On Friday July 12th an exhibition was held in Broadhembury Memorial Hall, celebrating the conclusion of the bursary project. In 2022 the Contemporary Photography Group of the Royal Photographic Society created the bursary to fund ‘A photographic project that conveys the experience of being a school student in a rural environment’ as part of the RPS Photography for All initiative.
The competition to win the bursary prize of £1500 was available to all primary and secondary schools in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and The Isle of Man which are in a settlement with a population of less than ten thousand (or which has been designated as Rural by the relevant Government Legislation). The Contemporary Group judging committee unanimously voted Broadhembury Church of England Primary School as winner in 2023. Broadhembury is a tiny village in the East Devon district of Devon, England, 5 miles north-west of Honiton. The village has a population of around 600 people and the school has about thirty pupils, being in a Federation with several other small schools.
It's great to be able to share images from the exhibition, covering the setup and the event itself. I visited Broadhembury to help with the setting up, joining Adrian Hough APRS, the Contemporary Group’s South West regional organiser, and Ken Holland FRPS, who is on the Licentiate and Contemporary distinctions panels and is also based in the South West.
The project ran through the 2023-24 school year and was led by the school with support from Adrian. The pupils quickly grasped what Contemporary Photography is about and the images are very good and say things about small rural schools far beyond what the pupils realise. You can see many of the images in an article in the July edition of our newsletter, Concept https://rps.org/media/vxrmpq2v/concept-2024-07.pdf
The exhibition was attended by the Broadhembury school pupils, teachers and parents, by the Executive Headteacher and senior staff from The Jubilee with Pebblebed Federation of Schools and by church representatives from the Diocese of Exeter. As you can see from the images a great time was had by all. The children are clearly using skills they learned during the project and the teachers report they are using photography actively in many lessons across the curriculum. A great success for Photography for All.
Oh, I must also report the scones were fabulous!
Other news on the bursary project:
https://rps.org/news/groups/contemporary/2023/july/rps-cg-photographic-bursary-2023-winner/
