So I got a video message from my son's school last week in support of all the parents that are homeschooling in these difficult times. I was so moved that I hopped straight on to the Facebook parent/carers support group and shared the video. And the homeschoolers loved it.
View the video here on St Anne's RC twitter account.
Then I had an idea to do a video reply to say thank you to the staff.
A bit of background: St Annes RC is a failing school, its been massively underfunded and has 9 different headteachers in 10 years! It's known as Stockport’s forgotten school, (which is a shame as it's very well placed in a very nice area). I didn't know all this when I enrolled my child but we were 2 streets out the catchment area for the nearest ‘outstanding’ school, which ironically has also just been downgraded. A new Head started last September when my child did. This new Head had decamped his family from Cambridge and states (to the great relief of the parents) that ‘he’s in it for the long haul and is determined to turn things around’. And in his short time as head, he has already made massive improvements with the full support of many of the parents. So we were delighted to get a wonderful video message from him thanking us for our efforts in educating our kids from home.
So I pitched my idea to the Facebook group parents/carers asking if anyone would like to do a reply using the words "Thank you from all the homeschoolers your video gave us the boost we needed". I thought in for a penny in for a pound, thinking the worst that could happen is no one will show any interested and I've lost nothing. However, within the day I had enough people that were up-for-it. There were a few that wanted to join in but they knew their kids would kill them (bloody self-conscious teenagers spoiling all the fun ). So I divvied the words out and I chose the word 'HOMESCHOOLERS' for me and my son.
Can anyone else relate to this photo of me #homeschooling my son?
BTW this is actually two separate images cloned together in #photoshop. If your #business #branding images need altering then please feel free to email me at info@octobercreative.co.uk #graphicdesign #brandidentity #brandstrategy
So the thinking behind my photo is that there's a lot of chat on social media about there being a whole generation of kids that would have been taught by parents just not geared up to educate them and turn to the bottle, as we are all drinking more in lockdown. My picture is meant to be satirical but I was unsure if people would get my sense of humour. I popped on Facebook for feedback and everyone thought it was hilarious because of the look on my son's face. I do hope he gets a 10 out of 10 for acting from his drama teacher. Sadly only one person noticed that I'm wearing his school tie around my head.
As there are only two of us in our household we had to take the pictures separately. I then used my photoshop skills to clone them seamlessly together, impressing my son as I showed him how it was done. I then popped my picture onto the FB group to encourage others to post theirs. And it did! Pictures have started to drip through and I felt so giddy and excited. As a creative, I prefer to work to a deadline so I've asked for images to be in this weekend so I can compile the video reply all and send it to the head on Monday morning. And yes, it is a bit like herding cats but that's just project management for you and I was just loving the opportunity to be creative again now that all my work has dropped off as well as seeing other peoples creativity in full action. Homeschooling a 12-year-old boy who would rather be gaming all-day is very difficult so I've had to morph into a strict Victorian teacher to keep my son's education on track. But it's not all bad as I now can speak French, bake, know all about the Norman conquest and can do long multiplication again - winning!
Anyway with the video finally compleated at 3 am, using software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, PowerPoint and KeyNotes our little thank you video was emailed to the head this morning at 9 am. And I've just had a phone call from the Headmaster, saying it moved him to tears and that he can't wait to put it on teams for the staff to see. Enjoy.
Project Tags
Companies
October Creative
- Advertising