Why do we use storyboards when teaching children about film-making? They seem to be regarded as essential, whatever kind of film the children are making.

They are probably used in Media Studies because they provide evidence of pre-production, even when the students are making the kind of films for which storyboards would not be used in the industry.

But they are also used in projects with younger children.
Do ten-year-olds really have enough of a conceptual understanding of film to plan it on paper and then translate that into moving images? Doesn't this just add another unnecessary stage in the planning process?

For a lot of our short film-making projects, we're abandoning storyboards. Instead, we're giving children a good grounding in film language by discussing with them examples which use framing appropriately, then they annotate their _script_s with the kinds of shots they need. We seem to be getting better work out of them, and they seem to be enjoying it more.

You might be right. I teach secondary and I have used storyboards but they do not always work. Food for thought anyway.
Dave

Teach secondary and tend to promote storyboarding to encourage forward planning, consider carefully importance of camera angles, timing, transitions etc. However practice can be demotivating if student is convinced she/he is not 'artistic'. One way around this is to encourage use of digital photography to storyboard. WJEC Film Studies (FS1 unit) accept this technique. Added benefit that student now starting to 'see' like a film maker, i.e. through a viewfinder.