I went to my daughters Christmas play last week and the audience was informed that under no circumstances could we take video or photos of the performance due to school rules/data protection etc. I return home a quick google showed that there is no requirement under the data protection for this –
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/schools/photos.aspx

and here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336780/Parents-free-pictures-childrens-nativity-play.html

Also it seems that some of my work colleagues who send their children to different schools in the region have bee allowed to take pics.

Armed with this information i asked the headmistress this morning for some clarification, but she was unable to give a reason other than it is in the school handbook and that as she was only temporary head she could do nothing about it.

So i was wondering what your experience was? are you allowed to take photos of YOUR children at school?

We generally ask if anyone has any objections to videos/photos being taken before the performance and request that none are posted online (mercifully this means that there is no online footage of me prancing around in a furry waistcoat and velvet trousers with donkey ears 😆 ).

Private property so they can set whatever rules they like.

Sounds like bollocks to me

my youngest has been out of junior school for 3 years so I’ve no recent experience but we always took photos

It’s just like EHS – darconian enforcement is usually just a lazy way of avoiding breaking any rules, guides or just being overzealous. I was at my son’s xmas party at his nursery the other day and there were no rules there and I took plenty of pics of him with other kids.

All school policies have to go before the Governors. Contact them (normally the Chair) and express your dissatisfaction, and ask that the matter be bought up in the next full governors meeting (or which ever sub committee reviews the policy)

Or better still become a Governor yourself and help shape the direction your school…

At mu children’s school videoing/photographing school porductions is fine so long as your child or the child of a close relative is in the production/event, this allosw grandparents to take pics if they want to.

When children enroll at the school the parents are told that there is prsumed consesnt for photographs/videos to be taken under the above conditions but they can opt their child out if they have a specific concern (I gather thet athere was a case at a nearby school where a child couldn’t be identified as baing at the school incase his/her father found out where they were at school and then caused trouble 😯 )

Parent’s are asked if they want to opt their children in to appearing in professional pics (local paper, school prospectus, that sort of thing), virtually all opt in, the only ones that don’t tend to have read the form wrong)

I’m on the governing body of the school and will always agrue for the right of parents to take pictures of thier children under these sort of circumstances.

There is a rediculous amount of paranoia about this sort of thing and the more common sense that can be applied the better.

I can understand the temp Headteacher not wanting to change policies like this but I still think the policy of no photos is utterly utterly wrong.

One reason often cited is that kids subject to child protection or who are “looked after” by the local authorities shouldn’t appear in photo’s without guardian permission.

Our school allows photos & video, but that the results cannot be distributed electronically.

School governors seem rather impotent to me, the chair of governors in my son’s school has not had a child in the school (primary) for approaching 10 years, but he thinks himself an upstanding pillock pillar of the community with much to offer.

The ‘problem’ is that for better or worse we have to be aware that people who want to have contact with children inappropriately will always target schools. Now there’s considerable advise regarding recruitment policies and so on, but lots of County Authorities go for a sort of belt and braces approach (for all the right reasons) and hard working Heads and over worked and lay Governors will endorse these policies handed to them (already written) from on-high without perhaps thinking them through and realising that where appropriate taking photos is fine.

mercifully this means that there is no online footage of me prancing around in a furry waistcoat and velvet trousers with donkey ears

I would happily pay money to see this…

I don’t think it would be illegal to take pics or vids, regardless of the school policy, but it may get you thrown out of the place, along with your child being excluded from the play.

Probbly best not to, although it does seem a shame that parents can’t take pics of happy moments of their childrens’ lives, all because of knee-jerk media sensationalism about paedophiles or sumat. 🙁

A couple more reputable sources than the Daily Mail:

parent takes a photograph of their child and some friends taking part in the school Sports Day to be put in the family photo album – these images are for personal use and the Data Protection Act doesn’t apply
— http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_192998

Nativity photos not against law, says data watchdog
The regulator said photos for personal use were not covered by the Data Protection Act
Parents should be free to photograph their children in nativity plays, the Information Commissioner has said.
— http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11945081

So “Data Protection” is a bogus reason, “it’s private property and those are our rules” still stands, regardless of how stupid those rules are.

We were told to fire away and take pictures.

I took a video at my daughters nativity. Nothing was mentioned about not being allowed to. I think the phrase is assumption of permission.

I would happily pay money to see this…

😆 – I’ll remember that next time I’m a few quid short for the next new tiny bike 😉

As wombat says. We actually the the OPs experience a few years back but it’s since been reversed. Parents/guardians are now asked of they object to photos videos being taken and, if so, the children are excluded from occasions where they might be filmed or photographed.

We had the OP’s experience last year after the local authority sent a memo to the head threatening paedomageddon. Not happy, took it govs meeting and reminded head this was wrong, and put a written policy together so it wouldn’t happen again.

we were asked to sign a form saying that we were going to use the photos for personal use only but beyond that no restrictions. probably not beyond the serial paedo to lie on a form but it makes the school and governors feel happier I think.

I wonder if the school in question got fed up of parents photographing / videoing things and banned the practise to allow the nativity play to be performed without disruption? Then used data protection as an excuse?

I took photos of my Son at his nativity yesterday – I didn’t know if I should but when I saw others doing it I thought .. what the hell.
I personally dont mind other parents catching my Son in their photos. Lets face it, are these type of photos really of interest to paedos?

At my daughters nativity last night all the parents were asked if they had any objections to photos being taken. No one did so we could all take photos.

Although if anyone did object they would have had a lot of other unhappy parents around them…

Lets face it, are these type of photos really of interest to paedos?

Exactly Suthy. You’d have to be a fairly niche pervert to get turned on by children, acting badly, while dressed as wise men and an innkeeper. 🙂