Photography Policy

This Policy covers all photography taken in school, on school trips or at school events. It is based on guidance provided by the Information Commissioner's Office, the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which came into force in 2018.

The regulations will always guide our actions in this area, although it is hoped that common sense and goodwill will be applied by all parties. It is often the case that unjustified fear of breaching the provisions of Data Protection legislation stops people taking photographs or videos of school activities. At West Park School we believe that, subject to sensible and legal constraints as set out below, taking photographs of pupils is part of school life.

For the purposes of this Policy, the word(s) “photograph/ images” includes any kind of still or moving image with or without sound and whether stored/transmitted electronically or as hard copy. Where the Act does apply, a common sense approach suggests that the photographer asks for permission to take a photograph, which will usually be enough to ensure compliance.

Where a parent has given permission for West Park School to use a pupils' photograph, this permission is held for the time that the pupil attends West Park School. The photo will be used for the school website, social media and any other publications that involve West Park School. We cannot be responsible for any 3rd parties using our images e.g. a local newspaper may wish to cover an event and then subsequently use or share the images to its own website and social media.

No photographs will be retained within school for more than the time that the pupil attends West Park School. This applies to physical, printed photographs as well as to photographs stored electronically. There are obvious exceptions: where photographs are part of documents and publications which the school wishes to keep for archive purposes photographs contained within them will of course be kept. Photos posted to social media, the website and any other publications may remain active indefinitely unless requested otherwise.

Any photographs taken are stored on an encrypted hard drive by a single member of staff, no images or videos are kept on cameras, laptops, unencrypted memory sticks or devices with unrestricted access, this includes staff desktop PC's and laptops.

If you have any questions or concerns about any of the above, please contact info@westpark.derby.sch.uk.

This policy is reviewed annually.