"Thank you for the most amazing day when you came to our school to conduct a photography workshop. The girl’s literacy
class were totally rapt with the day and the results of their own photography.
Thank you for making the journey from Sydney.
It truly was an unforgettable day. Margaret Harrison
Cessnock Primary School, NSW
Moran School Workshops
Moran Foundation Primary School Photography Workshops.
North Sullivan is Head Tutor for The Moran Foundation’s Primary School Photography Workshops, writing the programme, engaging and training tutors and presenting 25 of the nearly 100 workshops delivered nationwide in 2008.
Three year's ago the Moran Art Foundation, a philanthropic arm of the Moran Health Care Group and the Moran family established a program of photography workshops for primary school students. The workshops are provided free of charge to primary schools throughout Australia. Each workshop lasts an entire school day and caters to approximately 30 students in years 4, 5 and 6, as well as the occasional secondary school class.
Mark Moran, the foundation's Executive Director invited North to join the team as Head Tutor and Advisor to the Foundation in early 2008. North wrote a new course programme and sourced and trained tutors. He also taught 25 of the workshops, both in Sydney and regional NSW. Other tutors include Sally Mayman, Belinda Mason, Warwick Kent, Tom Psomotragos and Amy Crouch. All are highly regarded photographers in their own right.
The course is based on the concept of Visual Storytelling. The workshops includes both interactive classroom sessions as well as the ever popular hands-on practical session with the kids let loose in the playground or local park to take photographs with a camera provided to them for the day.
In the afternoon session the children are able to print five of their favorite photos on one of the portable printers set-up in the classroom.
The programme has been extremely popular with over 1,000 applications for the 100 workshops provided annually. The programme has also proven very popular with teachers. One teacher remarked that he believed we provided the equivalent of a whole unit of syllabus in a single day.
A further 100 workshops are planned for 2009.
