Thanks for checking out our special issue (additionally with some latest COVID-19 information in June). We at Sparkworks hope you are safe and well.

It is this time of the year again that our students are graduating from our Walcot Foundation funded Film2Learn2£arn course. Our 19/20 Film2Learn2£arn students have surely come a long way since last autumn. We are very proud of them, and let us celebrate their great achievements together ♥

We are aware that the Class of 2020 have been facing so many difficulties due to the sudden onset of the Covid-19 pandemic having affected education, cancelled graduation ceremonies, hard-to-find job opportunities, and increasing worries due to future uncertainties. Despite all those difficulties, our 2019/20 Film2Learn2£arn students have shown incredible diligence and resilience in the past few months.

We are here to celebrate their achievement and we are determined to support them further to pursue a better future.

The Lockdown Life Series

Working remotely from their homes and independently to specially devised Briefs, our 2019/20 Film2Learn2£arn students have filmed four Lockdown Life videos away from our Lambeth Walk workshop, illustrating their life and feelings during the pandemic, flexibly experimenting special effects and animation, as well as editing on mobile.

Our tutors have been supporting our students technically and emotionally throughout these hard months, as always but with even more care. The briefs were designed with careful planning along with thoughtful suggestions and tutorials.

Some students have developed a unique personal style and are keen to explore it further, this is vividly shown in the Lockdown Life series.

The 4 montages of truthful, stylish, and uplifting works, click to view on Vimeo:

Lockdown Life 4

June 2020

Keeping up with the industry

We organised lectures and talks by industry professionals frequently, and in June, we had 4 exclusive talks delivered on Zoom attended by 15 trainees and alumni who made the most of the speakers generous Q&A time after their talk.

Those included:

Mark Anand: TV Director and Founder of Blueprint Partners  

Emmanuel Addo: Freelance TV Producer/Director 

Antonio Milo, Founder, Director and Animator at Super Blimp

Shamara Adams, Producer/Director at Memrise and also in Music Videos

Graduation and Accreditation

Although a physical ceremony is not currently possible (we look forward to that early this Autumn), we have arranged a special Zoom session with an amazing young music video director and producer to send positive wishes and to do an insightful Q&A with our students on their last ‘official’ day of their Film2Learn2£arn course.

The AQA accreditation is delayed due to COVID-19, but all our students’ completed work, organised by Ruth, is ready for moderation, as soon as the Centre reopens. It is expected that all our students will get their certificates by late summer/early Autumn.

From Lockdown Life 3, in response to a Film2Learn2£arn brief. Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/420343837

Exciting Forthcoming Opportunities!

Our support will not stop now when the academic year finishes – we are planning further support and activities for our students and the local community.

From Thursday 9th July, our 2019/20 Film2Learn2£arn students will be hearing from us individually to join our next ‘Remote Working Round’ course from July until December. This course is funded by an ESF and ESFA EQUIP grant administered by the Paddington Development Trust and will also be FREE.

There will also be other young adults from London Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham to be recruited.  

They are expected to be gaining paid work skills and remote job interview skills, specialist CV skills and distance working technical skills introducing the latest relevant software for CG animation, SFX, post-production. We are already supported by BECTU, BAFTA, The Third Floor, FilmFixer, and Film London Equal Access Network Scheme, and we look forward to progressing our young people further into paid Entry Level work with this programme.

Sparkworks workshop in summer 2019

We have also been awarded the latest EQUIP and PDT ‘Remote Working Grant’ in response to the challenges to entry level employment in the TV and film industries brought about by the current pandemic.

We are thrilled and ready to power on forth! 

We enjoyed our first EQUIP Zoom meeting concerning the new grant with our Grants Officer Ife Olenadye which was very productive and enjoyable. 



With thanks to the Clothworkers Company Grant we have been able to purchase additional equipment specifically to support our trainees and staff team through remote working.

We are also excited to apply for the 6th year for the Lambeth Getting Involved Grant for a special socially-distancing version of the Buzzy Bees to the Hive creative activities for children aged 4 to 14 on our local China Walk Estates. We will keep you updated 🙂

Words and Wishes from our CEO

I want you to know that your group has been absolutely amazing and inspiring and a joy to work with.

You all have talent, dedication and determination, so even in this difficult ‘climate’ we will continue supporting you all into further free training and paid entry level work opportunities. Of which there are a growing number in post-production, script writing, animation, SFX, mainly in the commercial and advertising sectors.

So please enrol on or before Thursday July 16th for the next free course, the European Social Funded free EQUIP course, which will be run every Thursday from mid-July through the autumn until mid-December 2020.

— CEO, Sylvia Edwards

About Film2Learn2£arn

Funded by the Walcot Foundation, the course provides free inclusive filmmaking skills and employment training, with paid work experience.

We started our first Film2Learn2£arn course in 2013, in response to requests from young people in our locality.

We aim to increase our young people’s general wellbeing, education, skills and employment through the arts.

Since when, we have delivered industry approved and funded film skills and employment training courses to over 100 young adults, 85% of whom have moved into paid entry level work in the industry, 5% entered higher education, 5% are in full-time other jobs or training.

We are here for Lambeth’s next generation.

We want to hear from you

If you are a film/TV professional, we’d like to invite you to do a motivational speech/lecture for our students!

If you feel like lending us a hand, any form of donation will be so helpful! (Kit donation is great too!)

If you are a prospective student, contact us now to book your free place for next year! You may have the chance to come in and discover more about the course.

If you are just interested in what we do and want to find out how to help, or to collaborate, we’d love to hear from you too!

Contact us now by emailing info@creative-sparkworks.org or ring 020 7735 9095, we want to hear from you!