Multi-award winning author, storyteller and project director Michael Kerins has initiated 47:60 Lens to Pens : Pens to Lens as part of the ‘Beyond words’ – Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2019

47:60 ‘Beyond words’ Lens to Pens has been designed to engage participants with literacy (writing) and Art (photography) while linking it to Michael’s local community and the 60th anniversary of the Auchengeich mining disaster, where 47 men died in a horrendous mining disaster.

How the initiative will work.

Within Technical, all S1 students will be encouraged to take a photo of an item with their phones as part of a piece of homework. The item should be something that has meaning to them and could be an object, place or view. Images of a person should be avoided as the photos may be put on the internet.

The Humanities department will support the pupils to complete a piece of writing 60 words in length describing the image and why it has meaning to the individual pupil.

Once both the image and writing have been created the Technical department staff will support the children to manipulate the image into a relevant software package creating a single A4 page with the image and writing on one single side.

How does it link to the local Community?

The links to the community will be to the 60th anniversary of the Auchengeich mining disaster when 47 miners lost their lives. The 60 will be marked in the number of words used in the pieces of writing and the 47 marked by the number of pupils selected to have their work put forward to Michael Kerins for inclusion in the ‘Beyond words – Scottish international storytelling festival’.

Other links and potential benefits.

There are clear educational benefits in terms of art (photography) and writing as well as learning about IT and the manipulation of images and use of different types of software packages. The initiative will also hopefully support improving links with the local community as well as giving relevance to the students learning. It is hoped that the Humanities department will also be able to encourage the involvement of the school parliament in some way, possibly with being part of the selection of the 47 final entries. There is also the possibility of linking the initiative to the renaming of the school assembly hall to the Auchengeich memorial hall and any ceremony / display being organised for this event.

The deadline for the completion of all work has NOT been set. This is a continuous opportunity to engage individuals in images particularly photography and the discipline of writing a micro narrative of either 47 or 60 words. It will of course carry on after the 2019 Scottish International Storytelling Festival has finished. A lasting legacy indeed.