Covid-19 FAQ

Dear Students

I hope you and yours are all safe and well. As we move into Autumn and the beginning of the new academic year, many of us are concerned about what the coming weeks and months will bring. Therefore I am getting in touch to inform you about some of the measures we are taking at Central Film School to ensure both your safety and the quality of your learning experience. 

Safety First

Above all else, Central Film School must ensure that the whole of our academic community – students, staff, and tutors – are in a safe environment. As government guidance evolves so do our policies and procedures, but the core practices of maintaining good hygiene, social distancing (with mitigations where social distancing is difficult) and minimising unnecessary in-person meetings remain the key actions we can take to support a safe environment. Policies and procedure which underpin this include:

• COVID-Specific Campus Risk Assessment, with Mitigations – Any persons on the School campus must read, understand and adhere to the actions outlined in the assessment

• Outbreak Action Plan – Instructions on what to do when there are COVID cases amongst students or staff at the School or while off-site on School activities (such as film shoots)

• General Guidance on Preventing the Spread of COVID – This is aligned with government policy, amended to the specifics of Central Film School’s learning environment. It is published in the School’s VLE and promoted throughout the campus

• Specific Covid-19 Risk Assessment for Film Shoots – Developed to align with industry best-practice and government guidance, all student shoots must submit a specific Covid-19 risk assessment which is signed off by the School before productions can commence.

Practical Learning

An aspect of Central Film School’s mission is to equip students with the skills needed to enter the film industry as practitioners and our programme content reflects this. We are committed to ensuring that graduates gain the required skills while studying with us, even in these unprecedented times, and so are implementing a programme of Blended Learning across our courses. What this means in practice is:

• If a class or session can be taught online with no change in the quality of learning, then we plan on doing so. This primarily relates to large lecture-style non-practical classes

• It is our intention that, where a session needs to be taught in person, it will be. This relates to practical sessions such as film shoots, table-reads with actors, and certain seminars and workshops

• Where students and staff are onsite, hygiene and social distancing protocols will be maintained.

• This methodology ensures that the quality and recognition of your award is maintained and delivered in a safe environment

As Central Film School is a small, less complex, institution, with one campus and very small class sizes, we are confident that this mode of delivery can be implemented effectively. We resumed in-person delivery of certain modules from July and so have been able to adjust to the ‘new-normal’ and student feedback has been very positive.

I hope the above information is helpful. Of course, the situation will continue to develop and we will adjust our protocols in response to that but rest assured that we have your safety prioritised and are confident you will have a fulfilling educational experience with us this year.

Best of luck with your final preparations, email us if you have any questions at all and, most importantly, welcome to Central Film School.

Rory Curley

……

Mr Rory Curley

CEO