Photography of naughty behavior at primary school

[Lilacpurpleviolet]

Really want to know if iabu, hence posting here.

Teachers at our school (dc is in yR) take photos of children when they have done something naughty and show these as 'evidence' to parent and child at pick up, this is done in a very stern (angry) voice by the teacher.

For example, a boy scratched another boy. The boy who did the scratching was told off and the boy who was scratched was asked to stand still so that the teacher could take a picture. I'm not sure what they did with this image.

My dc got carried away and acted silly with a messy activity and ended up with messy marks all over her face and uniform. Other children also got messy. This was a 'play fight' so no aggression or nastiness by dc though I can see that the teachers would want to crack down on such behavior.

Anyway when I collected dc we were told very very sternly about what dc had been up to. The teacher then held a digital camera in my daughters face showing her close up pictures of her face with all the splashes whilst reprimanding my dc in a very intense voice.

The thing is that dc's face was still covered in splashes so there was really no need to show me this photographic 'evidence' as I could see it for myself. Also I have always supported the teacher and trust she wouldn't make things up. Why show me a photo of dc's 'misdemeanor'?

Am I being unreasonable to think this use of photography is 'shaming' for the child and really quite inappropriate?

Btw, I have spoken to the head who said that these particular photos of dc would be deleted. Still, I wonder if this type of use of photography is the norm in schools and what other people think about it. Is there a policy on such thing? Thanks.

At my sons special school they take photos of injuries for safe guarding purposes but they are not used for 'telling off'.

This is weird and overly harsh. Why on earth not just tell you?

I sincerely hope these photographs are deleted at the end of every day.

Not saying I agree with the school's approach if it is exactly as OP describes it - but "Why on earth not just tell you?" maybe they've had their fill of parents not believing them, disputing the information, excusing their child seriously injuring another child, getting aggressive towards the teacher when telling them, etc. I think the OP needs to be having these discussions with the HT, then contacting the governors if the approach is as negative as she thinks.

They do the sad face / happy face too.

"Not saying I agree with the school's approach if it is exactly as OP describes it - but "Why on earth not just tell you?" maybe they've had their fill of parents not believing them, disputing the information, excusing their child seriously injuring another child, getting aggressive towards the teacher when telling them, etc. I think the OP needs to be having these discussions with the HT, then contacting the governors if the approach is as negative as she thinks."

Well I have never behaved like this so I don't expect to be treated in that way. I approached the teacher from the beginning with trust, support and enthusiasm, her heavy-handedness, especially the camera thing has made me be I my guard and defensive.

Also they can't possibly take photographic evidence of all types of bad behavior. It's a ineffective and ill thought out approach. I will approach the head again, possibly withdrw my consent regarding photos and also write a letter to give renders depending on what the head says. Thanks all.

Not give readers, governors rather.

I've put two children through reception, one with extremely challenging behaviour (now has statement of SN) and this has never crossed my path. Utterly bizarre.

Either the teacher is an independently operating loon or there is a really weird whole school discipline policy going on in which case id be querying with the governors.

I can't think of a single instance in which seeing photographic evidence of DC1s misdemeanours would have helped me to manage his behaviour better, or improved his appreciation of what he's done.

I would ask to see a copy of their behaviour management policy and from there I would make a decision about whether or not you want your dc to continue in that school. Our school is far from perfect, but they have a positive behaviour policy so that means lots of praise, immediate consequences (like golden time), they only talk to parents about serious incidents and they very much discourage home consequences (unless serious incidents).

I think this way of dealing with behaviour is ridiculous. No teacher should be complaining to a parent that their child got over excited during painting time. They should deal with it and move on.

They showed the picture to your daughter at home time?

Was this so either she could see what she did (she can't see paint on her own face)?

Or, to remind her and take her back to that point in time. Children need immediate rewards punishment, so maybe it is so they can try and get back to this point in time with the child when they are telling you?

Just some thoughts on why they might do this?

EYFS a does involve constant photographing of the children anyway for their records.

Yes they showed the digital photographs to my daughter too. She has just turned five and I doubt she could make much sense of what the teacher was doing by showing us the pictures on the camera.

On a different note, does anyone know why photographs are used to document everything in YR? Does this continue in year 1/2? What did teachers do before digital cameras were affordable for the classroom? Has this type of documenting the classroom improved teaching and learning?

She has just turned five and I doubt she could make much sense of what the teacher was doing by showing us the pictures on the camera.

she is 5 not 5 months of course she could understand!
When I was a kid, parents supported the school in disciplining their kids.Now it seems parents are more interested in turning the tables and finding a way of blaming the teacher rather than focussing on their dc's misbehaviour. w

'On a different note, does anyone know why photographs are used to document everything in YR? '

Because almost everything they do is practical, physical stuff. They can't write and annotate their work, so to gather evidence of attainment, the teachers take photos. Have you seen what the EY learning goals are?
Everything from maths to social and physical skills.

What did teachers do before cameras were in the classroom?
Mostly we were trusted to do the job without everything requiring tangible, measurable, dated evidence. If you said they could sequence numbers up to 20, they could. Now there has to be evidence to prove that they can, along with endless note-taking throughout the day.

very odd.... I'd be spekaing to the head/head of key stage 1 and finding out why

" Now there has to be evidence to prove that they can, along with endless note-taking throughout the day."
That sounds tedious. Very similar to nursing.

"When I was a kid, parents supported the school in disciplining their kids.Now it seems parents are more interested in turning the tables and finding a way of blaming the teacher rather than focussing on their dc's misbehaviour. " yes the good old days, ey? Not quite sure how you got to conclude that blaming the teacher is what this thread is about, but each to their own.

That is bonkers op!

There's all sorts of safeguarding issues with taking photos an distributing them round the playground, plus it's totally ineffective as a disciplinary measure anyway.

The teacher sounds like she's struggling to me. Does the HT know about the photos?

distributing them round the playground - really! must have missed that bit! I thought it was shown to mum and child on the camera or iPad????? Not printed and passed to everyone in the playground.

Once only if there is an injury i can understand it.
But on daily basis for something like paint on your dd's own face? Bizarre!

Does the teacher think she is a bbc reporter?

It would still be an issue at our school, we've got lots of kids who have a strict no photos policy, and that would include showing the photo to other parents.

Aside from the fact that's it's mental, it's just so pointless and achieves nothing!mi can't imagine what the teacher was thinking.

It's like the child is being told off twice for a minor incident. With minor incidents, they only need correcting at the time and then when the parents arrive at 3 it should be more about information sharing then shaming

Op - get the school complaints procedure and follow it. No point going to the governors until you've completed the stage involving the Head. It's probably on the school website, but if not just ask them for it.
This sounds deeply wrong to me. I've been a governor for many years and am a National Leader of Governance.

Parents feeling they can question teachers isn't a bad thing marnia, and there are probably the same number of parents not backing up schools on discipline as there always has been, but I wonder if some of it is down to the way the state has changed the education system recently.

All the measuring of children in DustIn's post is trying to make it easier to see what works/what doesn't (which is great for the children who would have slipped through the net in earlier times), leaving parents with the impression that it's their responsibility to make the right choices for their DC.

Lots of things (like decisions about your medical care) have turned it round onto the individual to make decisions and have opinions on things that used to be left to the 'experts', so it's not surprising that people feel their input is important (after being told by the state that it is) and get stroppy when they feel things are unfair on their DC.

If parents are invited to get so involved with their DC's education, nobody should be surprised when they start passing comment on things not designated to be within their remit by the powers that be.

They are in reception?!?

I'm from a fairly old fashioned school of parenting and teaching, but even I think that's ridiculously harsh, traumatic for the child even. I can imagine a timid child not wanting to come to school after being treated in that manner. The only thing I can think of is that there has been a history of parents not supporting/ believing the teacher when children have misbehaved, but still think this is way OTT.

Weird and cruel. I'm guessing child is told off twice. Firstly at the time of event and secondly in front of parent .

OP I think you need to talk to the Head about this teacher.

Taking photographs is standard behaviour for recording work etc in reception. I take about 30 photographs a day. These are record in the child's learning journey (which BTW you can request to see at any time).

However taking photos of situations like this is not on.
Then again I have had situations where a parent has refused to believe that their child would ever hurt someone. The parent has believed the child's version of events over that of a teacher.

have never heard of this. most odd.