic congestion around our schools. The films will serve as a great legacy, continuing to promote the message of safe and sustainable travel to students for many years to come”.

Councillor Jane Dowson, deputy executive member for children and families said:

“These videos will be a massive help to year six pupils, many of whom will be just learning about taking responsibility for their own personal safety. They are entertaining as well as informative and will help these young pupils stay safe and make sensible travel choices when they start high school.”

Mark Burns-Williamson, Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire said:

“The young people involved in creating these videos should be immensely proud. This is a fine example of how our young high school pupils can be positive, influential role models to their younger peers; not only supporting sustainable travel, but promoting personal safety and road sense. The short films are entertaining, engaging and informative, and are a credit to the pupils and their schools.”

The transition film project was provided through a partnership between Leeds City Council’s Influencing Travel Behaviour team and the campaigning charity Sustrans. The project was funded by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, Access to Education scheme.