NI students to have work exhibited

Northern Ireland students who topped an all-island HP Digital Imagination photography competition are to be honoured through a month-long exhibition of their work at the Department of Education.

The exhibition at Rathgael House will showcase the work of eight students, from both primary and secondary schools in Northern Ireland, who have won prizes in the HP Digital Imagination competition in 2005 and 2006.

Helping to launch the exhibition was the 2005 overall winner Jan McCullough from Regent House Grammar School whose winning picture ‘Luminous,’ reflects personal identity along with Tommy Kelly from Jordanstown School for Children with Auditory or Visual Impairments who recently won first prize in this year’s special needs category for his creative photo called ‘digital boy’.

The exhibition was opened by Alistair McDonald, Regional Manager for HP in Northern Ireland and Will Haire Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education.

“The HP Digital Imagination Competition provides a fun and creative way to introduce students to digital technology,” said Alistair.

“Photography and technology are fantastic educational tools for motivating students and inspiring their creativity and writing skills. This exhibition aims to highlight the outstanding and diverse work by students from across Northern Ireland.”

Speaking at the launch of the exhibition, Will Haire, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education said: “This exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to highlight the talents of students from across schools in Northern Ireland and the high quality of their work. We are particularly pleased that eight school children have won categories in this prestigious competition – a tremendous accolade for both students and schools involved.”

Other category winners from this year’s competition included Anna Moles, 17, from Regent House Grammar School who won second place in the discovery category for her digital photo called ‘car blur’, Sara Kelly, 9, was placed second for her colourful image of marbles and Michael Hudson, 17, who in the Discovery category picked up third place for his image: ‘digital school bus’.

Pictures on display include those from 2005 winners Katie Bowen from St Mary’s Primary School, Cushendall, Thomas Wilkinson from Friends Grammar School, Lisburn and Jodie Foster of Tor Bank School, Belfast.

The Digital Imagination competition aims to further the use of photography in homes and classrooms to inspire, delight and educate a new generation of students in a growing digital age.

The HP competition was open to over 4,200 schools on the island of Ireland. Students from primary, post primary and special needs schools had to take a picture using any type of camera under the competition themes of Discovery, Colour or Our World for primary schools; or Discovery, Identity or Diversity for post primary schools.

(SP/EF)