Film project winners for anti-smoking school campaign

10 March 2010

National anti-smoking charity, The Deborah Hutton Campaign will be commending two schools, Elizabeth Garret School (London) and Wirral Grammar School (Merseyside), for their innovative short films created as part of the charity’s national Cut Films competition, which challenges young people to make films to help discourage their peers from taking up smoking. 
 
The two winning schools’ films will be premiered as part of a special Awards Ceremony on Thursday 18th March to an invited audience in London, during which the young film makers from the school will receive an award presented by leading Film Director, Kevin MacDonald (State of Play, The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void). 
 
But the project’s real strength is in its peer to peer approach that heavily supports PSHE delivery in schools and the government’s Healthy Schools agenda, and a recent independent evaluation (available upon request) showed it proved a highly effective way to engage young people with anti-smoking messages and influenced them significantly, including those identified by the school  involved in the pilots as most difficult/disillusioned pupils with low aspirations (which we know is closely linked with increased smoking and other risk taking behaviours amongst young people)  
 
Following its incredibly successful pilot in schools, there are now plans to roll the Cut Films project more widely amongst schools and their local authorities in the Autumn.  

Cut films press release.doc

External Link: http://www.deborahhuttoncampaign.org/