Curious Minds

The Investigators – De La Salle Humanities College, Liverpool

De La Salle Humanities College is an all-boys school in a predominantly white working area, with issues of severe social deprivation.

Cheryl Hoos, school co-ordinator, wanted to find out if documentary film-making could develop boys’ empathy and understanding of different cultures. 

Twelve year nine boys worked with Handstand Productions to make a film about different cultures in their local area.  They researched, investigated and interviewed people to explore what the term means, focusing on the Chinese and Polish communities, represented by pupils in their school.

They produced research and interview questions, write a storyboard and script and developed film-making skills including editing, presenting and acting.

They looked at the target audience of year 6 primary school children and talked about how to engage them eg food-tasting.

In December 2010, the boys presented the film to the school, parents and community group, explaining the film-making process to the audience.

In January 2011 the film was shown at a primary schools event, where boys cooked from the cultures they were introducing in the film.

The project encouraged more parents to visit the school for celebration event. 
Each boy got a copy of the DVD to take home.

Cheryl said that boys had developed improved levels in English and understanding of different cultures.  She added that they were more motivated and confident, working well in teams and displaying unexpected levels of maturity, adding that pupils’ learning logs showed increased levels of literacy.

The boys said they really looked forward to the weekly sessions.

Cheryl:  “There is a real opportunity to be able to show the impact of creativity and increased learning levels in English levels as a result of the project.”

“The project has raised aspirations of the learners and there has been a real interest in Media as a future career path for the young people involved.”

“Creativity in the curriculum continues to inspire the pupils and adults in our school and the evidence in increased learning levels within a subject and confidence achieved as a result are a real achievement.”

Boys:  "I have learnt a lot about cultures in our city and communities."
I have learnt about the food that other cultures eat, the traditions of different cultures, the greetings of different cultures, a better understanding of the word 'culture'."
"We learnt how different cultures celebrate traditions and how they communicate language wise."
"I thought culture was mainly a language difference, now I know it is a lot more than that: traditions, food, celebrations..."
"In a job interview you get a head start if you know about other cultures."