CHESTER school children will be among young people going to the cinema free of charge throughout the UK during National Schools Film Week.

The festival’s goal is to support classroom teaching by providing schools with a powerful experience for their students that links directly to elements of the curriculum.

The initiative is supported by an on-line library of resources related to individual films and more generic topics – essentially an extension of the classroom.

More than 400,000 students and their teachers attended the festival in 2009 and this year the event - which features 2,800 screenings at 570 cinemas across the UK – celebrates its 15th birthday.

Nick Walker, director of National Schools Film Week, said: “We hope that teachers and students feel engaged in the festival and realise that attending a NSFW screening is far more than a nice trip to the cinema.

“We do this by giving schools added talks and on-line resources to contextualise the film; to empower teachers by giving them the opportunity to programme which films they feel tie in with school topics at their local cinema and finally to encourage students to explore new worlds by seeing films they wouldn’t ordinarily choose.”

TV and radio film critic Mark Kermode - who is one of the star names coming to this year’s Shell Chester Literature Festival in October - said: “National Schools Film Week showcases a wonderful range of international movies, from fantasy and animation to hard-hitting political dramas and insightful documentaries, which promise to capture the imagination of young people everywhere.”

Among the teachers who have praised the initiative is Adele Warner from Saltney Ferry Primary School who said: “The festival offers a range of quality films that help enhancing many skills for learning.”

Chester’s Cineworld Cinema is taking part in the initiative and will be showing the following films:

Monday, October 18 - Fantastic Mr Fox (PG); Tuesday, October 19 - The Last Airbender (PG); Wednesday, October 20 - Wall-E (U); Thursday, October 21 - Invictus (12A) which includes an introduction by Chester Chronicle editor Michael Green; Friday, October 22 - A Christmas Carol (PG).