End of School Year Summary | May 2025
As summer arrives, the Laos Children’s Workshop has quieted down with schools now closed for the long holiday. However, not all our students have homes to return to ... or they simply prefer the workshop to working on the farm. That includes four of my own students, who continue to enjoy the facilities here, spending time on the computers, watching YouTube Videos, playing games, and relaxing in a far more comfortable environment than their dormitories. For them, the workshop remains open 12 hours a day, offering a safe and supportive space to retreat to.
It’s been a busy and sometimes challenging nine months, and as the academic year closes, this is a summary of our activities from September 2024 through May 2025
Kicking Off with Creativity
The year began with a bang as our students jumped straight into the Best Film Competition, which I had brought forward by a month to allow for additional projects later in the year. As always, it was a huge success, and Rex Bates paid us a flying visit just in time to present the awards to the winners of the competition. He also gave us a much-needed "Steady Cam" cage, which has been used regularly ever since to produce some excellent jungle footage and action film.
At this point, I would like to note that Rex has recently undergone surgery for a Knee replacement and is now recovering before having the other knee replaced. I wish you a speedy recovery, Rex, and hope that you will soon be fit enough to visit us once again.
Artificial Intelligence.
October brought a bold new challenge—Artificial Intelligence. Though it was a completely new subject, I felt it was vital that students begin to understand the fast-evolving world of A.I.
Despite using only free software with limited capabilities, the students rose to the challenge. They created short videos and began using ChatGPT to assist with English translations for subtitles in their film projects, as well as generating prompts to make their movies. It was an extremely difficult subject to learn, but I give full credit to the boys, not just for sticking with it but actually managing to create some interesting A.I videos despite the numerous problems they had to overcome along the way. NOTE: See the Newsletter titled "Learning AI and New computers"
Sharpening Photography Skills
After the Christmas holiday break, we revisited Photography … a subject that the Older students have not touched for a couple of years, and, for the younger students, it was their first formal instruction. The students already loved using our excellent digital cameras … but always in automatic mode, pointing and firing off a hundred shots in the hope of getting 1 good photograph. However, this time, I taught them how to use the equipment in Manual Mode, which meant learning how to focus shots, adjust aperture and shutter speed, and most importantly ... how to observe and view their subject.
Blinkered as they are, this is a great way to get them to open their eyes and see the world around them from a whole different perspective, and this attention to detail resulted in some very good photographs and a deeper appreciation for the craft.
In February Birney Imes visited the Workshop while passing through Luangprabang and most generously donated sufficient funds to buy three new computers fitted with top-of-the-range graphics cards and a new overhead projector to replace our old machine. This was an excellent addition to the workshop, and those computers are working brilliantly. Thanks once again Birney.
Photos & Graphic Design
Following on from photography, we transitioned into Graphic Design. Using Microsoft Publisher, the students learned how to create layouts and produce a professional-looking advertising magazine.
as an example
The final project was especially fun … an 8-page fashion magazine showcasing children's clothing, photographed entirely by the boys. This was a bit of a challenge as many of the waifs and strays at the Orphanage are beyond dirty and their clothes are in tatters, but there are those with a sense of pride, who scrubbed up well, and some very good photos were taken for use in their magazine.
Combining A.I. with Filmmaking
To bring everything full circle, we wrapped up with a project that combined A.I. and traditional video filming. The Project was to create a short film featuring at least one AI-generated special effect, and the creativity of the students was impressive.
16-year-old On-Line created a compelling ghost film with excellent character continuity in his A.I. effects.
16-year-old Tu Lee produced a survival-themed jungle film, including a striking scene of a wolf caught in a trap, realistically rendered with A.I. These boys see things completely differently to us and are very frightened of Ghosts and consequently the storyline is confusing to say the least, but that said, the cinematography in the Jungle is good and the jungle craft, excellent.
Our combined End of Term and Graduation party for Lee Lao was a small affair, as three of the younger students who had finished their examinations the week before had already gone back to their villages.
However, with lots of fun games, good prizes, and excellent food, it turned into a most enjoyable night. With the boys very relaxed, talkative, and in top form, it was a pleasure to be among them.
Exams and What’s Next
While the school year has ended for most, three of my students are still preparing for exams in the coming weeks—two aiming for high school placement, while my only graduate this year is sitting his university entrance exams, and I wish them all the very Best of Luck!
Looking ahead to September, we’ll welcome four new 13/14 year-old students to fill the spaces left by graduates and others who left during the year. This will ensure that we are back to our maximum capacity of 12 students and all the computers are in full use. As always, the older students will mentor the newcomers, helping them gain the skills and confidence to build a brighter future.
Thank you for following our journey and supporting the Laos Children’s Workshop. It’s been a year of Creativity and Learning, and I am very much looking forward to next term, which starts in September.
In the meantime, on behalf of the students and myself, we wish you the very best of luck for the rest of the year and hope that some of you will make it over to Luangprabang in the not-too-distant future.