Photographer visits Island Time students

Carsten Schael is an award winning German photographer and is president of Hong Kong’s photographic society . He came to Island School to talk to the year 7 Island Time photography group, as well as some year 10 students who are studying lens-based media GCSE. He talked to us about his inspirations, while showing us a slide show of his photography work. He explained the meaning behind each picture and gave us some helpful advice and useful tips.

Carsten told us a bit about his work and how important it is to make a picture send a message across to people. He works with many people but mostly takes pictures for magazines, journals and other articles. After taking a photo he edits it to make the photo look better and give it more feel. Sometimes, he merges the photos together so that he can capture a lot of activity.

In Island Time we have been taking pictures that reflect our cultural identity. We have been studying the viewpoint and composition of our photos and the ones we will be taking. The Island Time photography group have been using Carsten’s ideas and tips to make our photos look good. The photos that we have been taking over holidays are going to be displayed in our Island Time exhibition.

Please see more details...here

Kaela-Mei Townson and Disha Shetty 7W

Island Time

Many of the Island Time teachers arrived at school feeling a little bit anxious on Tuesday of this week. We knew that all the display boards were up and ready and that we had the all clear to take over the school hall for the day. What troubled us was the unusual sensation of not really knowing what we had to display. You see the unit on Cultural Identity was new to Island School. For the first time we had asked students to reflect on the following questions..... ‘What is it that forms my identity?’, ‘How can I express ideas to do with cultural identity through a range of media?’ and ‘What does it mean to be a Third Culture Kid?’

Within the unit we also asked whether there is such a thing as a National Identity. We questioned whether it is ever right to stereotype people and reflected on how historical events and geographical background form who we are.

The students rose to the challenge admirably and produced some incredible work. As usually happens, the unforeseen was the most valuable part of the final exhibition. That is the way in which teachers, students and parents came together to celebrate all the achievements of year 7 in the final exhibition.

Those that were there were treated to drama performances, poetry readings, examples of film making, photographs and some in depth social science research. Not only did the students demonstrate advanced abilities in literacy, confidence using new media technology and creativity in the visual and performing arts, but they also had the chance to develop a range of generic skills. Well done year 7!!!

All our year 7 students had been involved in a new project to do with Cultural Identity in Island Time. They had opted to express their ideas in the medium of either poetry, photography, drama, film, fiction writing or through human science research methods.

Of course we needn’t have worried at all. By the time the first parents arrived at around 10.30am the hall had been transformed and our year 7 students had shown themselves to be the highly motivated, independent and creative learners they are.

If you are a year 7 parent please look out for an e-newsletter that will be exclusively about Island Time and will feature some of the best work from our year 7 students. This will be distributed in the near future. Also we intend to provide a short briefing on the aims and objectives of the course at 4.00pm on the afternoon of the Year 7 parents’ consultation afternoon on 28th February.

Please see some photographs of the exhibition event...here

Gareth Stevens - Vice Principal