Art with a camera and Adobe Photoshop

Alison Gilmore is responsible for the flourishing art department at Gadburn SEN School. She introduced a computer into the art room two years ago, and in today’s session pupils use Adobe Photoshop to manipulate photographs that they have taken with a digital stills camera.

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Teacher profile

Alison Gilmore is an art specialist and taught for 10 years at Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow before taking a break while her children were young. She then set up her own textile business. In 1996 she returned to teaching as a supply teacher and went to Gadburn School in 1998. Here she is responsible for expressive arts and works three days a week. She says she used to be a technophobe but, having introduced a computer into the art room, she now finds the technology really enabling for the pupils. 

She has created a dynamic art environment at Gadburn School, bringing in outside artists and musicians to work with the pupils and gaining funding for a wide range of arts-based projects. The school has won prestigious national awards for achievement in art – among them a BT Schools Award for its online expressive arts programme, and the Artworks Young Artists of the Year Award. One pupil’s design was selected for the cover of the 2004 Glasgow Schools Calendar. 

Gadburn School in north-east Glasgow is for pupils aged between 5 and 12 years who need additional support for learning. It’s a modern two-storey building, shared with the Community Education Offices, with a gym and bright spacious art rooms. There are currently 30 pupils, each of whom has an individual learning programme (ILP). 

The school has six computers – one in each classroom. There is currently one computer in the art room. 

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