Helensburgh’s P7 Lockdown Leavers

What a fabulous few weeks I’ve had over the school holidays.  I reopened the doors to the Life in Focus Portraits studio as soon as I was legally allowed to do so, having been closed due to Covid 19.

The past few months have been so challenging for everyone, but especially on our children, not seeing their friends, missing out on school and all of their sports clubs, dance classes…well everything really.  And whilst it’s been a blessing to be able to spend more time at home as a family, there’s no doubt that we are all eager to get back to some sort of “normal”.

Undoubtedly those most effected have been the children who are transitioning from one stage of their schooling to the next…whether that’s moving on from nursery to “big school” or leaving school to go into the big wide world of work!

In the middle of that were our P7 leavers, often overlooked the transition from the small “secure” environment of Primary school where everyone knows everyone, into senior school can be daunting at the very best of times.  It’s a funny age when children are beginning to become more self conscious and their confidence can often take a battering, but they still have a fabulous sense of fun to be tapped into.

I wanted to give the children of Helensburgh something tangible that they could look back on in years to come.  There was no way anyone could make up for everything they have missed out on; their leavers prom, P7 residential, those last days with their friends etc, but I could use my skills to do something small but meaningful for them….a class portrait with a difference.

I was delighted when I had children signed up from all of the Helensburgh primary schools: Colgrain Primary School, St Joseph’s Primary School, Hermitage Primary School, John Logie Baird Primary School and Rhu Primary School. 

I also had some children from Cardross Primary School and Kilcreggan Primary School, but unfortunately not enough to be able to create a class portrait for them.

I had over 100 local primary school leavers come into the studio for their “In the box” portraits over the course of 4 weeks.  We had great fun and even those children who were a little shy soon relaxed and we captured some great fun photos.   Everyone was really good at observing the current covid 19 guidelines and making sure we were all keeping safe.

It was then time for me to set to work and use my photoshop editing skills to create the montages for each school.  All of the kids had done a variety of poses in the box, we had dancers, gymnasts and karate kids!  So the resulting images  meant that these class photos are  definitely something unique and different to the norm.

As you can see from the testimonials above, the feedback from the parents and children has been phenomenal and I’m excited to now be offering the “In the Box” portraits as an option for my annual Back to School mini sessions.  And as the box is fully portable I can set up on location at schools and nurseries, offering something a little different that even the shyest of children enjoy!

If you’d like me to come and chat to you about your School’s photography needs, you can find out more here or just jump in and get in touch.

If you’re a parent looking for this years Back to School sessions you can find all of the information and a link to book here.