While the history department at the University of Manchester has run a contest for local Key Stage Three students for several years, 2024/25 saw a big shift. Rather than asking students to produce a piece of writing, we instead asked them to work in groups to create a short documentary film on the topic of Manchester and the British Empire.
The idea of shifting towards asking them to produce a documentary film was to encourage a greater level of creativity through editing, acting, sound, animation etc. The approach also had the benefit of allowing the development of digital skills in line with the school curriculum.
After visits to local schools (Wright Robinson College, Co-op Belle Vue, St Peter’s Academy, William Hulme Grammar and Oasis Academy Media City) by Pete O’Connor and three of our history postgraduates (Sarah Cundy, Jake Gandy and Eve Pennington) we received seven great entries from three schools. Entries were judged by judged by a team made up of Peter O’Connor, Sarah Cundy and one of our former history students and professional film-maker Naomi Abel-Hirsch.
Our original plan had been for three winning entries to receive prizes but the quality and creativity on show meant it didn’t seem right that some would go home empty handed so we decided to rearrange things to organize prizes for all the honourable mentions in addition to the winners. We also invited our entrants to campus for an afternoon film festival complete with pizza and cake.