This project involved work with four primary schools in Lambeth:
Streatham Wells, Sunny Hill, Granton Road, and Allen Edwards. These
schools are very varied, but are all inner-city schools with a diverse
range of circumstances and needs represented among the pupils. One
school has a high proportion of transient families (asylum seekers
and refugees especially) and non-native English speakers; another
school has a high proportion of children with behavioural difficulties.
All the schools have pupils from disadvantaged families, and deal
every day with the problems of crime, social exclusion and poverty
in the communities they serve. But on the positive side, they also
all have a rich mixture of different cultures and races represented
among their pupils, and a strong commitment to inclusivity and equality;
and they all have enthusiastic and creative young people who are
keen to express themselves.
These one-off sessions gave Year 5 pupils in these schools the opportunity
to try photography, an expensive art form that they might not otherwise
get the chance to explore. It used portraiture to get them talking
and thinking about ideas around how people are represented in photos,
and gave them the chance to experiment using Polaroids and SLR cameras.
Zoom In volunteers then printed the photographs that the students
took during the sessions, and gave them to the schools for display.
This project was funded by South-East London Community Federation
Spring
2004
