A panel of experts and photography critics last night voted Mohammed Hashemi of St George's Catholic School in London the overall winner of the first year of Colliers Green Focus at an award ceremony at The Royal Geographical Society. The programme armed geography pupils with digital cameras and encouraged them to explore their environment through the medium of photography on field trips. Mohammed's winning picture (shown on this page) was taken in the playground of his school.
The programme was open to all UK secondary schools and helps meet National Curriculum targets for Key Stage 3 (11-14 year old) pupils. 300 children from nine schools in London, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham took part in the new environmental learning scheme. The best 45 pictures from an overall entry of over 2,000 were short listed and the final four were selected by a judging panel that included the photography critic at The Times and the Chief Executive of the Photographers' Gallery.
The 45 short listed images will now be displayed at the Photographers' Gallery in Leicester Square until 21 September. Colliers CRE's Chairman Sir John Ritblat presented iPods to the runners up and a digital camera to Mohammed. The runners up were Adam Osman & Ross Lynch – Vyners School, London, Aisha Yetunde Bakrin – Quintin Kynaston, London and Andrew Thomas – Holy Trinity Media Arts College, Birmingham. More schools across England will be involved in the next two years of the scheme. A national conference in 2010, a schools' resource book and an online learning centre will enable all schools to benefit from the programme.
Paul Vockins, Executive Director and head of Corporate Responsibility at Colliers CRE, said: "Colliers has a direct interest in the built environment, it's how we make our living. We realise that to create lasting change in how we all interact with the environment and become more sustainable, we need to start at the beginning; by helping children better understand environmental issues.
"Colliers Green Focus helps children develop this knowledge in a novel way, through the medium of photography. The knowledge developed through the programme will be captured and turned into a learning and resource pack so all schools can benefit from the work put in and the investment made."
Schools, parents and pupils can find out more about Colliers Green Focus by visiting the dedicated website below.
For more information contact our press office:
Natasha Sunderland Head of PR +44 20 7344 6641
Jacqueline Whitaker Associate Director +44 20 7344 6706