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Parents split on video ban

Tom Rowley
17/12/2003

A BAN on filming the Christmas nativity play has divided parents at a Hattersley school.

St James' RC Primary doesn't allow parents to use camcorders to record their children's part in the nativity play - and the issue has split parents at the school.

Julie Hale, whose daughter attends the Cheriton Close primary said: "I was disappointed. Chloe was five last week and this was the first proper school play she's been in. We have a video camera and it's not really fair that we only have a photograph of her."

Another parent, who did not wish to be named, said: "It's terrible. My daughter has only been there a year so this is her first play,"

Although she thought the ban was a legal requirement and did not blame the school.

Alison Jones, parent of nine-year-old Kieran, said: "I've mixed feelings. I'm all for protecting kids, but I'd like to have videoed the play. It's all memories, isn't it?"

Mike Whatmough, whose daughter Jasmine is also nine, suggested a compromise. "If teachers videoed it parents could buy it so they could have a record of it. It's the way life is at the moment and it's a very difficult situation."

Backing the school, Nick Gee, father of two girls aged four and seven, said: "I don't have a camera so it does not really bother me. It's a big issue and I can understand why the school did it."

Another parent of a six-year-old pupil, who also did not wish to be named, agreed wholeheartedly. "I think it's great - you've got to protect your child. I fully support the school in that."

The school says it is following the RC Diocese of Shrewsbury's policy that children should only be photographed with parental permission.

"Members of staff take photographs and these can be made available to parents. We have found that it can be very distracting for children if they see parents bobbing up and down taking photographs. That's been our policy long before child protection issues arose, and does not just apply to plays, but also to church services and first communion."