A DOCUMENTARY film following a North Belfast primary school as they teach philosophy to their pupils has scooped another prestigious award at the Budapest International Documentary Festival.
 
Young Plato – which follows principal Kevin McArevey alongside the pupils and staff at Holy Cross Boys' Primary School in Ardoyne as they use the teachings of philosophers in their classrooms – has had phenomenal success at film festivals across the globe picking up 14 gongs.

Commenting on the latest accolade Kevin said that the school have been blown away by its success.
 
“It is amazing to see the impact this story is having around the world, especially in places like Oman, Budapest, Iceland and Germany,” he said.
 
“Kids from Ardoyne learning philosophy from the age of four and the impact that has on them both mentally and emotionally is beautiful to see.
 
“The whole school community is represented in Young Plato and how we embarked on that was to use philosophy to promote mental health and wellbeing but also to use it as an antidote to fake news.
 
“Our kids are being taught how to think with a critical attitude, how to source and look for bias, to challenge it and we implement that throughout the school.”

Since the film’s success, Kevin has written a book called ‘Think Think Respond’ which charts the implementation of philosophy lessons to the school and which he hopes will act as an example of best practice to other schools which wish to implement the lessons.
 
“I wrote the book to set out how we came to Young Plato and the impact philosophy has had on the school.
 
“The beauty of the book is that it is using children to educate adults through framing based on the philosophical concepts of identity, change, bullying, racism and sexism.
 
“The idea of these stories is that families will take them and bring back traditional family values by discussing them during dinner time, turning off the TV and having an active philosophical discussion around the themes which brings back the art of conversation.”

Kevin said that there had also been talk of the film being nominated for an Oscar and a Bafta but as there was no financial backing to the film, that didn’t come to fruition.
 
“We are showing kids that thinking hasn’t changed in two and a half thousand years and that they are thinking like someone who was deemed to have the greatest mind on the planet.
 
“We are looking to create successful children who are wise and kind. Nothing more, nothing less."