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

[Daisydrum]

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?

Dc had these in primary and secondary I hate them!

My kids had these in primary school and they are adults now!

I've seen one where they brought in a big white piece of wood with a square hole cut out (like a window) and got everybody to pose in it (leaning in from the side, propping your elbows on the 'sill') etc. Then you get the board with a larger photo of your child at one side, and little squares of all the others.

It's no benches and squabbles over height order!

It makes it easier to make sure all the children are looking the right way, not blinking or pulling silly faces. It's easier for some SEN children as well as it's a smaller group, quicker and less chaotic and noisy than trying to organise for the whole class. I'm speaking as former TA.

Ours are normally traditional but this year they’re doing a collage because of covid. I forgot to order one.

You don't get a board. You get a photo, obviously! (Well, many photos.)

I like them. I think they are more interesting to look at and the children are more visible (beyond standard head and shoulders).

Primary school here have been doing them at least 5 years.

Interesting, I’ve never heard of this. Our whole class photo was last week so I guess I’ll see what emerges...!
I’m probably only going to buy it if it’s the traditional one though.

Our school has always done them like that. They get a full year (1.5 classes per year) photo with them all lined up together in y6. Nursery have always done it the small group way too.

We just had our class photo and it was a traditional photo which ours always are. But there were no staff in them this year . Bit ridiculous considering they spend all day in a classroom with them. And it looked odd just the kids.

Ours this year is individual photos of each child in a "pose" then made into a collage.
At £17, not a snowballs chance will I be buying them.
This is a primary school,

Of God. One year the year one class were made to stand in a long line with some laid on the floor and some held instruments. So bloody stupid. Just stand them in rows of six in a rectangle shape. Much more user friendly.

Lots of places have done this for years. I’ve got several class photos mainly nursery and preschool ones like this, some are better than the real thing. They always used decent photography studios in the settings my DCs went to.

Our primary school has done it this year because of covid, they didn’t do siblings either due to bubble mixing. They used a proper photographer this year too, not tempest or another school photographer and the pictures are fantastic for a change. And they are actually cheaper than the usual school ones.

We’ve had these before covid. Kids in groups of 4/5 then all pics joined together. Works well.

Our school does this - the resulting photos look great

I've got some really funny ones like that.

We have the one where they decided to resize everyone to look like they are the same height and width. Including the teacher.
And the one where they decided some of the groups would be better the other way round so they used the mirror images-you can tell by the logo on the jumpers.
And the one where one child managed to get in twice.
And the one where they thought they'd give perspective by making the front groups smaller-they look like a group of toddlers crawling in front of the older ones...

Yes. Bring back the traditional ones.
Unfortunately we had a muck of one of those when the school asked. I wasn't sure whether it was because the school photographers didn't know how to do it. Or the teacher had told them where to stand, or what but instead of:
Children sitting on floor, children sitting on a bench, children standing on floor, children standing on a bench in sets of 8, with the smallest on the floor and the tallest standing on a bench, so you could see everyone
we had:
Children sitting on floor (2 of them)
12 children squashed sitting on a bench. Boy do they look uncomfortable. The end ones are gripping on for deal life in case they fall off.
12 children standing at the front of bench. They've got arms round each other. I presume to stop them from falling off. Some of them are standing sideways.
6 children (not the tallest ones either) standing at the back of the bench trying desperately to be seen. Some of them you can almost see half their face...

What made it worse for me, was they were the ones my dc had said the teacher didn't like, which is why I suspect the teacher had some say in it.

Our school got such a terrible reaction to the little groups in "quirky" poses etc that they got a local photographer in a few weeks later to take traditional whole class photos! They haven't tried it again....

You'd be amazed at how few parents buy class photos, this modern style or otherwise. In schools I've worked in, affluent and not, it's a couple of parents per class. We always used to buy them.

Thank you for all the replies!
I’m just so surprised that they keep plugging away at this modern way when hardly anyone is buying them!
I see the points about being easier for children but again what’s the point if the photo isn’t bought? It’s just a waste of everybody’s time.
I will be me interested to see the reaction from parents as I do not think it will be popular.
I was so looking forward to getting a class photo this year.

My friend’s child ended up being left out of one of these style photos because when they photoshopped them together there were two girls with long blond hair and the photographer mistook them for the same child

We’ve had these. They’re fine.

Here’s an example from the company’s website.

For anyone who thinks this new style looks good - do you actually display them?

We have these for nursery / reception as they just have to get a few kids at a time to face the front. DS is still crying on his first one.

They don't look as "formal" as 30 kids sat in rows and they're certainly longer but it makes sense with little ones

@TuckMyWin Sorry to hear that! That’s awful!

My kids' primary school did this. They were mostly rubbish as you'd end up with stretched kids and floating kids and overlapping kids.

The photographer was a parent so that might be why they kept using them despite them being mostly crap.