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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think that a class photo is the whole class in one photo?

125 replies

Daisydrum · 12/05/2021 08:43

We’ve had the “class photo” and it’s the class split into little groups of about 4 and they are then just going to put them together. To me that’s a collage.
Is anyone else’s school not doing class photos this year?

OP posts:

singsingbluesilver · 12/05/2021 08:45

They have done class photos like that for years. Some of them come out really well.

RaspberryCoulis · 12/05/2021 08:45

Agree - our primary school did those modern collage style long photos and I hated them. So forced and unnatural. And really expensive too.

MysteriousMonkey · 12/05/2021 08:47

Mine have had those types of photos for the last 10 or 11 years between them. I think they're okay and it must be easier to get nice photos this way.

Scarby9 · 12/05/2021 08:47

Are they holding random, brightly coloured equipment, or quirkily posed back to back or lying on the floor?
Almost all the schools round us do those now - i really don't like them.

Skinnytailedsquirrel · 12/05/2021 08:48

That sounds unpractical and not very appealing to look at. I love my old class photos of the whole class together.

ThisBear · 12/05/2021 08:49

I've seen this done for younger ones before, pre-covid so not due to that. Is it a Reception class? It did seem a bit weird for a moment when I realised! But actually it makes sense, trying to get 4 preschoolers to smile at the same time is probably easier than 20 or 30.

MindtheBelleek · 12/05/2021 08:51

They’ve been doing that for years, I assume because it’s easier. I can’t get excited about it, as in proper group photos, DS always seemed to have his eyes closed or his head turned away.

Quartz2208 · 12/05/2021 08:52

Yep this is not a Covid thing it’s how some class photos have been done

luxurychocolate · 12/05/2021 08:52

These are awful but if your child stands in small grp with their friends for a pose you could just buy that grp. Cut out the kids your child isn't friendly with.

They look fake and cheap though. Class photo should be standing on benches in school grounds/ hall.

Triphazard101 · 12/05/2021 08:54

Weve had those before, but this week DS had a standard "whole class in rows" photo

TrashKitten10 · 12/05/2021 08:55

This is how all the photos have been done in recent years in schools I've worked in. Not the same I agree but much easier for the photographer to get 4 or 5 wiggly, disinterested children looking vaguely the right way at the right time than it is to manage it with 30

Cocomarine · 12/05/2021 09:02

Oh god they’re awful! And not a new thing, 10 years at least from my direct experience.

I don’t mind the photoshopping together - although I do when it’s badly done!

What I hate are the forced poses and silly positions. I have one for one of my kids from Y4, where I still remember her outrage being made to pose next to a bully girl that she hated, who was told to put her elbow on my child’s shoulder - it looks, unnatural, ridiculous, just odd as they hated each other, and the bully took the opportunity of deliberately hurting my child too 🙄

Perhaps an extreme example 🤣 but god I hate them!

LettyLoman · 12/05/2021 09:05

That’s how it’s always done. An average class has about 8/10 sen kids, 8/10 not very well behaved and rest do as they’re told. Look closely and you’ll see what category each child is labelled as. It’s a way of keeping it easy.

Original poster

Daisydrum · 12/05/2021 09:11

Thank you all! I really dislike this style of photograph. As for making it easier for the photographer- they cost a fortune! Surely they are trained in getting all the kids to look at them at the same time! And they take a few so you can choose which one your child looks best in.
It’s come out as a really long, awkward photo when put all together which I can’t put up anywhere.
My DD is with friends so was happy but my DS is with people he really doesn’t like!
It just feels like such a waste of time!
There was nothing wrong with the original style and I have great photos of the other years (except last year of course).

OP posts:

Sunshineandflipflops · 12/05/2021 09:14

Yes, my ds had these towards the end of primary school too. I don't like class photos any way so it didn't bother me. I have no interest in having a photo of other people's children who I don't know and who my kids are probably not even friends with so never bought them!

Oncemoretwicemore · 12/05/2021 09:15

I thought they might do that for DS' class (reception) but no, they lined them all up in on go, in height order. (If anyone can make a reception class sit nicely, it's his teacher)

DappledThings · 12/05/2021 12:16

It's photos next week for us. I hope it's a traditional all class one. I've seen those weird collage ones and not a fan. I'd much rather one with a few children looking the wrong way or grumpy than the unnatural small groups one

Scarlettpixie · 12/05/2021 12:19

DS had these all through primary. He is 14 so it’s not a new thing (or related to covid). They can turn out well. We still have the reception one up.

piglet81 · 12/05/2021 12:25

Never heard of this sort of photo! DS has a class photo tomorrow (Y1, so first one as Covid scuppered everything last year) and I’ll be intrigued to see what they do...

DandelionRose · 12/05/2021 12:28

I loathe them personally. They are awkward to display as the modern collage photos are a lot bigger and longer than a 'traditional' A4 landscape class photo. They look messy to me as the children are posed very differently (sitting, standing, arm leaning "casually" on a friend etc) whereas the 'traditional' type look so neat.

It also annoys me though that my school don't insist on children all wearing jumpers or not, so there's a mix of jumper/no jumper and finally it really annoys me that they don't take the photos first thing but sometimes later on in the day, by which time the carefully styled and brushed hair is in disarray, and on one occasion my young DS had a grubby face too (after lunch photo session)....

SavingsQuestions · 12/05/2021 12:28

Our school did it once. Parents hated it and they've reverted back to traditional photos!

mogtheexcellent · 12/05/2021 12:32

Even more annoying is that its a long thin picture rather than a standard size. I wont be buying it this year.

I prefer the old style with standing on benches and sitting in rows.

DandelionRose · 12/05/2021 12:34

Savings I was really disappointed when my DD's Reception class photo was this modern collage. I was thoroughly looking forward to the traditional style and hated the modern. But the (new school friend) mums who I'd struck up with were all oohing and ahhing over it and saying it was progressive and modern etc, so I had to keep quiet for fear of seeming dull and boring.

They can't have been that popular though because funnily enough the school has reverted to the old style in the last few years, I love it but now I'm stuck with a mix of modern and traditional styles through the years which bugs me!

Why do people have to mess with things? Not everything needs changing! Some things (traditional class photos) are perfect just as they are!

BogRollBOGOF · 12/05/2021 12:34

Ours have been doing it for years. I hate them. They are physically awkward and get battered about because you can't do anything with them, and they are visually awkward with lots of slumping and slobbing around, and the socks.

DS's nursery did this too. The photoshopping has always annoyed me because there is a child who's always been a head taller than DS (still the same class) and they were photoshopped to the same size so the bodily proportions are all wrong. DS had a big head anyway but next to this shrunken minaturised child, DS's head looked like a beach ball

SoupDragon · 12/05/2021 12:36

DD's school switched to these when she was in the latter years of primary. I quite liked them as all the children tend to be more visible than the classic "in rows" versions.

I'm surprised anyone puts a class photo up in their house though. For us they were just a thing to be bundled together and brought out to look at and compare.

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