Aberdeenshire parents offered school picture with or without complex needs pupils

Parents at an Aberdeenshire school are complaining after they were offered a choice of class photos with or without children with complex needs in them.

Tempest Photography, which took the pictures, sent a link to Aboyne Primary offering the alternatives.

One parent said there is still "so much shock" after realising her daughter with additional support needs had been excluded from one of her class photos.

"Shocking, appalling, mind-boggling"

Natalie Pinnell came to the realisation on Monday when she received two two links to purchase her daughter's class picture.

It was then that she learned one included her daughter and the other didn't.

Natalie contacted the school who investigated further with the photography company and the link was removed.

She said: "It's shocking, it's appalling, it's mind-boggling.

"I just hope everyone can learn from this experience, that we can hopefully try and make change.

"The support from the school has been incredible, the support from the community has been, honestly - I could cry just thinking about that on its own."

After speaking with other parents, she realised it wasn't just her daughter who had been affected.

She continued: "It was three kids who were affected so, three families had the option of their child being erased from history basically.

"And that's just never going to be okay in my books. It's not something I am going to lay down and accept."

Natalie praised how supportive Aboyne Primary has been throughout the situation and the work they do as an inclusive school.

She said the school have since terminated its contract with Tempest Photography and has urged the local authority to do the same.

"Totally unacceptable"

Aberdeenshire Council says as soon as the school was aware, it asked that only images with the whole class be made available.

A spokesperson for the local authority said: “We are aware that following Aboyne Primary School’s recent school class photographs, links to purchase the pictures included images with and without complex needs provision pupils.

“Whilst this was not a decision taken by the school, we absolutely appreciate the distress and hurt this has caused some parents and carers and we are sincerely sorry.

"The issue has been taken up with the photography company directly as this is totally unacceptable.

"Aboyne is an inclusive school and every single child should be included, engaged and involved in their learning and school experiences.”

Meanwhile Tempest Photography said it was investigating the matter and that there was no further comment at this stage.

An apology to those affected

In a statement, Tempest Photography said: "Recently, after capturing a class group photograph, one of our photographers took additional images of the class group which omitted some members of the class from the photograph.

"We deeply regret any upset this has caused and would like to sincerely apologise to the parents and children affected.

"We are a family-run business and photograph at schools across the UK, and would like to reassure our customers that this is not standard procedure for our company and we are taking this matter very seriously.

"We are committed to implementing meaningful changes to prevent such an occurrence in the future."

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