Images Policy

How and why Photos/Videos are used in School

The use of digital photographs/video images plays an important part in our learning activities. Pupils and members of staff may use digital cameras to record evidence of school activities. These images may then be used in presentations in subsequent lessons, used on displays around the school or stored in evidence portfolios for assessment. Images may also be used to celebrate success, through their publication in newsletters, on the school website/blogs or on our social media accounts. Where possible, we will protect photographs on our website by disabling the right-click / copy & paste functions.

On occasions, images and videos of pupils may also be shared with trusted third parties for teacher training, sharing good practice or educational publications, eg. The Education Achievement Service, Welsh Government, Estyn, Press / Public Media organisations. Before sharing images outside of St. Julian’s Primary School, we will notify parents and will usually require written or verbal consent.

When using digital images, staff should inform and educate pupils about the risks associated with the taking, use, sharing, publication and distribution of images. In particular they should recognise the risks attached to publishing their own images on the internet eg on social networking sites. (Strand 1 Digital Competence Framework)
Photographic images of individuals and small groups can be defined as personal data and therefore fall within the scope of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
- Where an individual is the focus of an image the image is likely to be personal data. Examples include:

-photographs of individuals that are stored with personal details, for example, for identity passes

-photographs of staff or students published on notice boards along with some biographical details

-individual images published in a newsletter

Where individuals are incidentally included in an image or are not the focus, the image is unlikely to contain personal data. Examples include:

-where people are incidentally included in an image or are not the focus, for example at a busy open day, the image is unlikely to contain personal data

In accordance with guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office, parents / carers are welcome to take videos and digital images of their OWN children at school events for their own personal use (as such use in not covered by the Data Protection Act). To respect everyone’s privacy and in some cases protection, these images should not be published / made publicly available on social networking sites, nor should parents / carers comment on any activities involving other students / pupils in the digital / video images. At school events, the Headteacher/Deputy Headteacher will emphasise that photographs/video footage should only be taken of parents’ own child(ren).
Staff and volunteers are allowed to take digital photographs / video images to support educational aims, but must follow school policies concerning the sharing, distribution and publication of those images. Those images should only be taken on school equipment. Staff should avoid using their own personal devices for such purposes. Where images are for an external agency, a release form should be completed by the parents/carers of any pupils who appear in the image/video.
Care should be taken when taking digital / video images that pupils are appropriately dressed and are not participating in activities that might bring the individuals or the school into disrepute.
Pupils must not take, use, share, publish or distribute images of others without their permission
Photographs published on the website, or elsewhere that include pupils will be selected carefully and will comply with good-practice guidance on the use of such images.
Pupils’ full names should not be used anywhere on a website or blog, particularly in association with photographs.
Parents may write to the school to inform us if they wish for their child not to be photographed/images of their child not to be published.
Parents / pupils may use the ‘contact us’ form on the school website to request that any images of them/their children are taken down.

Photographs/Videos taken at school events

Photographs and video footage are often taken at school events. School concerts may be filmed and distributed to parents on DVDs. In accordance with guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office, parents / carers are welcome to take videos and digital images of their children at school events for their own personal use (as such use in not covered by the Data Protection Act). To respect everyone’s privacy and in some cases protection, these images should not be published / made publicly available on social networking sites, nor should parents / carers comment on any activities involving other pupils in the images/videos.

How Images are stored (also see ‘More Information’ section below)

Digital Photographs/Video files are stored on our server within our secure network or on password-protected devices. At times, it may be necessary to store images on third party servers eg. Google Drive (to share them between our devices or to publish them to our website). Any images / video files stored on a third party server will be password protected, unless embedded into our website.

What to do if you would like a photograph/video removed from our website/social media feed

If a photo/video has been electronically published and you/your child would like the photo/video removed, contact the school office or simply go to: www.stjuliansprimary.com/removeimage and complete the Image/Video Removal Request form.

The school will comply with the Data Protection Act and will not take, use or publish images of pupils if their parents / carers express their wish for their child not to be photographed. We will also ensure that when images are published, pupils’ full names are not published alongside the photograph. (This may not be the case if children’s photographs are published in the newspaper).

What to do if you do not want photographs and videos of your child published

All parents/carers have the right to request that their child is not included in photographs and video footage taken by St. Julian’s Primary School. A copy of our images policy (this policy) is available on our school website and upon request from the school office. If parents/carers do not wish to give their consent for their child’s photograph to be used in any of the ways outlined in this policy, they must write to the Head Teacher immediately to express this. If no such letter is received, it will be assumed that parents/carers give their permission to St. Julian’s Primary School, to take and use photographs/video footage of their child, in accordance with this policy. The Head teacher/Leader of 21st Century Learning will inform all staff of the children who should not be photographed/videoed.

More Information on How Images/Videos are used at St. Julian’s Primary School

Displays

There are a number of display boards in the classrooms and corridors of St. Julian’s Primary School, which are used to engage and stimulate pupils as well as celebrating their achievements. At times, teachers may include photographs of pupils, either individually or as a group, on a display board. When the display is taken down, photographs will either be given to the pupil(s) who appear in them, destroyed, or kept for evidence/portfolios (See ‘Evidence/Portfolios’ below).

Screens around the School

There are television screens in each entrance of the school. We use these screens to display photographs or video clips of pupils’ work or activities we’ve been involved with.

Evidence/Portfolios

It is a requirement for all schools to keep evidence of work/activities. Evidence will sometimes take the form of photographs and video clips. These may be stored in portfolio books, teacher evidence files, in the school’s prospectus or on a secure network. The portfolios/evidence files may then be shown to visitors of the school, such as; inspectors, other teachers, advisory teachers, prospective pupils and their families. When portfolios are finished with, photographs will either be given to the pupil(s) who appear in them or will be destroyed.

School Photographs

The school recruits a trusted photography company who take photographs of the children (usually during the Autumn Term). Parents will be informed of the cost of these, and there is no obligation to purchase. A sample photograph of each child is sent out to parents before they decide to purchase a print. Copies of all the photographs are also sent to the school electronically and added to individual records on our secure database, which is only accessible by school admin staff.

Assessment and Evaluation

At times, we may need to use video footage for the assessment and evaluation of pupils’ learning, such as; oracy assessment, P.E. assessment, Music Assessment etc. Footage will be stored on our secure school network on a drive, which is accessible only by school staff. These video clips may be shown to inspectors, other teachers, pupils or teacher advisors etc.

Website

Our website has a number of uses, such as informing and updating parents/pupils/the public of our latest news, promoting the school, showcasing our achievements and also allowing pupils to continue their learning outside of school by providing a virtual learning platform. We may wish to use photographs which we’ve taken during school events/activities on our website to show others what we get up to at St. Julian’s Primary School. Where photographs of pupils are displayed on our website, we will never write the child’s full name next to the picture. We have also disabled the ‘copy & paste’ feature on our website, so others cannot easily copy and paste pictures from our site. We also often upload photo galleries from various events, for children and parents to browse through.

Social Media / Class Dojo

We use social media platforms to keep parents up-to-date with events and news from the school. Our posts will often include images of pupils (adhering to guidance set out above). Social media platforms we currently use are: Vimeo, YouTube, Twitter, ClassDojo

DVDs

The school produces DVDs of concerts and special events, which parents can then purchase.

Video Conferencing and Live Streaming

Some special events are live-streamed via the School Website using the ‘Live Stream’ or Google ‘Hangouts on Air’ service, enabling parents and relatives to join in with our celebrations.

If you have any questions about this policy, please contact our Head of 21st Century Learning using our online www.stjuliansprimary.com/contact-us

Please also see our ‘Privacy Notice’ for more information.