Pupil puts Gigha in the frame with photography competition win
A Gigha Primary School pupil is putting his island on the map after winning a national built environment photography competition.
Six-year-old Sydney Vipurs, who is in P2, won the primary-age category of the Scottish Civic Trust My Place Photography Competition 2024.
Hundreds of children aged four to 18 entered the annual Scotland-wide contest that encourages young people to use photography to explore the buildings, architecture and archaeology in the places they live.
The theme for the 2024 competition, which was supported by Jessops, was ‘My Community’.
Sydney’s winning shot, entitled ‘Gigha Past and Present’, shows the island’s ‘Bodach and Cailleach’ standing stones in front of one of its four ‘Dancing Ladies’ wind turbines.
The youngster enjoyed a “fantastic day out” to The Trades Hall, Glasgow, on Wednesday March 13, where he was presented with a new digital camera to allow him to keep up his photography after the winning and commended entries were announced.
Sydney’s mum Alexandra Vipurs, who is also Gigha Primary School’s head teacher, said: “Syd finds some aspects of formal learning challenging at times. However, channelling his creativity through the medium of photography has allowed him to experience success in an alternative way, by capturing his ideas through a lens.
“As a head teacher, I feel it is vital we find ways to allow all pupils to recognise the ways in which they learn and achieve best.”
This is not the first time Sydney’s creativity has been recognised during his short school career.
In March last year, his design was one of the winning entries in Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Pocket Garden Competition and, in September, artwork he created alongside fellow Gigha pupil Brogan Bannatyne won the Campbeltown Courier’s 150th anniversary logo competition.
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