Schools often take photographs or hire photographers to attend school-related events to capture important occasions. Again, there are six legal bases for processing personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and schools must ensure they can rely on one of these legal bases before they can process the personal data. If a school has identified that consent is the appropriate legal basis for taking and publishing photographs in a particular context, they will generally need to obtain the consent of the child’s legal guardians to do so, depending on the age of the child.

In practical terms, where a school may want to take and publish photos at a sports day – schools could inform parents in advance that photographs are going to be taken at this event and could provide different-coloured stickers for the children to wear to signify whether or not they can be photographed. This consent apples also if the school is inviting a local newspaper to take photographs of say children at their first day in school or their first day after the summer break.

For more information, read our guidance on taking photos at school events.