My God this story about the class photograph is appalling!

[Needsomebloodyperspective]

Link here.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce5epgp2zdno

Parents given the option to have disabled children removed from their photograph.

Who on Gods green earth thought that was a good idea?!

All irrelevant to the question as to what the school did when it learned of the issue, if they are pleading ignorance previously.

Remember, it's always useful to turn the volume down and look at deeds not words.

@SerendipityJane what would you want to happen?

What change of schedule? There should be no changes when Ofsted comes in.

We have just had Ofsted in. They completely dictated the timetable for the two days they were in and there was a lot of schedule changes! They wanted to see one year group teach history on the first afternoon as that was a Deep Dive subject-this was a change to the schedule. They also wanted the history coordinator to talk to them at 2pm, then take them on a learning walk around the school. This meant that teacher’s class was covered by a random TA who they’d never had before, doing a subject they normally did at a completely different time. This was repeated across other subjects. They also wanted to see/hear handpicked (by them) children read at a specific time when they should have been in maths. They wanted eg a Y1 PP, Y2 EHCP, Y3 K, Y4 high ability etc.

Ofsted do not just appear and see what is going on-they completely shape what they want to happen. This can be hugely dysregulating for some children.

I’m not saying it’s a good thing for pupils with SEND to be told to stay at home, but saying that there is no change to the normal schedule simply isn’t true in my experience.

What does society want ?

I'm baffled as to how the photographer would even know who has complex needs.

Schools aren't sent the proofs any more. The link is sent directly to the parents.

From what I understand the photographic company offered the "editing out" in post-production as an optional extra , that parents could purchase.
This was driven from a demand from parents, who didn't want their children appearing in a class photo with special needs children, in case it looked like their child was in a whole special needs class when these parents showed their school photo to family and friends.

One of the children had a wheelchair and another (or the same one) wears ear defenders

Yet Barronfieldoffucks a number have done so, both before and after my post. Tempest hold quite a monopoly and schools only give them access to the pupils and supervise the collection of money. The content of the photos is nothing to do with the actual teachers or the school itself.

I'm shocked at that. I've been retired for four or five years, so things have changed then. All the (many) Ofsteds I've gone through insisted on everything as normal, and the inspectors checked against the timetables that we all had to submit.

I suppose this is the problem with deep dives.

Apologies then for my out of date assumption.

It wouldn't matter, as the photo is edited AFTER in post-production.
I suppose anyone who is in a wheelchair, has medical equipment, twisted limbs or missing limbs can be airbrushed out, if those parents had paid for that service.

Oh that’s ok then

Yeah, I feel like this HAS to be the explanation. If not, it's disgusting. But this is exactly the kind of thing the media would jump on.

Can they choose which kids get edited out? No just those with extra needs. Ridiculous to give them an option of editing out anyone

It seems strange to me that such a large company who I'm sure will be fully aware of the disability discrimination laws, would do something like this

Oh wow. I remember, in primary school in the 80s, some parents asking if the one Chinese child could be left out of one version of the class photo because he "ruined" the overall look. That was shocking even then, so I can't believe - 40 years later - there are still parents with this attitude. I hope they're ashamed of themselves.

Hope you ignored that!

We did similar in my previous school.

There was a separate ARB for children with complex needs and then the mainstream school had separate classes.

The ARB and mainstream classes rarely integrated (especially since covid), so each class would have the photos taken and then there would be a photo of everyone together.

The ARB would also have their own photos and a photo with mainstream and they were also given the choice of whether to buy the photo with the mainstream children in.

School photos are expensive and many parents will want to buy just the photo of their child’s class, rather than one with pupils from other classes in.
The parents aren’t wrong for wanting to do this.

I do not think the school is being ableist here, in fact I think they’ve tried to be inclusive but it’s backfired.

Of course if these children are usually part of the class then it’s disgusting behaviour but the article does hint at the children being in separate classes.

And Ofsted need to see that

Same here

What a system!

Surely their family and friends would know their child and know this wasn’t the case, for all it matters. Also no one is interested in your child’s school picture.

Well, a few years ago, I was told to get my DS with ASD out of school before they even took the photo. To be fair, the person that ordered this has since realised the error of their ways.

Everyone will say oh how bad is it to erase kids like this from photos - but those same people will often be happy to erase these kids from bday parties etc.

And worse, they'll be happy to let their kid bully kids with ASD. My DS had horrific bullying. Parents simply said all was fabricated. So nothing was done.

Wow what a truly appalling and disgusting school. Is she still there or have you moved her?

Thoughts...