Teacher sharing images on SM

[glitterelf]

Morning I've stumbled across images of children including my own on Twitter from a teachers personal Twitter account and I feel a little uneasy about this. Does anyone know the rules and regs around this ? The school itself does have its own account so I'm not sure why it wasn't posted through that account. I know that there are several children who most definitely should not have their pictures posted ever and I cannot see anything in the schools policies about SM. TIA

Glitterelf there will be just as many (maybe more) that just have the teachers name and no mention of the school.

@Newnamemsz

Glitterelf there will be just as many (maybe more) that just have the teachers name and no mention of the school.

First name only ? Nothing signifying that they are a teacher ?

This goes against any reasonable social media and photography policy. Most schools do only use school cameras. Most schools ensure the images are safety stored and cannot be used on personal accounts. Most schools do not allow such photos to be shared on personal accounts. Any good photography policy will ensue photos are not used by indivuals on a public account.

I would go straight to the head. If no satisfaction, the chair of governors. Read the safeguarding policy, the photography policy and the data protection policy. All might give you insights into this.

To those posters who say this is normal: it absolutely should not be tolerated. No staff member should use a phone to do this. Would you tolerate pictures of swimming lessons? Pictures of DC getting changed for PE? No picture of an identifiable child at a school, in uniform or not, should be in a teachers personal account. If probably is gross misconduct.

OP I would just speak to school, but go in with an open mind as sounds like you’ve got this teacher hung, drawn and quartered

@OnceuponaRainbow18

OP I would just speak to school, but go in with an open mind as sounds like you’ve got this teacher hung, drawn and quartered

How have you come to that conclusion? All I've done is to ask a question and when questions have been asked of me I've answered other that to link the account which I will not do for obvious reasons it's hard to evidence it is a personal and not a professional account. Nowhere have I been demanding she's sacked or any such thing. I do however think it's right that as a parent I question things that don't sit right hence why I've asked here even though it's been a pretty mixed bag of response and clear that there are some grey lines I will be alerting the school.

When my dd was in Y6 the teacher posted a photo on her Facebook page of them doing an activity where they had to link hands one behind the other. She captioned it 'human caterpillar'. Some teachers are not very sensible I've found. Most are great, but not all.

The HT did advise her to take it down but was not very apologetic. I am a bit of a Pearl clutcher when it comes to these films, but these are 10 and 11 year olds!

Sorry 'Human caterpillar 2' so definitely a reference to the films. It was a joke apparently.

@stilldumdedumming

Sorry 'Human caterpillar 2' so definitely a reference to the films. It was a joke apparently.

Wow that's a very silly joke. It's a shame the teacher couldn't muster up an apology.

Yes glitterelf there are numerous accounts if you look

That is absolutely not ok. I would go nuts.

@Newnamemsz

Yes glitterelf there are numerous accounts if you look

What do you mean ?

Dont take advice from here. Some parents are happy with things that go against basic school safeguarding. Things like 'not your child so nothing you can do / none of your business' isnt how safeguarding works. Even if that was the school ethos they still get in trouble with MASH / lado as safeguarding basics are set nationally in law.

Go to the school and explain. If it's in policy then ask to see that policy. If your not happy Google your local MASH team and phone them.

Individual teachers and schools could say anything they want to. But if it's a private account and you didnt sign up for that then it really doesnt matter what the infant school.doen the road does, does it? Its irrelevant in statatory terms

Update the post has been removed from Twitter so it would suggest that it was in fact against the school's policy regarding the sharing of images on personal accounts.

You give permission for it to be shared on the schools account not anyone's personal account though? Or is it just my school that makes that distinction

100% agree.

That might indicate someone saw it who had more sense! However I would still contact the head for reassurance that there won’t be a repeat. There are rules in most schools about publishing pictures and I would expect to see these policies on line. You shouldn’t have to ask for them. Other organisations such as the NSPCC give advice on such issues and I would take it further. I would also ignore some of the “advice” on here. It’s plainly wrong and against the policies schools are expected to have. So I would expect no further pictures on the private accounts of staff.

@Welshiefluff

You give permission for it to be shared on the schools account not anyone's personal account though? Or is it just my school that makes that distinction

100% agree.

Once you've given permission for your child to be shared on social media though, does it really matter which account originally shares or reshares it?

Once your child's photo has been shared once, anyone in the world can save it, share it, alter it. You're giving permission for the photo to be used by the public however they want.

I know the picture has since been removed, but still have a look on the school website for all the various policies when it comes to pictures, sharing into, e-safety and child protection.

Staff also have to sign various agreements every year including not using personal devices and personal sm accounts to share pupils pictures and work. It's considered as gross misconduct and a sackable offense. Unfortunately many staff/schools are lax in this department until something happens.

To school staff just because your colleagues may be doing this isn't a reasonable excuse. It's down to you to read the policies and adhere to them. Should something happen and your name is brought to attention for being aware one of the first things asked will be why you didn't bring this to anyone's attention.

If the school don't have clear policies suggest they sign up with CEOP/Thinkuknow. Training and resources doesn't cost them anything unless the school want someone to be an ambassador which iirc costs less than £150. One of the benefits of this is that the school has someone in house who can deliver training, have access to more resources and Ofsted see it as a positive thing.

Parents/carers and children can also access resources from thinkuknow as well as children.

And even though you may have consented to pictures shared - school - online - other on an annual basis, you can revoke this at anytime. Ask the office for a new form.

@Canigooutyet

I know the picture has since been removed, but still have a look on the school website for all the various policies when it comes to pictures, sharing into, e-safety and child protection.

Staff also have to sign various agreements every year including not using personal devices and personal sm accounts to share pupils pictures and work. It's considered as gross misconduct and a sackable offense. Unfortunately many staff/schools are lax in this department until something happens.

To school staff just because your colleagues may be doing this isn't a reasonable excuse. It's down to you to read the policies and adhere to them. Should something happen and your name is brought to attention for being aware one of the first things asked will be why you didn't bring this to anyone's attention.

If the school don't have clear policies suggest they sign up with CEOP/Thinkuknow. Training and resources doesn't cost them anything unless the school want someone to be an ambassador which iirc costs less than £150. One of the benefits of this is that the school has someone in house who can deliver training, have access to more resources and Ofsted see it as a positive thing.

Parents/carers and children can also access resources from thinkuknow as well as children.

Thank you I have emailed in although I'm not expecting a response as the school has form for poor communication. It wouldn't surprise me if other parents have also contacted them as there were lots of children in the images.

My understanding is this

your permission is only for school. This is a personal account, not school, so not covered by permission.

Having said that, if it is a crowd in a public place (eg NOT the school playground) then it may becovered by the fatc that it is in a public place.

At the school where I was a governor, this would be seen as a safeguarding breahc as they have veyr strict rules around SM, and no-on is allowed to post anything about children on personal accounts. They should only be on school accounts.

This is not OK.

if the deputy is one of the safeguarding leads, you have a choice.

1. report to the other lead.

2 report the the safeguarding govenor

1. report to LA safeguarding officer.

If your do report, and you are not happy with the result, you should report to the enxt layer (eg to governors) and eventually, (or even as a first step) to the police. that may seem heavy handed, but they are interested in these breaches of safeguarding, as they are indicative of a problem in the safeguarding culture at the school.

I would also want to know if the teacher was using their phone to take pictures and what the school policy is on this. They definitely need a clear social media policy and to be following this.

@PiffleWiffleWoozle

I would also want to know if the teacher was using their phone to take pictures and what the school policy is on this. They definitely need a clear social media policy and to be following this.

yes. It shoudl be school cameras only

What I mean glitterelf is that there are lots of teachers who are quite legitimately posting things on social media under their own name provided parents have signed a school permission slip for photographs/videos. As has been said they should not be using personal devices to take or store images of children.
I would imagine most schools would ask teachers to remove any posts in response to parental concern regardless of this.

Parents should not be asked to agree to social
media use if pictures by anyone other than the official school media! No personal SM account should have pupils on it. It really is against most SM and data policies I’ve ever seen. So yes, it does matter and teachers are not making individual decisions on this. They must follow policies and this is almost certainly a breach! So contract the chair of governors op.

Normally the small print in terms and conditions is regarding photo permission and use for marketing purposes etc. Is it likely the teacher in question has posted from her personal account instead of the schools account. Deffo find out from the school. Take screenshots for proof etc. You can report images and tweets too