To really hate group class photos?

[TheBadgersMadeMeDoIt]

I didn't buy DD's class photo this year because I can't bear all the fake casualness. The kids are all over the place - sprawled on the grass or leaning against trees. One was sitting on a tree-stump, sideways on to the camera for some reason. DD was arm-in-arm with another girl and scowling. The photographer had told her to pose like that with her "buddy". The girl in question is the one child in the class that DD really doesn't get on with. (Hence the scowl).

Maybe I'm just hopelessly old fashioned but what was wrong with the row of benches, folded arms and cheesy grins? At least you could see everyone's face. Is it just me?

We still get the rows of benches style here thankfully. And only in reception and Y6 so good years to buy them.

I haven't purchased school photos in years, my teenage sons never even give me the opportunity, they don't like them at all. I have to agree that the group photos are awful, really staged, if I did want to purchase a photo, I would only want one of my children in any case.

Ours also came home yesterday. We have the choice of a stupid posed thing and a traditional one taken outside in two rows. The second one is far nicer. I won't be buying it though as he's year one, I have the reception one and will get year 6 so we can look back and see the difference.

It's non a new thing either, DD's school back in 2008 did a class staged photo of them all 'casually' standing under trees etc with a few standing on said tree branches, looked bloody awful but the mug that I am, still paid the extortionate price.

Thank goodness the next year they reverted back to benches but they had benches under trees which looked lovely.

This is probably because we do it in-house and get one of the PTA members to come in with a digital camera to do the pictures and then we sell them for £3 each as a fundraising exercise.

This is very interesting. Our school gets a "small" kick back from the photo company but I'm pretty sure far more would be bought at £3 than £15+ and that there might actually be much, much more money in it for school.

Well I bought this years photo , my ds brought it home and he isn't even on it!
Apparently he was off that day ( I had forgotten it was school photo day) but the proof was so small I couldn't tell he wasn't on it. In fact both me and my dd picked out another boy on the proof who we thought was him.

It depends on the photographers - this year DS's class are clustered in groups against a white background. I am not intending on buying it because the size is so awkward - either huge in a mount or framed for ££££ or so small I'd need a magnifying glass to see the kids' faces. If I want it bigger and rolled up in a tube, that's £17.50. Last time I bought this format (at infants) it was £12.50 (and I thought then it was getting a bit steep, as it went up 50p every year).

Last year was a different photographer and the children were lined up traditionally in rows with the smaller ones at the front, which made a neat 8x6 format - much better!

I did want this year's as ds's friend wasn't present last year, but now I've seen it I don't think I'll bother.

We don't do the casual ones we only do the ones with 3 rows and a teacher at each end. This is probably because we do it in-house and get one of the PTA members to come in with a digital camera to do the pictures and then we sell them for £3 each as a fundraising exercise.
That's a great idea, we should totally do that instead!

DS2's nursery do this. There's a local photographer with a child there who takes individual pictures in amongst the bluebells in April and nursery sells them for £3/print. We can choose from two pictures, b&w or colour.

Much nicer than a posed picture and the profits go towards the nursery.

I bought for Y6 as my dds want a memento of the girls they had been at primary school with. Not bothered with any others.

The casual class ones are bad but by the time dd2 left they were taking photos of every club and activity as well. The orchestra one was especially dire - kids posing doing all sorts of stupid things with cellos and trumpets etc...

We had an awful one last year - DD s class all posed with musical instruments - no idea why - it was ridiculous and looked unbelievably contrived! Needless to say I didn't buy it! We had a similar one this year (her Yr6 ) but without the props - however the adults in the photo (teacher & TA) both look so uncomfortable and the TA has a child with his head on her knee whilst the teacher (female) is surrounded by adoring girls....my DD is front row kneeling with her hands on her knees smiling like a loon - looks so unnatural - disappointing as it's her last one.....

I've never seen these!

My kids have always all had traditional neat rows (and yes we do buy a copy, it's nice to look back on and compare, especially as they get older.)

It's worth buying them no matter how awful for when they are older, my teen and her friends love looking back (and laughing) at them.

I agree! I hate these new fangled photos. I really like the old ones in rows with the teacher at the side.

I hate the no shoes on lolling around posed ones

We have 2 lots of photos taken. The individual photos taken at the start of the year are truly dreadful (all the kids are at a weird angle..otherwise it could have been taken in a passport photo booth).

The whole class, but grouped, ones are only good for the joke value of the comparative sizing failures. DD's school are forever reorganising classes, so I tend to buy the class ones so I have a fighting chance of recognising kids from DD's class.

We're at a £school so i sometimes grab the photos from the school twitter feed. They tend to be much nicer.

I'd much rather help fund school student projects by letting the senior school/local uni photo students take some contemporary pics of genuine groups of friends or individuals.

I hate them especially the class photos. Our photographer makes them all pose with their arms in the air or on each others shoulders and always makes the children say "cheese" which gives them a fake odd smile. As the children get into junior school it is obvious from the photo they don't want to be posing like this. They are also really long in length and hard to store. What happened to the nice sized photos where they are all on benches and where we are able to put them in an album for storage.

I agree that these pictures are very expensive for what they are. I suppose the fashion these days is for 'arty' efforts. We only had individual pix to remind us of our schooldays.
When we got to teenage the photos stopped. I'm not sure that I'd want a reminder of my troubled adolescence but it would be nice to see a class portrait of us sitting in neat rows and pointing out, "Oh there's so-and-so, she emigrated, remember Sue & Sharon they became nurses", etc. I can only see them in my mind's eye.

I never but the class photos. This one was pretty good though as it was panoramic style with all the kids in one line posing in different ways. My son was mortified though as he was made to stand with his hand on his teachers shoulder. So I didn't buy it. It's not like if put class photos in display anyway.

I only ever buy the year 6 one. Just the cheapest option available. I think it'll be nice for them to look back on. Oh and there always old fashioned rows and benches ones. However thegirls sit in a weird side on ankles crossed pose and the ones on the floor are almost lay on their sides rather than sat cross legged like the boys.

They're not there.

They're awful, I really wish our school did the traditional ones, I would have bought those. This year's has my son with his arm around the boy who punched him in the face last year.

I much prefer the informal ones.

They look like children.

YANBU. I hate the ones which look like a double spread in the Littlewoods catalogue.

Give me tidy children on benches any day.

*Hoists bosom/catsbummouth

I like the style more than the row of chairs/benches. At least I can see DD properly instead of a face in a row of identical dressed girls as previous photographers always put boys and girls in separate rows.

I buy it and it ends in DD's memory box. I am not a big fan of displaying photos at home, we have 2 multi-photo frames and the odd single.

I hardly ever buy the single photo, in Infant DD looked as being dragged through a hedge backwards, they insisted doing the photos after lunch so there was the option to do sibling photos with the pre-schoolers and Juniors after school. Great idea, there are so many 4-7 year olds staying neat and clean after 4 hours school. In Junior it is slightly better but as DD is not changing a lot we bought Y3 and I will buy Y6.

Our school also now does club photos, so in addition to the class one we have every sport club, orchestra, blues band, house/club captains etc. Last year it meant 3 photos, we already told DD it may not the same this year, haven't seen the proofs yet.

Coffee I'm sorry, but your last line did make me laugh 😐 DCs only do whole class pictures in Reception and Year 6. I only buy their single photos. Why do I want pictures of everybody else's kids? School photographer is well known for being 'arty' which makes for some interesting (crap) pictures.