to hoist my bosom in aghastedness at 'fun' class photos?

[Porpoise]

DS3 (8) came home last night with a "fun" class photo.

Instead of the usual serried ranks of sweet but slightly uncomfortable-looking kids, we have...

... them in groups of five, each 'artfully' arranged with some kids lying on the floor, others kneeling, others standing - all doing a thumbs up.

And they've all taken their shoes off.

The teacher is standing on her own in the middle, striking a bit of a Sandy from Grease pose.

And the whole mile-wide monstrosity is decorated round the edges with Union Jack bunting.

Anyone else had something like this done at their school? Did you actually fork out money for a print?

I only bought dd's cos it's her last year at primary. Fortunately the local paper have done a far nicer one

We have unfortunately had them for the last few years. No union jacks yet thought that must be a special touch for this year.

I have point blank refused to buy them. They are hideous and I am not paying for something I would have to hide in a drawer. Who would put these monstrosities on their wall??

I am so glad I am not alone in hating them.

I detest these too. DD came home with hers last week. Stupid poses and £13 for an unframes print which was a foot long(cheapeaest and smallest).

I didn't buy one. I wouldn't but it on the wall and it wouldn't fit in dds scrap book.

Had it been half the size and half the price i may have bought it for the scrap book.

No shoes seems to be the new thing - it is very odd and don't understand the reasoning behind it!

I am scared for my unborn child. What hellish kind of world am I bringing her/him into? Ghastly is the right word.

Would hoik bosom but bit tender.

We had them for two years, but then the school saw sense and we've gone back to the traditional type. Hu-blooming-rah!

I've bought the group photos every year of the DC and they love looking at them every now and again, especially when they come across someone, say from playgroup, who is now in their secondary school class and they couldn't remember they'd ever known each other.

i hope to god it was instagrammed for a vintage feel, else its not fun AT ALL

Unfortunately on ours they have used different scales for diffreent groups of children so some are giants and others midgets!!

We had them one year - I refused to buy them, and on the basis that we've reverted to 'traditional' photos, I think that many other parents also refused to get them. I had just sent of my cheque for this year's class photo - which is set in front of the attractive shrubs at the front of school and has the class on 3 rows, with two more sitting cross legged at the front and the teacher and TA on either side at the back. Looks very attractive and traditional - and as they'll all be swapping classes next year, it should be a nice reminder at some stage.

Do you have to have the union jack border? On ours it was a special edition for the Jubilee.

I quite like the new photo format.

HATE EM
And they're more bloody expensive too.
Huge guilt forces me to buy ever year - why every year too - totallly unecessary imo.

My children's latest class photos are in this style. I think they look dated already.

I like them . DS's school only does them in reception and year 6 though, I wouldn't buy them every year.

Ours is actually a really nice happy medium - white background, kids in two rows, but a bit more relaxed than the old-style ones, with some of them linking arms or with hands on the next kid's shoulder. They've included the TAs as well. The only downside is that that the contrast has been fiddled with a bit too much, so they all look as if they're wearing red lipstick and have never been out in the sun. Our school do the individual and class shots separately, one in September and one in April, and use different photographers for each, so we have a more traditional headshot as well (unfortunately from a couple of days after DH cut DS's hair while I was in hospital, but that's a whole other thread!)

DD's nursery gets one of the awful "fun" photographers in, whose repertoire basically seems to be #1 "get child to lie on front, hands under chin" #2 "get child to do rapper cross-arm pose, take picture wonky" and #3 "close up portrait of child, wonky". I would actually love to send some proper portraits to the GPs but ever since she was 1.5 DD has know this is utter tosh and looks really cross. I'm thinking of asking if she can have a plain head-on shot this time...

I much prefer the new ones, the ones I have for dd all the dcs look really happy and like they are having fun. My dd much prefers them.
There is another advantage as they are not trying to get 30 happy looking children in one go, just 3 or 4 so they have more choice to use in the photo.

Well yours does sound astoundingly avant garde OP, but I like them and would be quite happy with the bunting to remind them in future years about the celebrations they will be having at school.

Therefore I conclude that YABU.

No, I don't have any Venture portraits on my wall coz I can't afford them but I know lots of friends who do and all the snooty comments about them on here just make some posters sound a bit up their own arses to be frank! Whatever happened to the idea of "to each his own"?

I like to buy my DC's first and last class photo (Foundation/Yr6) (if they want it) and put it up in their bedroom, so whether or not it matches my "twigs and pebbly shit" is a bit irrelevant. I don't have any need to display a pic of 30 small people I barely know in my home, anywhere other than the DC's rooms, where it will be appreciated and looked at fondly for years to come.

I much prefer the casual groups to the traditional 'row upon row of identical smiling children' type. I can imagine the sizing issues being a bit annoying though.

Just buy it you miseries

Sounds horrible.

My boss once had an idea for a staff photo which involved us all wearing white tops and black trousers and posing alone doing various wacky things so we could be photoshopped in a fake line up. Those not in favour were consigned to the ends. I wasn't in the middle but not in Siberia.

We hated it but we were her toys and accepted our fate was to be abused at whim. The end result was shit, in case anyone was wondering.

There must have been a lot of evil thoughts winging her way because she was sacked shortly before it was time for another team photo.

YR6 DD here, so the buntingtastic mile long print (no frame, can stay happily in tube where it can be not looked at just as well) was dully purchased. I actually didn't mind the groups and poses - no thumbs up luckily - but was a bit at the lack of shoes and the fact that when they photoshopped all the children back into the picture they forgot one of the little dears, which is a bit for that YR6 and her parents. The school secretary did say that oders were down this year.

Yanbu. I hate hate hate them. Ds2 got one last year in yr6. Some are standing, some sitting, some lying down....in their socks! Some people had bright red socks, pink etc...it just looked so scruffy. It's a stupidly long size and I wasn't forking out for the framed one so it lives, rolled up, in it's tube.

Thank goodness, he had traditional class photo this year at secondary school.

I am the embarrassed-looking teacher in my class's photo; surrounded by kids making strange gestures and faces, no shoes on, but thankfully not attempting the Sandy pose!

However, I'm just kicking myself that I didn't ask the photographer to photoshop me to make me look less enormous slimmer.

Hopefully, next year the HT will see sense and we'll be back to the traditional group photo.

Ds and dd2 had their class pictures taken about 2 weeks ago and said that they were taken out in groups which I thought a bit strange as they usually are all done at the same time. Ds did say the photographer was ace and he enjoyed having his picture taken as did dd2.

We have not had the pictures back yet so have no clue if I think they are better or worse than the traditional way but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

ripishere the gun pose is unbelievable!

I like the new style photos, but I think dd's school doesn't do uber-wacky like some of the examples on this thread.

DD1's class photo has the children in two rows. The children are all relaxed and happy. There are no props, and the only posing involved is that some kids have their hands on their hips. The teachers are seated, so they're about the same height as the kids standing up.

The individual photograph is traditional, which I'm glad of. I would hate to have dd1 striking a wacky pose in her school uniform. It's so contrary!

Lots of parents complained about our school photos last year when they produced long, wacky posed pictures. They went as far as to have the girls lying on their front with their chins in their hands and boys sitting on their backs holding onto their bunches/pigtails!

They've just had their photos done for this year and the boys have assured me that they are traditionally posed with first line sitting on a bench at the front and ordered by height etc.

Our school also insists on sibling photos if you have more than one child at the school. Last year my boys were posed back to back with curled fists as if they hated each other and were real trouble makers - truly awful picture and totally unrepresentative of either my boys or their relationship. I was furious about that one.