Film reviewers take note. This is an accurate and succinct film synopsis given by a four-year-old after watching a five-minute animation called Little Wolf. In film terms, this is a resume of the action; in literacy terms, it demonstrates the re-telling and sequencing of a story, the use of connectives and an understanding of story structure. Nursery children may have to climb aboard their seats and turn round to find the screen but, once 'installed', their understanding of what they see is astonishing.

Starting Stories is a new resource designed to bring film and literacy together, helping teachers to explore the rich potential films such as Little Wolf have as texts, to be read and analysed by children as young as three.

Over the last 18 months, the National Film Theatre, the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, Warwick Arts Centre and the Watershed in Bristol have regularly seen seats full of talkative three to six-year-olds, as part of BFI Education's Starting Stories pilot project. Teachers have received training introducing the use of films, and children from nursery to Year 2 have been taking part in cinema sessions. Formal assessment of the impact undoubtedly has its place but being in a cinema with 60 transfixed four-year-olds, although harder to evaluate, is arguably as much of an indication of young children's affinity with and understanding of moving image texts.

Story Shorts, published by BFI Education in 2000, aimed to fill a similar role for key stage 2 teachers. A VHS compilation of five short films, accompanied by a written teacher's pack including film stills and original storyboards, provides sample lesson plans and photocopiable teaching materials for working with film to develop literacy skills. In film language, Starting Stories is the prequel, providing inspiration for teachers working at foundation stage and key stage 1.

"Film and television play a central role in children's lives and cultural understanding," Story Shorts stated. Based on this understanding, Starting Stories encourages teachers to tap into children's existing knowledge of film structure and conventions and discover a new way to watch moving images. It offers examples of literacy-based activities and shows how effective and enjoyable exploring film language can be in its own right as well as in teaching aspects of literacy.

At foundation stage, training and guidance focuses on using film texts to support the development of talk and early writing, addressing areas of learning outlined in the curriculum guidance documents. Suggested learning outcomes relating to film are mapped against the Early Learning Goals and Stepping Stones, particularly those relating to communication and language development.

As children move from foundation stage to key stage 1, Starting Stories supports National Literacy Strategy objectives for writing, mapping objectives in film learning against specific targets to be reached by the end of Reception and offering approaches for word, sentence and text level work. Teachers are provided with guidance and examples of how to use films effectively as a teaching resource in the classroom and to stimulate interest in and understanding of concepts related to print texts.

Why short films?
Short films operate as perfect whole texts for work with younger children. The five films featured on Starting Stories are all under seven minutes long. Their compact structures frequently include many of the elements that combine to produce clear narratives, well-crafted characters and structured storylines which can be discussed in filmic and literary terms. They also offer children models for their own storytelling, writing, and creative and imaginative work.

The filmmakers have all been extremely supportive in the use of their films and the finished resource includes visual and written material from them, as well as notes for teachers and creative ideas for use in the classroom.

The development of these resources has been an exciting process and the work produced by teachers and children has been of a very high standard. We hope that many more teachers across the UK will be inspired to use film in their classrooms and explore the creative potential for developing children's literacy skills.

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