The purpose of school photos has changed, hasn't it?

[merzeemee]

When I was a child in the 1970/80's the School Photo was an annual opportunity for a professional shot of me and my brother smiling, sitting still, and looking clean and smart in our uniforms. They were proudly bought, distributed to grandparents, compared from year to year, and fondly looked back on - especially the class photos of familiar faces with gradually forgotten names.

Now I'm a secondary school parent, I see them differently. They're an annual opportunity for the school to get cheap (free?) photos of every child and teacher. The childrens' photos are attached to their records in the school's Management Information System, helping staff to put faces to names. They are also used as profile pictures on school Microsoft accounts, so teachers and students remotely interacting via Teams can see a face rather than just a name. The teachers' photos are put on the wall of a corridor, again to help everyone to put faces to names.

The cost to the school is kept low because the photography firm makes its money from selling copies of the photos to parents, which is fine, so long as the quality of the photos remains high, and parents continue to buy photos.

Unfortunately, I haven't bought my children's individual school photos for the past 6 years, because they are always on an ugly mottled blue background, and I can take nicer pictures myself at home. I don't think the photographer makes any effort at all to take photos that are relaxed or flattering, and they are overpriced. I do buy the group photos, but certainly not every year. (This year the group photo was a clever montage of the whole year group's individual photos - a covid memento we weren't expecting because only individual shots were taken!).

Do you buy your child's school photo every year?

[reluctantbrit]

In Primary school we bought the class photos and the one from her gymnastic squad. The individual Infant school photos were crap, DD looked in most like she was dragged through the hedge backwards, face down. How has the idea of doing the photos after lunch?

Secondary: in Y7 they used the individual ones for the library cards but I found that I have lots of nicer ones from DD so didn’t buy it. They then had the great idea of doing a year photo, 240 girls in identical uniforms surrounded by 10 teacher (8 form teacher, head of year and head teacher). Even with DD pointing herself out I couldn’t identify her. Useless. They did now Y10 photos but I haven’t seen them yet.

[saraclara]

The purpose was always to provide photos for record keeping, and for fundraising. Even when I started teaching over forty years ago. I have no idea why you ever thought they were done purely for the benefit of parents.

If anything they're needed less now, as schools have digital cameras for records, and fewer parents buy them because we all have thousands of photos of our kids.

[Prokupatuscrakedatus]

School does an annual fotoshoot for pupil's ID (needed for reduced entrance fees, free public transport etc.) and offers group fotos and individual fotos to buy, but you do not have to.
I usually buy them because they are still better than what I could do, cheaper than done privately and I get fotos for grandparents, grandaunts etc.

[reluctantbrit]

Oh, and the only photo we have on display is the one from her first day in Reception, I don’t like the gallery of photos everywhere and we have two multi photo frames with different sizes so the traditional school ones don’t fit anyway.

[Abraxan]

We take our own photographs for our learning platform, and for reports etc. Every class has 1-2 iPads and they are taken for free on them, plus a member of staff has a SLR camera/photography hobby and takes photographs at special school events etc inc start of the year (all following the school code of conduct and policy for photographs) - all taken and used for free by school and often digital copies available for free for parents too.

The only thing the school photographs are used for is SIMS but that's simply as we get sent a low res version of each photograph digitally which is easy to upload as a whole school, but the photo quality of that low res version is poor and certainly not good enough for use on reports etc.

[MamaBear7a]

I'm amazed at how expensive some of these are! We pay £5 total, that gives us an individual, class, and siblings photo. We get one print out of each and emailed the digital file if we want to print more. They are all really well done!

[Sunshinealligator]

I tend not to buy them. We take many many photos of DD. It just seems like a lost tradition now.

[StCharlotte]

@ArblemarchTFruitbat

When I was a child in the 1970/80's the School Photo was an annual opportunity for a professional shot of me and my brother smiling, sitting still, and looking clean and smart in our uniforms.

Yes - there was a point to it when not everyone owned a camera and the cameras that were around, unless you spent a fortune, were not of great quality, and you didn't know whether the pictures were any good until you'd had the film developed, and any duds represented a waste of money.

Nowadays most people have a smart phone with a camera and you can snap away until you get pictures you're happy with.

I'm amazed school photos are a thing.

Exactly that.

I was born in the 60s and as the youngest of five there are very few photos of me as a child (single figures). I'm not sure my parents even had a camera. I destroyed the one school photo we had because I really really hated it (world's worst haircut) and I gave my favourite picture to a boyfriend who I haven't seen for decades - I'm still cross with myself about that!

[Comefromaway]

I stopped buying them in primary when they started taking those take you shoes off and stand in your socks holding a random piece of school equipment type pictures.

[Lottle]

They are also used to help detect eating disorders. I guess professional photos are less important now everyone gets snapped with their phone camera whenever the mood strikes.

[liveforsummer]

Our school takes their own photos on iPads for their records. I don't buy the photographers pictures though as I can definitely take better myself on my phone. No idea how they manage to get pictures that don't even look like my dc

[Abraxan]

As a school we really don't make lots of money from school photo companies coming in.


And yes, they are often not great. They are taken on a decent camera but only in a standard setting, linked to a computer which then lines up the shot etc. Takes a few seconds to position child and take the picture. There is little time taken by the photographer to actual capture the child properly. As staff we've sometimes asked for an obviously rubbish one to be redone, but we have to be really watching careful to catch them - whilst also organising the line of children waiting and when finished, and trying to untuck collars, smooth hair down, checking child doesn't have food round their face, etc.

The whole process is a military exercise of getting the right children in the right order, in the right place. Literally is sit, smile, click, go.

It's next week at my school.

[SaberToothKitten]

The kids liked the group ones in primary, so I always used to buy those. But stopped buying them 4 years ago (sorry DC3) when the photo company were absolute dicks. They first promised ('of course, no problem!') then suddenly refused to cancel an order I made in error, despite my emailing them within seconds of realising I'd selected the wrong thing and phoning them on the dot the next morning. They pissed me off so much that they can keep their overpriced inflexible systems.

[Peanutsandchilli]

I buy them maybe every couple of years in primary school. Once they hit high school they get an individual one taken in year 7 and year 11. That's it. No form ones, although they take a full year group one for the school's use. As they get further up the school (GCSE years) they change forms regularly, as part of the school's attempt to use their form time as extra revision time - they'll be put in a form with a teacher who teaches one of their weaker subjects, so it would be pointless taking form group ones.

This year, due to covid, two of mine (then nursery and year 6) had individual and class photos taken in July. I bought them, then was given one of my eldest as part of the year 6 leaver's gifts. They've both now moved to new schools, so the eldest has just had her year 7 picture taken, and the youngest is having another individual photo taken next week, though her new school are offering after school family photos, which will allow me to take my 2 older kids and my toddler, so at least I can get all 4 of them in one photo. I'll probably buy that and none of the others.

[GoodnightGrandma]

We bought DD’s last school photo but the quality was awful, I take a better photo on my phone.
I’m not buying any more.

[Groovee]

I work in a school and have never had my photo taken, that's not been done by a colleague.

I bought my children's ones until S1.

[Comedycook]

No I don't buy them. The world has changed and we all have cameras on us 24/7. Back when we had to have an actual camera with a roll of film you'd get developed at the chemists, I could see the appeal of the school photo but not nowadays

[ParkheadParadise]

I buy them
I still have dd1 from 20+ years ago.

I remember having our school photo done with my siblings. My oldest sister cut our hair before it and I had a MASSIVE pink flower in my hair, one of my sisters had my mums rosary beads on 😂😂😂 My mum was in hospital at the time.
When she came home the photo was propped up on the fireplace. She took one look at it and burst out crying 😂😂😂. My dad was in the doghouse for weeks because he let us all go to school looking like that.

[Osrie]

School photographers do not seem to be any good as has been said before yet to have one where shadow of glasses doesn’t spoil it yet with my own phone or basic camera this is very very rarely an issue. Once pointed it out and the photo was altered with blank lines instead of grey shadows!

[BusySittingDown]

I don't buy ours every year. I feel like they're really expensive for a photo of my child in their school uniform when I take so many photos of them day to day.

I feel guilty about not getting them every year though as my mum used to buy mine every year. I have every single one from pre school to year 11! However, I Was going through my mum's old photos and there was one in the packaging with the price list for one of mine from 1990ish. It was £5 for biggest package. It's about £40 nowadays .

[BoredZelda]

My daughter's photos always have light shining on the glasses so I can't see her eyes hmm Really poor quality!

I fought every damned year with the company who either cropped my daughter’s photo so it didn’t show her walking frame or forced her to stand on the wobbly podium with her support assistant out of shot holding her up, just so she was having the same photo of all the other kids. She was in her wheelchair for her P7 photo as she had just had surgery and he asked her to get out of it and sit on the bench with the other kids.

There’s a lad with autism in the class who wears ear defenders and has a chewey on a string round his neck, the photographer asked him to remove them as “mum doesn’t want a photo of you looking like a baby”. I happened to be in the room when he made that remark and I called him out on it. The same company did a photo for the enhanced provision unit and had every kid who was a wheelchair user, taken out of them and sat with their support assistant holding them up or on their knees. For some reason, this company doesn’t like seeing mobility aids in photos.

[TractorAndHeadphones]

Class photos are great but I see no reason for individual school photos anymore

[Heathofhares]

Don’t get me started on those stiched together class photos. Kids in groups of 3-5 and then digitally put together in photoshop. One year the photographer deleted a group by accident and they were left off. Pity as that groups parents were the only ones who wanted to buy them!

other times children with dark ( and incorrectly exposed- inexcusable for a professional with proper lighting) skin tones have been placed in front of staff members in black clothes. One pupil literally disappeared. Unbelievable.

[TractorAndHeadphones]

@BoredZelda

My daughter's photos always have light shining on the glasses so I can't see her eyes hmm Really poor quality!

I fought every damned year with the company who either cropped my daughter’s photo so it didn’t show her walking frame or forced her to stand on the wobbly podium with her support assistant out of shot holding her up, just so she was having the same photo of all the other kids. She was in her wheelchair for her P7 photo as she had just had surgery and he asked her to get out of it and sit on the bench with the other kids.

There’s a lad with autism in the class who wears ear defenders and has a chewey on a string round his neck, the photographer asked him to remove them as “mum doesn’t want a photo of you looking like a baby”. I happened to be in the room when he made that remark and I called him out on it. The same company did a photo for the enhanced provision unit and had every kid who was a wheelchair user, taken out of them and sat with their support assistant holding them up or on their knees. For some reason, this company doesn’t like seeing mobility aids in photos.

That’s terrible! Those aids etc are a part of whom they are. What the fuck is wrong with having them there?
I’d be recording it, sharing on social media, naming and shaming/ reporting the company.

If the photographer can’t take a good photo without everyone being in the same pose then you might as well do it instead of them and save yourselves the money. Good Lord…

[Bitofachinwag]

Do the school ask your consent to give your child's photo to Microsoft?