PUPILS were celebrating this week after the film they produced and starred in reached the finals of a national competition.

The 20 children from Hummersea Primary School, in Loftus, were one of six groups who reached the finals of the national Roots and Wings award scheme entered by 28 schools.

Two of the pupils had the chance to go to the awards ceremony in London on Monday.

Last year, the pupils aged between seven and 11, became involved in making a ten-minute silent film, called The Accident, after a school outing to the Tom Leonard Museum, in Skinningrove, near Loftus.

The museum, which received a £5,000 grant to make a film about the lives of ironstone miners, decided to involve the children. The result was a movie based on the Skinningrove Ironstone Mine in the 1900s.

The film premiered in July at Loftus Town Hall, along with a 30-minute film about the making of The Accident, which showed the all-child cast working with local producer Ben Moore and his team.

Headteacher Sue Thompson said: "The children are very excited. We consider ourselves to be winners to have got to the final six.

"We are now involved with another film with other local schools about the first strikes in the mines and the beginning of the unions."

The awards were launched by Curiosity and Imagination, the national network for children's hands-on learning, and funded by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

Published: 27/05/2004