Photograph Policy

When parents join us, we ask for their written permission to take photographs of their child at nursery. These photographs may be used in displays in the nursery, or within their online learning journal. Photographs can be an extremely useful tool in this regard, and can enrich a child’s observations which will become a lasting memento for parents of their child’s time at nursery.

At Activeplay Nursery & Preschool we use an electronic journal for each child. We use a recognised provider (Tapestry) which is used by many local schools. Staff will have access to the electronic child development folders for their own key children and senior staff will have access to those folders of the children in their room. The nursery manager and owner will have access to all children’s folders for monitoring purposes. Parents will have access to their own child’s electronic folder by means of an individual PIN/password, and are invited to add to, and comment on their child’s observations. Information will only be shared with, for example health visitor or other professionals involved in the care of the child, or the child’s future school, with express permission of the parent.

Parents are free to say that they would prefer us not to take photographs of their child, and this will be respected.

As a nursery we want to have sensible precautions in place to ensure that photographic images of children are appropriate and used appropriately but we do not want to be paranoid about this, as photographs of children at play can bring great pleasure to parents and to the children themselves, who enjoy seeing photos of themselves and their friends.

It is our policy that staff may only take photographs using the nursery’s cameras or tablets. Staff are not permitted to use any personal device such as a camera, mobile phone or MP3 player to take photographs except in very exceptional circumstances and with the permission of the parent or the nursery owner.

Staff are not permitted to carry mobile phones, MP3 players or any device that can take photographs or video within the nursery. Staff are allowed to carry their telephone, with the permission of the nursery manager or owner, in special circumstances and for a strictly limited time, for example if they are expecting an urgent call. Telephones or any other equipment which may incorporate a camera may only be used in parts of the nursery where there are no children present, for example a staff member may use their phone while having lunch in a room unoccupied by children, or make a telephone call from the office or kitchen.

If an occasion arises where a photograph may be used out of the nursery, for example as part of a member of staff’s college work, or published in any way, for example an event photographed by the local paper, parents’ permission will be sought for this in advance. In the former instance, a child would only be identified as child A/child B etc, and in the latter case a child would only be identified by their first name. On rare occasions, staff members do work on the children’s journals at home, with the permission of the nursery manager or owner. We ask parents to appreciate that it is often difficult for staff to complete administrative work, which can be a considerable burden, within the nursery day.

Old photographs of children which may have been used in displays etc in the past, will be destroyed if we cannot return them to the child’s parents.

There are some occasions during the year where parents are present and will naturally wish to take photographs or video of their child, for example the Graduation party. We do not wish to restrict this entirely normal activity. Notice of such events will be posted up within the nursery, and if a parent does not wish their child to attend such an event, this is their choice and will be respected.

Revised May 2022
By: Jacquelin Curtis
Adopted as the policy of the nursery
By: Jacquelin Curtis Director,
Activeplay Nurseries Ltd