Picture This Project - October 2008

In October we were lucky enough to be offered a project on ‘Community Cohesion’ using Photography for a limited number of boys of any age and funded by the charitable organisation PICCP (Pathfinders Inspirational Croydon Community Project). PICCP had won Government funding to run the project and offered it to us and another two Croydon Catholic secondary schools free.

The project was to promote discussion about ‘community’, for the boys to think about and discuss the characteristics of all the communities that they are part of, what is good and what is not and how they would like to improve their communities.  The project ran after school one day a week. In the first few sessions the boys looked at different cameras, discussed community and their understanding of their own communities and their fears and hopes about their own environment etc.

They explored their thoughts through the medium of collage, incorporating items such as shells, sweets etc with photographs of their families, homes or school to create very individual pieces which were then photographed and printed. There was time for a little fun though!

After five weeks the project culminated in a ceremony at the Mayor’s Reception Room in Croydon Town Hall – a very impressive venue .  Families and friends of students from all three schools were invited to attend to see the photographs exhibited, have some refreshments and attend the presentation of certificates by the Deputy Mayor of Croydon in full regalia.

Many thanks to PICCP for offering us this opportunity, to Andrew Brown and Patricia Roberts from Elevating Success who organised everything, to the boys for attending and their hard work and to the teachers for their enthusiasm and patience.