We officially began the virtual element of our Virtually There project today with our artist Ruby Wallis and it was a huge success and went down a threat with staff and children!

Our journey began before Christmas, when Ruby visited our school and introduced the children to the world of photography.  She spent the day with the children and took photographs of lots of different things that are central to the children’s lives both in school and outside of school.  The day began in the Junior Room (Junior Infants – Second Class) where Ruby took photos of each child’s hand, as an alternative way for the children to identify themselves, as opposed to always identifying ourselves from our faces.  This was then followed with a “walk-about” session that allowed each child to choose his/her favourite place around the school and Ruby took photographs of these various places.  These activities were all done again in the afternoon with the Senior Room (Third Class – Sixth Class).  Before Ruby left us, she gave the children disposable cameras for use at home.  The children then took these cameras home and took various pictures of things that are important to them around their home-place & we sent these photos back to Ruby!

So, today’s session began in the Junior Room & ended with the Senior Room, where Ruby entered the classroom via Skype.  This was a very exciting notion for our children as some of them would have had very little experience with Skype.  The children were very excited about seeing their photos also, as with the disposable cameras they had to be very careful about what they took photos off.  Today Ruby showed the children some of the various photographs they had taken.  They had to try to remember what photos they had taken and discussed the photos with Ruby.  We had many photos of the landscape (mountain ranges, rivers, farmland etc.), animals (pets), historic sites (fairy forts, place names)  and family members.

Overall, the sessions were hugely successful and were a huge learning experience for all the children in a variety of areas – ICT, Oral Language, History, Geography, Science, Gaeilge, Maths, SPHE, Arts Ed).

We’re really looking forward to our next session!