Shocked to have been secretly recorded at work.

[Whataninvasionofprivacy]

I work as a TA in school, and last week at the end of a lesson, the teacher called me over and indicated (behind the kid’s backs) to the class cupboard. She then whispered “Will you turn off the iPad?” I wasn’t sure what she was on about, but she then whispered that she’d just recorded the entire lesson, but didn’t want the kids to know. She had been told to do this by a senior staff member.

Am I being ridiculous to feel annoyed by this? I’m sure I should have been told beforehand. Also what about parents who don’t normally consent, they had no choice in this case.

I’m a teacher. We record our classes sometimes to aid reflection and for feedback. The only people who ever watch them is myself and a mentor or someone in leadership. It’s no different to them coming into the classroom to observe. It’s good because we can actually look at examples of what worked well in the lesson and see things that were over looked. It’s to improve our practice. The videos are deleted afterwards. They’re usually recorded from the back of the classroom. If I told my students I was recording, you bet they’d act differently.
It isn’t any different to the multiple cctv cameras we have dotted around the school.

Is that even legal

Not unless parents have given signed consent.

So the teacher knew the lesson was being recorded? Why did she not just go to the class cupboard and turn it off herself instead of the cloak and dagger TA whispering? Agree with not wanting children to be filmed without transparency but her actions seem odd.

It isn’t any different to the multiple CCTV cameras we have dotted around the school.

Legalistically (Jesuitically?), that might be true. But it's not really the same thing, is it?

I think it's a huge grey area - I'd be happier with signs and notices and full consent for any recordings, cctv or otherwise. I don't like the covert nature of this at all.

And you do this by showing securing consent first.

It is not bizarre in the slightest; what is bizarre is the patronising attitude you are taking as a teacher.

There are enormous data breaches from "secure" platforms happening constantly, including organisations that spend far more money on data security than do government education departments. It is bizarre to have such trust in institutional data protection against all evidence to the contrary.

But even presuming against a data breach. Say that "data" showed a couple of children passing unknown items to each other because they did not know they were being recorded. Say the teachers noticed this, and know there's a drug problem being investigated by the police at the school. Based on the consent form you yourself shared, that video might be shared by teachers with the police. Many teachers go well beyond their legal obligations to assist police, even inadvertently breaching other obligations in doing so (I have seen it a number of times in my own career),

Now the police have a video of 30 children, including at least two who may be charged with an offence, that none of them knew was being recorded, in their own school.

And you find it bizarre that this concerns parents.

Precisely, there's a difference between 'we're taking picture of them on a school trip/play, during an art session' and the covert aspect!

Where are you because in the UK you defs would still need parent permission

Also you're contradicting yourself - saying that parental consent not needed; and then saying that actually parents sign a form with their consent.

And it's like you have a work conference and you sign consent for it to be filmed and you see the.cameras at the speakers and q&a sessions, then later they say they filmed the lunch and the loose and tell you you consented!

I sincerely hope too those in the medical profession aren't also adopting these covert behaviours in the name of professional development!

Would it be ok to do this in a working environment with adults only elsewhere?

Yes, of course. My last workplace had cameras all over, except the toilets. It also had those doors that only open if you're wearing your pass, so your movements were tracked. Not to mention that IT could see everything anyone did on work computers, in or out of the office.

I don't know about laws or guidelines related to children, but assume that anyone who could observe a class live could legitimately observe it on a recording.

Personally, I think the words "informed consent" are relevant here. I think many are uncomfortable with the idea of being recorded without explicit awareness and consent. An observer in a room is obvious - secret cameras are not.

@Whataninvasionofprivacy I would query this from the point of view of wanting to understand gdpr and data security better, you could say you just want to be clear as it took you a bit by surprise as you weren't expecting it.

you and the kids should have been informed and asked if recoding was ok. Very odd that someone in an authoritative role would record children and adults without their agreement and parental approvement

seems like an abuse of power

There’s a massive difference between a general survalence camera fixed to a wall and a teacher whipping out an iPad and secretly recoding pupils.

I would not be happy with that. At all. I would be fucking fuming!!! I would go over to it, and DELETE the recording and delete from bin as well. I'd then go straight to the senior staff member who asked for it to be recorded and ask what they thought they were playing at, they should have informed me, I'd tell them I deleted all traces of the recording and if they pulled that stunt again, there'd be trouble. Then, I'd go to the head and complain about this senior staff member.

Because people are going to think it's about abuse think about it

You send your child away to a bunch of strangers to be educated you say no to photos and no to film you think they are safe there is a strict no phones policy your child is safe except they are being covertly recorded for purposes you don't know and certainly didn't agree to most parents are going to think it's dodgy

Our school sends out permission forms at the beginning of every school year that asks for consent for their child to be recorded in school. This covers and states will be for assessments, getting awards, evidence of work, sports carnivals etc. This also includes the teacher filming for professional development as well as any prac students who need to record evidence of their teaching (usually done in photograph and not including any students in the image, but of their work instead).

For professional development purposes, we film from the back of the classroom (probably one class a year or less) which we will then watch with a senior staff member to improve our teaching practice. The class will be filmed on a school device and deleted after the development session. Otherwise, that exact staff member can come and observe the class instead, but by doing that, it’s more difficult to use examples to improve or reflect on.

As a teacher, I wish we could wear recording devices all the time! My class are little angels, but some of my colleagues put up with so much from children, all of which is usually denied by the parents.

To add to that though: if I was lucky enough to have a TA in my room, I would inform them I was recording. __

I’d say It is the same thing

Oh fg sake

1. I'm going to presume the teacher was using something like Irish. This tech is a closed system - the teacher wasn't 'recording' the lesson in a normal sense - but was doing so through the specific technology which is all signed and sealed by the school/govereners/trust etc. It is not a data breach, you can't share videos in the normal sense etc
2. It is exactly the same as having someone observing the lesson. Therefore the ta shouldn't be unhappy because there is no difference to having someone in the room. Perhaps the ta thinks their work in that lesson wasn't very good - if so, maybe they should buck up and try harder in their day to day work?

It’s quite common to film classroom practice and it be used in professional development as part of a feedback process. The films are only used between a mentor/coach and teacher. This can be through a system like Iris or just an iPad.

Most schools send out a generalised permission form for filming and photography at the start of a year. They wouldn’t inform parents when this happens as the permission form would cover this.

In this case though I think the @Whataninvasionofprivacy has a very good point and needs to raise this with the senior leadership at her school.

I personally loathe all of this but I should imagine the children aspect is covered legally.

The TA should have been made aware. It shows professional disrespect not to do so in my opinion.