MARYSIA LACHOWICZ

PENDRAGON SCHOOL

Pendragon School is a mixed secondary school with Specialist Humanities College status specialising in English, Drama and Citizenship. The pupils have a range of needs including moderate learning, speech and language difficulties and autism; some have associated emotional and behavioural difficulties. The school's aim is to make the pupils feel confident, valued and to be able to take an active role in the wider community through following the National Curriculum and by participating in a full range of activities within and outside the school. Artists-in-residence play an integral roll. Writers, drama specialists, and musicians have all been involved in projects at the school.

As photographer-in-residence, I spent 6 months observing and documenting the school, as well as team teaching on the Communications Awareness Programme. From the collection of photographs, I created a mosaic of the school logo containing over 1,000 images. This image (opposite) now greets visitors as they enter the school reception area. I've also self-published a book of the photos.

During 2009-10 I worked with pupils on creating their own photo books, set up a black/white darkroom and built pinhole cameras. The pupils have also visited local galleries and even had some of the work exhibited at the Viewfinder Gallery in Greenwich.

During 2010-11 I went back to the school to work on a local history project linked to the Geography curriculum. Pupils from across the school explored and documented the area and then created individual web pages which were displayed in the school and at assembly.

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