Primary School using random parent to take photographs of P1 instead of using a company

[James1981]

Is it just me, or is this weird?

I definitely won't consent to this.

The father isn't charging for the service and as far as I'm aware only does photography as a hobby. We don't even know his full name.

Great idea

It's you

It's so bizarre to me. This person won't be obliged to adhere to data protection.

Gosh, our school does this every year. A dad at the school volunteers his time every year for free. Photos are great quality & far, far cheaper than getting a company in, raises money for the school. It’s never occurred to me that people might dislike it tbh.

Does that mean you won't be charged for the photo? That sounds like an amazing plan

Probably save you a fortune not buying all the PixiPhoto packs!

At our school justajot we do charge for them, £2.50 a print, it is a PTA fundraiser.

We don't even know his full name.

You could ask. Or introduce yourself and offer to help?

It's interesting to find out the perspective of others. I work with offenders so it may/probably does, cloud my judgement.

But you don’t know the full name of the person who comes in from a company do you?

This sounds a great way of doing it keep costs down for parents and raise some much needed funds for school.

No, Sirzy, I wouldn't, but I would at least have enough info to know if they were reputable or not.

And licensed to work with vulnerable people/children.

Do you not trust school then? Do you think they are just giving the job to a random without asking any questions?

Well they haven't told me otherwise.

I suggest raise your concerns with the school, are you assuming they haven't been checked/ vetted or do you know for a fact they haven't been?
There are ways you can politely enquire and no doubt they will set your mind at ease

@James1981

And licensed to work with vulnerable people/children.

Aren't volunteers in the school background checked?

I bet the school have DBS checked him. I'm really struggling to see why you're so worried. I get you work with offenders, so probably see the potential worst in everybody but the professional companies don't do much more than DBS check their photographers.

He will have to 'adhere to gdpr'.

My primary uses to do a photo calendar with parent taking the pictures and I did all the pictures for the yearbooks.
We had to work on the yearbook in school as the photo's couldn't leave the site.

Talk to the school about the procedure rather than speculate.

Licensed to work with young people? What license is that? I didn’t know there was one & I used to work on a community education project with young people.

We ask that all school volunteers have a DBS check.

Why don’t you ask what they’ve put in place around data protection and vetting? At our school we need a DBS (or whatever it’s called) to volunteer.

He won't be alone with the children, and won't be within 2m of them at the moment either.
Fully supervised, at a distance, offering a cheaper service to parents.

Sounds brilliant.

To be in the school they will be DBS checked as any parent helper is.

It sounds like a brilliant idea. "professional" photographers are a real rip off these days, theres no skill to it with modern equipment yet they charge hundreds.

I'd presume that the school would require a DBS clearance, and that there would be teachers/parents helping organize the students on the day.

Is it him having access to the children, or possession of the images that concerns you?

My heart says this is a lovely way to get good photos for all of you at much less cost than you’d pay for those reams of official pics.

My head says: has he been DBS checked? Has he committed to a data protection policy? He could be doing anything with those photos.

I’m not a parent so I don’t know for sure what I’d do, but I think I’d be wary of giving anyone else digital photos of my child.