Shropshire Star

WATCH: Telford in the spotlight as children make celebratory film

A creative cohort of pupils worked with groups across the county to produce a professional-standard film, celebrating all there is to love about Telford.

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Star Ben Arnold, nine, with fellow film producers Alexandra James, eight, and Ife Lucas, nine

The Year Three group at Newdale Primary School set out to make their film after finding a lack of up-to-date advertisements for the town and the area.

The 60 children were supported by filmmaker Daniel Hutchinson and Telford & Wrekin Council to create the film, and spent days together 'on location' gathering footage.

They visited the historic Ironbridge Gorge, ice skated in Telford's town centre, climbed the Wrekin and learnt about the area's heritage.

The star of the show is pupil Ben Arnold, who is given a homework task to learn about the borough and sets off on a journey of discovery with his classmates.

But every student in the group had a role to play in the production.

Watch the video here:

The project had its origins in Telford's 50th birthday celebrations, when the borough council reached out to various groups for help celebrating.

Newdale head teacher Rachel Cook said: "One of our year groups was looking at adverts, and they found the old Telford advert that people know about, and is quite old.

"They wanted to make something new and they started planning out their film.

"They thought about what the film could include to attract people to Telford.

"They storyboarded the whole thing, they worked on sequencing the film and they went out on location to film.

"The whole year group was involved in one way or another."

Watch 1980s adverts for life in Telford here:

The music for the film was done by the students at the nearby Old Park Primary and Nursery School.

Ms Cook said the film project had been well-supported by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, which invited the kids into its various sites for shooting.

And once it had wrapped, the group was treated to a red carpet showing at the Cineworld branch in Southwater.

"They were so excited to see it in the cinema, they loved it.

"We're all really proud.

"They learned a great deal from doing the project and I think the final product is really impressive."