Three students from the Samuel Whitbread Academy in Shefford have won the ‘Most Creative’ category’ in the prestigious Bank of England’s schools film competition.

The trio of talented Year 10 GCSE Film Studies students, Rosie Wilson, Alena Mahoney and Phoebe Gallant triumphed in the banking institution’s ‘Bank, Camera, Action’ event.

They responded to the brief set by the bank which was to create a film with a theme of ‘A day in the life of the new Fiver’.

Their entry was a creative interpretation featuring a mixture of live action and stills.

Samuel Whitbread’s head of film studies, Carl Tonking, said: “I was so impressed with the girls’ dedication and enthusiasm for the project.

“To win with more than 100 schools entering is an incredible achievement and a great reminder of how rewarding the creative arts such as film can be for young people.

“It’s an absolute credit to the students’ efforts they managed to walk away as winners in this category.

“The original intention for entering was to give our Year 10 GSCE film students a chance to make a film and develop their skills – but such was their commitment and enthusiasm for the project that they ended up spending many hours on it with an eye on the prize.”

Rosie added: “It was fun to learn how to animate and create a film and we can now use the skills we have learnt in our coursework,” with colleague Alena explaining: “We put so much time and effort in. We stayed after school about six times and even carried the big yellow sign on the bus to Bedford for the river shots!”

Delighted Phoebe said: “When we were told we had won the ‘most creative’ prize it was amazing to know our hard work had paid off.”

The three students, who are all excelling in film studies with consistently high grades, won a £25 gift voucher each, with the school receiving £600 towards video equipment.

The girls’ video and other entries can be viewed here http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/competitions/bankcameraaction.aspx.