Scottish Catholic Observer

Pupils from a Catholic primary school in Glasgow are celebrating having won first prize in a prestigious film competition.

St Brigid’s Primary School, Toryglen, has won Moving Stories, a Scotland-wide film competition organised by Poppyscotland to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Scottish Poppy appeal.

James Stokes—A Gorbals Hero, produced by the primary seven classes at St Brigid’s, saw off a high level of competition from schools across Scotland and won a public vote to become the overall winner of the competition.

The five-minute film, which tells the story of Scottish Second World War Victoria Cross winner, James Stokes, joined three others online to enable the public to vote for the overall winner. During the month of public voting, which ran from April 19 to May 17, there was a staggering 4874 visits to the website.

At a recent event, pupils were presented with a plaque in recognition of their success. Principal teacher Dr Andrew Killen said the school is ‘honoured to have won the Poppyscotland film competition.’

Ian McGregor, Poppyscotland chief executive, congratulated St Brigid’s by noting that the school ‘is a very worthy winner and we offer them our warmest congratulations in producing such an imaginative and powerful film.’

All Saints Secondary School from Glasgow was one of three runners up in the competition. Each of the four finalists spent a day with a professional filmmaking team to have their films remade from their original scripts, storyboards or films, before opening to a public vote.