Teacher secretly filming class.

euronorris

nad1611 wrote: »

However I also believe that there is a way to go about things and there's a way you don't and I don't like the idea of one teacher deciding without any reference to anyone else that she's going to film. I mean she's got to be a bit stupid anyway in this day and age, I wouldn't risk it would you.

Have you confirmed this is what happened, with the school? Or, are you just taking your child's word for it?

nad1611

euronorris wrote: »

Have you confirmed this is what happened, with the school? Or, are you just taking your child's word for it?

No I've been informed by a more seniour member of staff and he's confirmed the Head was not aware and he was informing all the parents that this had happened. I'm not on a Witch Hunt here. My daughter told us a week ago and I didn't do anything, saying to her that there must have been some reason for her doing it, it is the school who brought it to our attention.

gratefulforhelp_2

Goodness, what happened to being nice to all moneysavers?

As a teacher (of nearly 20 years) I would never film a class without their knowledge, unless this had been agreed formally by management.
As pigpen says, a red light doesn't necessarily mean the camera was on, and there are CCTV cameras all over many schools.
Students, teachers and parents, though, need to remember that a classroom is, to a certain extent, a public place, and behave accordingly.

My instinct would tell me that this teacher had some difficulties and had maybe made a silly mistake, since

1. if the teacher had a good relationship with the class, this wouldn't have bothered them, and
2. I'm struggling to see the motivation the teacher has in doing this if all was well.

I'm not sure references to illegal sexual activities involving children are approriate here, since it doesn't sound like there is anything sexual going on.

euronorris

nad1611 wrote: »

No I've been informed by a more seniour member of staff and he's confirmed the Head was not aware and he was informing all the parents that this had happened. I'm not on a Witch Hunt here. My daughter told us a week ago and I didn't do anything, saying to her that there must have been some reason for her doing it, it is the school who brought it to our attention.

Thanks for clarifying.

Not sure why this other staff member has taken it upon themselves to speak to any parents, without first discussing it with the headteacher. Unless they have, of course.

Still, if the head and other staff are now aware of it, and will be discussing it with the parents and, presumably the teacher in question, is there anything else you want done?

I'm just asking because you asked if it was legal, but you've now confirmed that the school are aware and are dealing with the incident. So, do you want something else to happen here? If so, what?

adouglasmhor

sjc3 wrote: »

My sister is a teacher and she would not film children in any way unless authorised to by the head.

It makes me question how experienced this teacher is that she needs to film a disruptive class and play back to them how they are behaving. Surely she has had years of teacher training and should have learnt how to control and discipline a class without relying on a camcorder to shame the kids into doing what she requires of them.

What a daft way to carry on.

And maybe the class is full of kids whose parents say "not my little darling" every time action is taken against their brats. This would prove it is their little darlings.

LJM

if you have signed forms allowing your child/children to be photograped or videoed in school and as long as it stays in school and is used for school purposes it is ok as it is normally done for records of children's work etc to help with projects, reports etc. but to be used outside of school without permission is not. you need to go to the school and ask what was being filmed and why and where it is to be used.

ilikewatch

Interestingly I have recently had some involvement in a very similair situation, where a KS2 teacher has used 3 cameras to record video and sound from a classroom in order to evidence disruptive behaviour like that described by the OP.
The teacher concerned filmed about 200 hours and then approached the Principal of the school with the output. After "highlights" had been viewed by the Senior Management Team & The Governers a decision was made to invite all parents to view the footage and discuss it with the SMT/governers.
Interestingly, after the parents of all 29 pupils had viewed the footage, the only 3 parents who did not congratulate the teacher concerned were the parents of the 3 worst offenders, - all of whom are huffing and puffing about complaining to the County Council, and all of whom have also been invited officially by the Principal (and unoficially by many of the other parents) to find a more suitable school for their ill-behaved and disruptive offspring.

Running_Horse

If a teacher needs to film their class, they have lost control and are not fit to be a teacher. I would not leave the presence of that teacher until every copy had been destroyed. I am not a softy who thinks his little angel can do no wrong, but this is clearly wrong.

ilikewatch

Running_Horse wrote: »

If a teacher needs to film their class, they have lost control and are not fit to be a teacher. I would not leave the presence of that teacher until every copy had been destroyed. I am not a softy who thinks his little angel can do no wrong, but this is clearly wrong.

I would rather that my children's teacher was able to obtain evidence like this rather than spending hours of their planning time each week in meetings with parents who refuse to accept that their child can do any wrong. If teachers were able to apply discipline as they saw fit with the full support of parents they would find it a lot easier to control a class. However, as soon as they take action against a child it invariably causes such a quantity of beaurocracy and meetings that the progress of every other child in the class is affected.

When I was at primary school, if you intentionally talked whilst a teacher was trying to teach you would be made to kneel on the floor with your hands behind your head for the rest of the lesson, if you did it again you would be sent to the headmaster and beaten, and when you got home the last thing you would do would be to complain to your parents because you'd get another well deserved beating for your trouble! - I would be quite happy for this system to be reintroduced at my children's school, and would continue to back whatever decisions about discipline the school made.

RadoJo

Presumably the teacher didn't film any behaviour which wasn't on display in the class, so it's not as though they were filming in a situation where they could reasonably have expected privacy from a teacher. In which case, I'm not really sure what the problem is? Regardless of the legality or otherwise of what the teacher did, surely that only becomes an issue if you believe that the students' privacy was violated in some way, whereas if they were happy to demonstrate that behaviour in front of their classmates and teacher, it seems odd that they would have a problem with that being captured in a more durable medium.