to think the Nursery shouldn't have done this without permission?

[walmer3]

(First-timer on here, please be gentle with me!)

When DH picked up the children from nursery tonight he was handed a huge framed pencil drawn portrait of our two children, on 'spec' for purchase (£160).
My gripe isn't the fact that we can't afford £160 at the moment as one of us is out of work (even with the offer of 'four easy monthly payments'), nor is it that we're finding it hard to turn it down now that we see it, despite the fact that we wouldn't ever have chosen for ourselves a portrait of the children to be done in this style.
The thing is, the only way they would have been able to do this is if either the nursery took photographs of our children and sent them off to the company that did the portraits, or the company photographed them at the nursery (we're not quite sure at this point which of the two). While we have given our permission for photographs of the children to be used in nursery newsletters/websites etc, we were never given a heads-up that this portrait thing was going to be done. (They've had the usual photographers around in the past doing photograph packages and we've had the choice of opting in or out).
In other ways the nursery has been excellent and the manager has been very supportive and personally helpful so I don't really want to fall out with them about this. But AIBU to think they should have asked permission first?

...you get notified of when they are coming in, you get to make sure the dc's are clean tidy and wearing what you'd like (if not uniform) and above all you KNOW about it. The op knew nothing of this and although a lovely idea it may be it's way more expensive than a standard school photo.

Without having looked into the background legislation relevant to this area, I would have thought that such a specific picture should have required individual parental consent, ie you should have been given forms telling you about the exercise and asking your consent for images of your child to be used. Nurseries and schools do tend to get blanket consent by parents of new children when they join for events held throughout the year at their premises or under their name, but this tends to be more in the way of group settings. Additionally, it concerns more public events, ie fairs, open days and class photos. This is a purely commercial exercise for the profit of the company selling the drawings and clearly should not have taken place without both the knowledge and consent of the parents.

This also raises questions over who owns the image. Usually, the company taking the picture retains the copyright over the image, although I suspect they are quite good about removing things from their public websites, for instance, if a parent writes and asks for the image of their child to be removed for personal reasons. It is not clear what has happened here but I would certainly be extremely disturbed for the company to suggest that they should own the image of your child, especially without having obtained specifinc consent to the exercise.

This latter point is the more worrying to me. You are not obliged to buy in any way. That is a simple issue - do you or don't you want to? Moral obligation doesn't come into it at all. But what remains unanswered is what is to happen with the image? I would be inclined to follow up and find out the answer to this.

I hope you get a satisfactory result!

seems very strange that they did a drawing without asking first

if you dont pay the £160 HOW MUCH for the drawing,then the artist has seriously wasted his time and effort

but not your problem!!

i dont know about policys in nursery's but if you signed a form saying ok to take pics for nursery/ofsted use then they nursery MAY be in their rights

but still bloody cheeky imo!!

and agree offer them way less, its not if the picture would appeal to anyone apart from you/family etc

I don't think we do get informed about school photos actually, other than it being in the school calender. We certainly don't get asked for permission as we've already signed to say we're OK with having pictures taken.

I get that the OP feels bad that she can't afford it, but why does it actually matter that the nursery has taken a picture, given that you've given them permission to take pictures? What do you think could happen as a result of them sending an artist a (presumably anonymous) photo?

But then I don't really get why people get so upset about photos being taken/put in the paper/on Facebook generally....

Always informed at nursery - never had them though

Don't have them as ds's school but when I taught it was always in the school newsletters/calendars and reminder's sent out.

Schools I've worked in don't have a blanket policy more a 'happy for photos in school?' tick/cross 'happy with photos on school website?' tick/cross 'happy woth photos to be published in the media -newspaper etc.

Was a nightmare trying to remember who had ticked what and not. I also have only 1 girl in my wholes class I could not photo so it was a shame when I had to ask her to move out of the picture even for photos in school.