AGSEV will not run Class Photos for 24/25 – how can we support class reps.

Class Photos we have to inform you that AGSEV WILL NOT BE running this activity in 24/25.

We have delivered almost 3000 photos in the past 18 months!

We know what a joyful memento this is for the present and for the future. Particularly in such an international community where all the kids will be growing up and spreading their reach across the EU and globally.

As such when school stated 4 years ago they were no longer going to run this, AGSEV stepped in.
We have run Class Photos for the past 3 years for all the school. The 1^st year delegating all service to a company that had a keys in hand service, many parents complained it was too expensive.

The last 2 years we found a local photographer who was very flexible and reasonably priced.
The admin element has been handed over to AGSEV as school has opted not to run or support such activities.
Whereby for order collection, payments, printing and delivery we have found sustainable and effective ways, where we struggle heavily is privacy consents and thus deciding who should and should not be in the photo shoot.
This includes both parents/guardians who want to buy pictures and those who do not want to buy pictures but could be or could not be happy with their kids being in the class photo.

This has taken a considerable amount of volunteer time and strain which we currently no longer have available. Most of all as we take Privacy for minors very seriously it has been an almost impossible task trying to replicate the school up to date class lists for privacy consents autonomously.

What is the pain point?

• We have collected 90% of parent/guardian population. To obtain consent from the new arrivals we needed to reach out to the whole parent population every year. Which is time consuming to all involved and a nuisance to the 90% of parents who have already signed up.
• Then matching the collected consents with the class-lists is a difficult task particularly when we do not have the school class-lists.
  Outcome in some instances we have had to experience some kids crying as they wanted to be in the picture but their parents had not signed a consent or assigned it to the wrong class as well as parents complaining they wanted to see the pictures before they were circulated to ensure their kids were NOT in the picture.

What solutions have we sought?

• We have asked school if they can collect consents through SMS, but school advised us they cannot.
• We have asked school to be delegated to process the class-lists in digital format so we can match to our collected data and save some time and ensure completeness. They expressed that they will not provide the class list for this purpose.
• We have proposed to delegate school with an extract of our collected data so they can match to the class-lists. We were advised school does not have available resources.
• We tried contacting the photographers that provided the integrated service in 2021/22, but they no longer offer this service due to privacy reasons.
• We reached out to the other European School Parents associations if they had any alterative solution, to our surprise all but 1 other group have their schools running the Class Photos activity. So they could not help either.

We are out of viable options.

What we can offer to support class delegates?

Class delegates who want to take class photo shoots autonomously we can put you in touch with the photographer and can explain the negotiated pricing and modus operandi.
The photographer knows the school and how it operates. Knows the buildings and where to take pictures, has been vetted by school on a number of occasions, knows the school secretaries and how to print and deliver the photo prints to school.
You will need to arrange the privacy within your class and arrange timetable for shoots with class teacher and school as well as agreeing money collection within your class group.

If interested write to classphotos@agsev.it or speak to your AGSEV language representative.