Port Pirie Primary School
Port Pirie West Primary School is located in the Mid North region of South Australia. With an enrolment of 315 students, the student body includes students of Aboriginal, Filipino and Romanian cultural and linguistic groups. Approximately one third of the school’s students are recognised as having special needs and over 60% of students are on school card.
PROJECT COORDINATOR: Mel Smith
ARTIST: John Hilliard
PROJECT: Literacy through Art
Aims:
The purpose of the project was to enrich and add new perspectives to the school’s existing arts curriculum, which has more recently focused on the performing arts. The project sought to develop student’s communication skills through a series of workshops focused on illustration. The project coincided with the school’s priority focus on literacy development and sought to provide opportunities for students with poor traditional literacy skills to explore more visual forms of literacy.
The Artist:
John Hilliard is an accomplished illustrator and cartoonist who trained in animation at Sydney’s Burnank Studios. His work experience includes working as an assistant animator for Hanna-Barbera Studios drawing scenes for Saturday morning cartoons ‘Scooby-doo’ and ‘The Berenstein Bears’. Over the past 10 years John has successfully conducted cartooning workshops for children of all age groups and has illustrated various posters and books. John first came into contact with the school as part of Allwrite! during the 2005 Come Out Festival. During this visit John made a huge impact on staff and students alike and it was agreed that it would be greatly beneficial to have him back again to work with students for a more intensive period.
The Process:
Prior to the commencement of the residency, each class of students worked with their teacher to prepare a class story and a structured timetable was created to ensure that each class had the same amount of time dedicated to working with the artist. The students were actively engaged as John guided them through the illustration process in a fun and accessible manner, teaching students how to tell stories through pictures. With John’s assistance, the students completed numerous rough copies and drafts of their drawings before completing their final copy. The student’s drawings will later be collated to create a set of books that will be made available in the library for student’s enjoyment for years to come.
Outcomes:
- Students demonstrated a genuine interest in their work and are very proud of their achievements
- The project generated enthusiasm amongst the students for further work in the area of illustration
- Students developed strong working relationships with the artist
- Students with special needs were able to participate in this project and experience successful outcomes
- John achieved such positive results with the students that the school seeks to engage the artists for similar projects in future
Highlights:
The real highlight of this project was the way that John interacted with the students and built their self-confidence. Teachers were amazed at the quality of the student’s completed works and this can partly be attributed to the amazing rapport that John built with the students throughout the project. John also encouraged the teachers and other school staff to 'have a go' and develop their own skills.
“I absolutely loved it when John came in and showed us how to draw cartoons. He was an inspiration to me and I can draw a lot better now… It was great because I learnt all different techniques and little tricks to help me progress in my drawings… John never said no I cannot help you. I learnt how to sketch a lot better…” Students
“The impact of this project on the students and staff was one of positive motivation that spilled over into their daily lives… We all had a hoot.” Artist
“John reached so many students who are sometimes difficult to teach with his humour and his cartoons. He made so many students happy and helped with the development of their artistic skills.” Project Coordinator
315 students were involved in this project.
