FOLLOWING the recent occasion when celebrities flocked to a glittering national premiere of the film Shakespeare in Love, pupils in local schools have been invited to a premiere of the film in Burnley.

Free or discounted showings of some of the latest films were offered to local schools and seats have been eagerly snapped up.

Our Newspapers in Education project has linked up with Film Education and the Apollo Cinema, Burnley, to celebrate this month's National Year of Reading theme of 'Screen Reads - Books into Film.'

Sitting in the cinema during school time may seem like every would-be truant's dream, but, of course, teachers will be using events to spark off a whole range of educational projects.

And one way of linking literacy with film is to take up our challenge to become 'Young Film Reviewers of the Month,' with the chance for pupils of all ages to read their own reviews in print in our newspaper and earn cinema tickets from Apollo Cinemas, Burnley.

Schools who attended the sponsored showings of the films Madeline or Moses, Prince of Egypt, or the Shakespeare film, have received an invitation to submit reviews by deadlines in January and February.

For more information on this project, please contact NIE co-ordinator, Rita Shaw, telephone 01254 678678, ext 255.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.