Key Stage Stories
Short history films for primary classrooms. Written and fact-checked by hand, animated with AI video tools.
Season one: the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, ten films of about five minutes, each with a worksheet. keystagestories.co.uk
What did they find at Sutton Hoo?Film 3 of 10, 4 min 58 YouTube
Five of ten outOne film every Friday, finishing on 20 November, with a pause for half-term.
KS2, Years 3 to 6Scripts written to Year 4 and Year 5 statutory grammar. Free worksheet with each film.
My partScripts, fact-checking, characters, direction, edit, and the site.
ToolsGoogle Flow for AI video, After Effects, a Python checker for the script rules.
The films
Free to watch. The worksheets are free to print and copy for classroom use. I say plainly that the animation is AI-made; the scripts and the facts are not.
Still to come
- 06The Shield Wall: Alfred and Guthrum, 8789 October (aimed)
- 07The Silver Price: paying the Vikings to leave23 October
- 08Wergild: what a life was worth6 November
- 09The Confessor's Crown: the road to 106613 November
- 10The Marks They Left: Anglo-Saxon and Viking words in everyday English20 November
How a film is made
- A script written to rulesThirteen rules, from one place and one time per story to Year 4 and Year 5 grammar: sentences of 10 to 13 words, time and place at the front, modal verbs for anything uncertain. A Python checker counts them.
- A fact sheet, then reviewersDates, names and numbers go on a fact sheet first. Disputed things are hedged in the text ("the story goes that", "nobody can prove it"). The later scripts went through two rounds of independent review, one for history and one for teaching.
- Presenter and picturesTwo presenter characters speak the script word for word, made with AI video tools. Every shot is checked against the facts, because the tools tend to draw whatever object a sentence names, and they get details wrong.
- EditCuts timed to the sentences, chapter title cards and subtitles in After Effects.
- Out to where teachers lookYouTube, a one-page worksheet, a Knowledge Organiser, and a small site that tells teachers what comes next and when.
What I learned
AI is fast at pictures and weak on truth.The fact-checking is the real work.
A film has to fit inside a lesson.Five minutes is about 570 words, and every one has to earn its place.
Good rules can confuse the tool.A rule asking for rich description makes the video tool draw the objects in the sentence. I added guard text to the prompts rather than weaken the script.
Teachers want dates they can plan around.So the schedule is public, and I try not to move it.
Commission a film
I make films like these to order for museums, heritage sites and schools: written to the curriculum, checked by your own team before release, with a worksheet.
jeun13@gmail.com