Mask On/Mask Off

What was your personal experience of the project in terms of successes and challenges?

Máire Hynes, Art Teacher 

The challenge of organising the photographing of a whole school, it’s staff and students, was considerable. Inevitably individuals were missed because of absence or simply because they were not available on the day. I discussed the process with the TY students who were doing the photography but then, once I felt they were organised, left them to it. I felt that they should take on the challenge and deal with any problems as they arose. The learning value of having to solve the problems as they arose was important, I thought.

What was significant for you about the project that is worth sharing?

Máire Hynes, Art Teacher 

The impact of the project was interesting as it wasn’t only about creating an art piece. It was clearly important to the school as a historical record, but the students and staff bought into it, almost all getting involved. It seemed clear that everyone acknowledged the significance of the Pandemic both as something that had to be lived with day by day and also as a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Being a whole-school project it included students, teachers, administration staff, boarding school staff, matrons, kitchen staff, cleaning staff and maintenance staff. This universal involvement had the effect of drawing everyone together and creating a sense of unity within the school.

Nancy Ryan-Jones, Student 

As a student organising and carrying out this project, I found the experience of photography exciting and new, I had only done personal photography before this and had never been given a task that would be a permanent fixture in my school such as this. We set up our station in the school foyer and went through all the classes one by one and retracing to ensure no one was missing out. TY, which is usually a very sociable year in an average time, was completely the opposite for my year because of the impact of Covid.  This project allowed me to reconnect and socialise with students in other years (under covid regulations) and made school feel a lot less stressful after months of being isolated from people who were not in your form. I also found the experience of this project very beneficial to me as I discovered a love for a new art form that I might include in my portfolio for art college once I leave school.

Alannah McAllister, Student 

I found this project to be very beneficial, and I feel it will help me in the future. A lot of organisation had to go into making it all work and to get the whole school involved. We had lists upon lists of people and we had to get them from their classes in groups of four or five. We had to make sure that uniforms were correct and eyes weren’t closed in pictures. Stools had to be changed for different heights and each day we had to set up the camera in the same position as the day before. The organisation was challenging, but it was so nice to see everyone’s faces, which we hadn’t seen in a year!