M (11) was a participant on a FreqOUT! ‘Transitions’ course at Quintin Kynaston School in Westminster.  M has been identified as needing help managing the transition from Primary to Secondary education, and the workshop was specifically designed to assist with this process.

M is a fairly shy person who is very softly spoken.  Her class teacher at QK identified her as a pupil who would need a lot of help gaining the confidence to fully engage with the workshop.
M had previously expressed an interest in filmmaking, and had even stated that she would like to become a movie director one day.  Despite this, M was very withdrawn during the early section of the workshop, and despite prompting and tutor support was not able to make a significant contribution to group discussions.
While working in a smaller group during the creative writing stage, M was able to overcome some of her hesitancy and made a very good contribution towards the development of a story idea for the group film work.  She also displayed a very natural ability for planning camera angles and movement.  When the group began using camera and sound recording equipment M became particularly animated, volunteering herself for roles, and providing creative ideas.
At the production stage of the course it was noted by the Lead Tutor that M (and her friend W) were ‘…becoming fluent in the language of cinema - able to find shots and suggest staging quite instinctively.’
The QK class teacher remarked that M was being far more forthcoming and involved in the workshop than was usually the case.
By the time the filming stage had begun M’s personal confidence had increased to the point that she was motivated to take up a small acting part in the film – something that would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the workshop.  She was also doing a good job of leveraging herself into the role of director – coming up with very good ideas about composition, camera position and lighting. 
Despite her inherent shyness, she had also begun to find ways to become quite assertive about getting her ideas across.  In fact, it got to the point that she was doing such a good job of generating ideas and directing the production that we eventually had to encourage her to pause and allow other students to have a turn.
M had an existing interest in filmmaking that motivated her to make a particular effort to try and engage with the workshop.  Her desire to succeed at this activity motivated her to overcome her shyness within the group and her fear of being in the spotlight.  It was very satisfying to witness the extent to which M ‘grew’ during the workshop.  As well as sharpening her eye as a director, she appeared to develop some very valuable skills for finding her voice and having it recognised within the group.