FINAL REVIEW
This section is the final section of my portfolio. It will include an overview of the leadership project and assess the different aspects of the project such as the delivery, resources, outcome, feedback and communications.
Overall Skill Development:
As outlined here, I have developed several skills such as confidence, organisation, and commitment. I will now detail more aspects of leadership skills that I have obtained as part of this project.
A key skill tested by this project was creativity. This was through the brief concept, where we were told to display the 6 school ethos words through our form photography. This was a creative challenge that really made each of us think deeply about ways in which we could demonstrate this to an audience who do not necessarily know what the ethos words are. The ethos words convey the key qualities fostered within each student in Langley Grammar School, so conveying this was an intricate task. Creativity was again challenged when we had to pick a filter and then edit the images in a way looked like a polaroid.
Another skill, often overlooked in terms of leadership, is flexibility. Flexibility in broader terms is how willing you are to adjust to circumstances. Due to the nature of this project, I had to be very flexible in terms of dates to photograph the form and willingness to listen to advice if it meant I was having to go over personal deadlines. For example, sometimes, a form would not be ready for the photoshoot and this meant the photoshoot had to be cancelled and rescheduled to a later date – this meant having to adjust commitments and keep track of dates when completing this project. This skill is hence very important as it serves as the backbone for leadership and organisation.
Another less-spoken about skill is listening. The ability to listen was vital in the completion of this project – this ranged from our teacher, my partner, the form tutors and the students. We had to listen to instructions from my teacher in order to complete the project carefully and to have everything completed by a comfortable date – failing to do this was entirely our responsibility and therefore, listening was crucial in this aspect. I also had to actively listen to my partner Masval as she, very often, had excellent and innovative ideas that made our workflow a lot easier and so listening to her was integral. Listening to the form tutors and students alike was also very important as taking feedback and ideas was a key part of completing this leadership project – it also served as a way to make our work easier as sometimes teachers and students had their own ideas on how they wanted to demonstrate the word ‘caring’ through their class photographs.
Project Plan: Success or not?
This project was a success and this is due to various reasons, the main being the leadership skills we developed. In my project plan, I outlined various headings that entailed in this project. I will not detail if each of these objectives have been met.
In terms of communication and organisation, we successfully communicated with all relevant parties. This was, mainly, the form groups that we were photographing. This was done through emailing and in person speeches to the form class. Through our survey at the end, we found that our communication was taken very well. In regards to research and writing, this was also performed very well, as I was consistently finding a learning point within each photography shoot. For example, in the initial stages of photography, before we edited and finalised the images, I checked the images for blink shots – these were images that had people blinking and in this type of photography, this was not desirable and so these shots had to be omitted from the final image selections. Another aspect outlined in my project plan was innovation – this was experienced when ensuring our subjects were somehow demonstrating the word ‘caring’ through their actions or body language. It was not very hard to implement either, as many of the students were enthusiastic and genuinely caring for each other. The last aspect outlined in my project plan was health and safety. This was discussed in my Evidence section of the portfolio, however, looking at this in overall terms, me and my partner managed health and safety very well – we ensured students were taking precautionary measures with face masks due to COVID-19, as well as simply placing their personal belongings to a side where no one could possibly trip/get hurt by the objects. Another key part was moving the tables in a manner that complimented the image if we were tight on space or simply shifting the tables momentarily for the picture and then putting them back where they belonged after the session. In some cases, we took forms out and then we would ensure students wore appropriate clothing for example suitable shoes, coats, blazers and scarves.
Working with Others:
Working with others was a very important part of this project and so communication being at an eloquent level was integral. My partner, Masval, was the main person I spoke to during photography sessions and lessons, so developing a good bond with her was necessary on a professional and somewhat personal level. I would message her on Microsoft Teams, Email and other messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. I would send images of work that we did together such as the form images and evidence we both collected of each other performing the project at various stages.
I would also have to communicate with my two main teachers – Miss Stanton and Mr Mace. Miss Stanton is my photography teacher who explained what we had to do in brief terms for us to then explore options ourselves. She was always present for any questions we had in terms of completion of the award and I have communicated with her on several occasions both in person and through MS Teams/email on different situations I was confused about – below is evidence of this. I communicated with Mr Mace on many different occasions – he was the person on the council who gave us this initial project to complete. At the start of completion of Unit 2, he delivered the project brief to us in person; I then met him again for a whole day when I was shadowing the school photographer and he was accompanying me and asking various questions on my thoughts of the photography being conducted; I then communicated with him again when asking for feedback on the photography task that we all collectively completed.
When editing our images, we had to do this as an entire photography cohort – this was to ensure consistency with styling and editing. This meant interacting with groups outside my own personal team. This was a swift experience as we were all mostly on the same page in terms of completing the photography. I then communicated with my team on MS Teams to ask various questions as well as emailing them (below is some evidence of this).
In terms of communicating with students during our photography shoot we had to consider the different age groups. Younger years required more explaining than the older years, and although this wasn’t a problem, it meant we had to come up with different ways to explain – for example, in person explanations worked better for younger years whilst email explanations were just as suitable for older years. Communicating with the relevant form tutors was also important as we had to notify them when we were coming to photograph and inform them of any delays or requests.
Feedback Reflection:
The feedback we received was overall very good. The students and form teachers alike found the experience smooth and immersive. The only flaw this form in particular pointed out was that more space was required for the photograph – preferably going outside for the photograph would have been desirable. The form had no other notes to mention.
From my own experience, each session went swift – from delivery to conducting the photography and then tidying up, everything went smoothly.
Personal Thoughts:
I would do a few things differently – I would have been even more organised in terms of communication from the very start – for example, emailing each form before hand and also delivering an in-person speech for every form group. This would mean more organisation and more evidence of clear communication.
Otherwise, this project went as expected, with the exception of a few issues which me and my partner sorted out together.