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Safeguarding....or A Step Too Far


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Have just read This

 

 

A school has not only banned nativity photos but blacks out each Childs eyes (&most of their faces) in their year books.

 

A bold move for this headteacher but interesting to see that her parents disagree...maybe common sense is still alive

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I'd rather they just didn't put photos in the year book if they're going to make them look so dreadful It's so sad - I love being able to look at photos and footage of my boys in the various school plays throughout their primary school years.

And when so much of our evidence of what children are doing whilst at preschool is photographic, it really is very sad to go this far.

Sam

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do you think that the yearbooks they talk of are learning journals? as it only mentions the 4 year olds that this has happened to. We try to take photos of children singly but will sometimes crop shots or if necessary black out eyes if these items are being passed on to other settings. public events however are public and therefore you will never be able to stop ( nor would i want to)parents/relatives taking photos.

suspect this might be the press trying to beef this problem up a bit!

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I'm not for cropping the eyes out of each little angel so long as the parents all agree to have their child's pictures made available, but what I really hate is sixty sets of parents and sundry grandparents, etc (maybe even the community perv), flashing away and blocking everyone else's views of the show. IMHO cameras SHOULD be banned from the show and a video of the show made to either be sold to raise funds for the school, or issued for free only to school families.

 

Rant over,

 

Honey

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suspect this might be the press trying to beef this problem up a bit!

This is the Daily Mail, after all!

 

The photo in the report has had the eyes blacked out by hand with a thick black marker - that doesn't suggest to me that all the photos in the year book have been doctored in this way during the printing process. Either that, or the head teacher has some poor teaching assistant working hard with the black marker on each printed copy of the year book.

 

I wonder if when the full story comes out there will be a nugget of truth in it that has been blown up out of all proportion. I seem to remember a similar story a few years back when a setting had inadvertently included a photograph of a child whose parents had not given permission for their child to be photographed. Maybe this is what has happened here.

 

If not and every single word of the article is true then I think someone has perhaps taken their responsibilities too far.

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In my daughter's school last year, the HT asked if anyone objected to filming or photographs of the Christmas play. He said if one parent refused, he couldn't let anyone else do it.

 

A mum next to me wanted to protest against the use of cameras, but the woman who was sitting next to her (a relative, I think) told her not to be so "over protective" and pointed out that if she refused, she wouldn't have any pictures of her child in the play either.

 

She did relent, but not without moaning all the way through the play.

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I taught abroad a few years ago and it was so refreshing not to have issues like this in school. We celebrated Teachers Day, Childrens Day and plays etc and all parents had cameras and video cameras. I must admit at first when parents were asking me if they could take a photo of me and their child I was slightly embarrassed (and probably worrying if I was allowed!) however I embraced it as it was their culture and they thought highly of teachers and wanted to celebrate this.

 

I love looking at photographs from when I was in the school shows and my embarrassing haircuts in my old yearbooks. I think it's sad that times have changed :o

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We always start our concerts etc with a general announcement about "if anyone objects..." and no one ever does although every year I think I should really remember to ask beforehand in case people feel embarrassed about saying so in front of everyone else! One day I'll remember!

 

My own children's school started a "child protection" argument a few years ago about parents not taking pictures in concerts, etc. I have to say it didn't chime with anything I was reading so I challenged it after ringing the LEA, who told me they had issued no such advice as the school was claiming. The school then switched to a health and safety argument due to too many people jostling for position etc, which I could see the point of but it didn't explain why we couldn't take photos at the end. Then it emerged the school planned to record the shows and sell DVDs of them to us all. Suddenly all become clear - it was a way to make money out of us!

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The photo in the report has had the eyes blacked out by hand with a thick black marker - that doesn't suggest to me that all the photos in the year book have been doctored in this way during the printing process. Either that, or the head teacher has some poor teaching assistant working hard with the black marker on each printed copy of the year book.

 

"Photographs of classroom activities were enclosed, but teachers had blacked out the eyes of all children other than the parents’ own. In effect, each parent got a customised yearbook."

 

This paragraph to me suggests that she does indeed have some poor teacher or TA doing exactly that! Imagine, one wrong move with the marker pen and you'd have to do the whole thing again. I'd be creeped out if I got this from a school, in fact I would seriously consider removing my child from the school since I don't think that sort of attitude from the head suggests that the school is a particularly happy place where my child would be learning the issues around 'safe risks' and all the other things that are so important.

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We always start our concerts etc with a general announcement about "if anyone objects..." and no one ever does although every year I think I should really remember to ask beforehand in case people feel embarrassed about saying so in front of everyone else! One day I'll remember!

 

I put it in the the letter with the times etc. I also take the opportunity to remind about not putting the photo's on social networking site, respecting others children's privacy etc. Still go through it all again on day of show/concert.

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I always worry about the message the blacking out gives to the children and their self esteem, not being worthy etc.. how do they feel looking at pictures of their friends with blacked out eyes etc.. is it the sort of message we want to give to children...

My thought is better to have no picture than one which has been gratified

 

Inge

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I would certainly be tempted to state that if there was only one family who were unhappy about photos of their child then maybe they could wear the outfit that doesn't show their face!

 

Failing that if there is a strong argument, why should everyone else miss out for one family?

 

It's a difficult one - not sure whether I should be asking for permission before the show? Any thoughts or is athat a bigger can of worms?

 

Spiral.

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We do send photos home in our version of learning journeys and we name other children in our observations too. If we had a parent who had reasons for not wanting their child identified or linked to the setting (as we have in the past) we would do something a bit different then but otherwise we have made this decision as it makes the story of the child's learning more complete and encourages conversation at home I feel.

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we too had other children in learning journeys, often one picture would be relevant for 3 or more books.. we didn't name the pictures, and parents had given permission. It is all part of their life at preschool. they did not play on their own all the time.. but made friends and we felt it important this was included in their books.. most of the pictures were printed on plain paper and small/ not best quality anyway, copying them onto PC would be time consuming and quality would be poor.

 

We ensured anyone who did not give permission we ensured were not in any of the pictures and they had only themselves in own book... or sometimes we could no take nay pictures of a child and that decision was respected...

 

I used to check the camera every day and delete all the pictures where these children may have inadvertently been in the background. it was usually very easy to do..

 

as to shows, yes we did ask, and usually found that the parents who were not happy either did not come or kept child with them..

 

 

Inge

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