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Photographs and Videos of Children

At Cirrus Primary Academy Trust, we value celebrating children's achievements and capturing important moments in their learning journey. This guidance explains how we use photographs and videos of pupils, how we keep them safe, and how you can manage your consent preferences.

How We Use Images

1. Internal Use (Within the School Community)

Photos and videos used within the school for educational, developmental, or celebratory purposes. These are not shared publicly.

Examples include:

Learning Journals (e.g. Tapestry): Images recorded in Early Years journals, with access for parents/carers to view and contribute.
Exercise Books: Photos evidencing learning in pupils’ workbooks.
Displays: Photographs in classrooms or corridors showcasing learning.
Assemblies, Staff Training, Internal Presentations.
Annual School Photography: Professional photographers visiting for individual or class photos (available for parents to purchase).
Administrative and School Records: Stored securely for educational purposes.

2. External/Public Use (Outside the School Community)

Photos or videos shared to promote the school or trust externally.

Examples include:

School and Trust websites.
Official school social media (Instagram) accounts monitored and public. Pupil names will not appear alongside images unless specific, separate consent is given.
Newsletters, brochures, prospectuses, leaflets.
Banners, signage, or printed media.
Press and media coverage (parents will be informed where possible).
Historical archives for Trust records.
Trusted external organisations (e.g. club, workshop providers, charity or volunteer partners)

Educational Purposes

We take photos of children regularly to record achievements in school (e.g. a Reception child writing, or a child receiving a certificate in assembly). All images are stored securely on our academy network and are used for display purposes within school or as a record of evidence.

For instance, during an inspection we use images as evidence of activities taking place.

Learning folders are utilised as a record of evidence throughout the school. We use photographs and videos (if the facility is available) to evidence your child’s learning.

These images are taken for educational purposes and are processed on the basis of the public duty of our academy to educate our children; therefore consent is not required to be obtained. We may include group photographs to show a group activity. We will ask for your consent to show your child in a group setting as this means that other children will appear in the photograph in the learning folder.

Evidencing and sharing achievement & learning

We like to share what we are doing on our website and class blogs. Children love to see themselves on our website and enjoy sharing this with their family, especially other relatives. There are currently images in the learning section of our website and our class blogs showing examples of activities in school. There are also galleries of images from recent residential trips.

If we put images on our website, we have some specific rules:

To avoid identifying a pupil by name (unless for a specific reason, such as an award or recognition, and in such cases, only using a first name)
Only to show images of pupils fully clothed

Parents do have the right to withhold consent for pictures of their children to appear on the learning section of the website and class blogs, which are in the public domain.

Parents/carers have the right to have an image removed at any time. If you wish to withdraw your consent, please contact the office and they will record this and remove the photograph.

Use of photographs by third parties

On occasions we are asked to provide an image for publication beyond our website (e.g. in a newspaper). On these occasions we would allow a group situation, such as children working together in a classroom or playing outside.

We would ensure that, where a parent has specifically asked for no images to be used in the public domain, that child is not in the picture. If an image is required of one or two children together, or names are required (e.g. newspapers often request first names), we would contact the parent on that occasion to discuss this and obtain consent for the publication of the personal data. We would only ever allow first names to be used.

Photographs taken for the purposes of marketing and promotion

We refresh the photographs on our websites on a rolling five-year basis. We will use a professional photographer to take these pictures and we will let you know in advance when these photographs will be taken. We try to ensure that these photographs are reflective of all the children in the academy and inevitably some children featured may leave school less than five years after the photographs are taken.

Therefore to ensure that your consent for marketing photographs remains valid after your child leaves the academy, we extend the consent for a period of 4 years after your child has left the academy.

Trusted third parties that we work with, for example providers of educational software, may request a photograph of children for use on their own website. In this specific instance we will only use professional photographs taken for the express purpose of marketing and promotion. We will additionally contact the parents of the children in the photographs to inform them of the request and confirm that they are happy for these photographs to be used.

Keeping Your Child’s Image Safe

- Images are stored securely on the Trust’s systems with restricted access.
- We follow UK GDPR principles and ICO guidance.
- Children's names are not published with images unless separate, specific consent is obtained.
- We never use photos of children unclothed (e.g., during swimming).

Parents Taking Photographs

We allow parents and carers to take photos and videos at school events (such as sports days, concerts, productions) for personal use only. We kindly ask that any images containing other children are not shared on social media to respect everyone’s privacy.

Consent and Managing Your Preferences

- Consent is requested separately for Internal and External use.
- Consent lasts while your child attends a Cirrus Primary Academy Trust school and continues for four years after they leave.
- You can withdraw or change your consent at any time by contacting your school office in writing. This change will apply going forward and not to materials already published.
- If images are requested by third parties (e.g., newspapers or trusted partners) for named use or prominent publication, we will contact you separately for additional consent before proceeding.