Learning Jouney Diary Procedure

[Guest]

Hi Eveyone,

 

Could anyone help me with this one!!! Does anyne have a procedure for parents taking home their childs learning diary to share with the child's parent or family memebers.

 

As the learning diaries have other children in the pictures, i thought that we should have a policy or procedure which parents have to sign to say they give permission for the child picture to potential included in other learning jounals and these books will be shared with family members outside of the setting.

 

Thanks

 

Gemma

[Guest]

We only include photos of the child in the learning journey as we send them home with the child at various points and they get it keep when they leave us. If another child is in a photo we want to use, we either edit it before printing to obscure their face or cut the required bit of the photo out.

 

We do have a section on our registration forms that parents sign to say they give permission for photos to be used for things like our records / student obs / publications etc, but we don't include other children in files.

 

Maybe we are taking things too far? It's so difficult to get the balance right and keep everyone happy!!

[AnonyMouse_3735]

Our phot agreement included sharing in learning journeys etc and if they said no that child was not included in any of the pictures, if we found they were it was deleted immediately... sometimes it is hard to notice until afterwards..

 

all parents were happy and informed of this

 

.. we also included who would take the pictures, on which camera, who would print them, how they were stored how long for, how we removed them.. this was in place for ages.. we felt parents should know about any pictures taken in the setting..

 

I do not like the blurring of faces in pics..

 

I wonder about the image we are giving the children that the person or child was not important and did not deserve to be in the picture, and the children do like to look at the pictures and say thats my friend xxx or similar comments...

 

not sure if it is just me who feels the picture as a whole is important and should not be used at all if not complete..

 

Inge

[Guest]

The consent form issued by Dudley Safeguarding Children Board also included a tick box option for parents to choose whether their child's picture could appear in Learning Journeys for other children attending the setting.

 

Every Early Years setting and CC are required to get the same form completed and signed - wonder if your La have something similar?

 

Nona

[AnonyMouse_13453]

Where possible I cut other children off, or sometimes it's possible to 'pose' them so one child is facing away from the camera - a child (and we) can identify them, but family and friends couldn't. We have a child who is the subject of a safety custody with foster parents and mustn't appear in other children's pictures in case he is 'tracked down' - you just don't know who is looking at pictures once they are outside

[AnonyMouse_8282]

I strongly believe that your policy needs to reflect the area your setting may be located.

We based in a small town and with an 'everybody knows everyone' type of community - our parents sign to say they are happy for shared photos and like the reminders of who their children's friends are.

We are also fortunate that currently we have no special privacy needs and our leaning journeys are able to reflect this.

We do make sure that parents are aware not sharing group photos on social networking sites-this is something we do send constant reminders about when books go home.

[Guest]

I leave other children in as this strongly reflects the social side of childcare. I have also noticed children like to be able to say "that's so-and-so, we're best friends and we were playing x. y, z".

[AnonyMouse_8623]

I agree with not cutting out or blurring other children's faces. When I'm taking photos I sometimes ask another child to move out of the way. I then take the picture and another one of the child I asked to move. That way I can get my targeted photo and not make the second child feel bad about having to move.

 

We are from a smallish community too and parents always love to see photos of their child's friends in the learning journeys. Friendships are a huge part of childhood and parents feel it is nice to have this record.

 

We do of course have a photo agreement with parents but whenever possible we take individual photos.

[AnonyMouse_64]

I always felt it was important to take photographs of children playing in groups. Parents are often most anxious about how their child is getting on with others and whether they have any friends. If all the photos show the child by themselves parents may well wonder if they ever play with any of the others! Obviously if a parent had not signed to say they were happy for their child to appear in these or if there was another particular reason why not, then we would have accommodated this.

[AnonyMouse_12805]

Unless a parent has signed to say they do not give consent (only had one and that was a 'looked after child) then I would never think to cut another child out of a photograph. I feel it is an important part of a childs growing up and development, making friends, and as already said one of the things that most parents worry about the most. Besides my children are all in their 20's now and it's so lovely now to see their friends with them in the few (very few) photos I have of them at pre-school. How nice as well for working parents to be able to put names to faces.