Students at Sharnbrook Upper School heard earlier this month that Voices, their powerful one-minute film, had won first prize in Good Morning Britain’s Action! Against Bullying competition.
Much to their astonishment, presenter Charlotte Hawkins announced their victory on live television. Her visit to the school had been arranged in advance but pupils had no idea that they had actually won the national competition.
The film, which took a week to make, had a private red carpet premiere at the Odeon in London’s Leicester Square on Saturday (November 14). It will be shown in Odeon cinemas throughout the UK from tomorrow (Friday, November 20).
The Action! Against Bullying competition was launched in September with the aim of giving school pupils the chance to speak out against bullying through the medium of film.
Sharnbrook’s Anti-Bullying Ambassadors worked with the school’s media students, staff and PSHE lead co-ordinator Heather Tennent to produce the film.
Their winning entry, stills from which are pictured, above, shows masked victims of bullying taking a stand against bullies and pointing out the damage that bullying can have.
“The inspiration was our passion to turn something that has caused people a lot of pain and hurt into a positive,” said year 13 pupil Thomas Broughton, one of 26 students involved in making the film. “We wanted to get across the message of ‘don’t let their words define who you are’. Everything was done by students – the recording, the editing, the acting and the music. We have some very talented people here.
“We never imagined we would win. We thought we’d made an amazing video but we thought there would be lots of amazing ideas from other schools.”
For more details, visit www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/action-against-bullying