EISM – Eastern Independent Schools Melbourne
Executive Officer:  Nathan Bower

Date of Policy Implementation:  June 2018
Date of last major review: June 2018
Date of next major review:  June 2021

The use of photographic materials on competitor school web and social media sites

Preamble:  EISM exists as a diverse group of schools located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, seeking to participate in weekday competitions and day-long events in a range of sports, most commonly held within typical school hours.  Sporting competitions are organised around year (or multiple year) groupings.  As an organisation, possibilities for the expansion of its offering include exploration of non-sport and cultural activity options.

Aim:  This policy aims to provide guidelines for the positive use of social media platforms in the recording of results and other outcomes from sports competitions between member schools.  It aims to sit alongside each school’s extant social media policy and other policies that set a framework for the school’s own community engagement.

Assumptions:  An understanding of the extent to which some or all of these assumptions apply to each member school is delegated to each school to establish in their own context.

1. Most competition venues are public places
2. Policies around official web and social media sites for schools vary from school to school
3. Current Victorian state legislation with respect to child safety and child protection applies
4. Current national privacy principles apply
5. There is an expectation that, in a spirit of cooperation and fellowship, that all reasonable requests for removal of photographs of concern and narrative that could identify individuals will be agreed to
6. Schools have limited capacity to exercise influence over the personal web and social media sites of members of their community members

Agreed Procedures:  In a spirit of collegiality between the member schools of EISM, the following principles have been established for implementation.

1. For any given school, photographs that are uploaded should be group shots or action shots of their own students, and they should be uploaded to their own school’s website and official social media sites wherever possible
2. Should a school identify a photograph of one of their students on another EISM school’s site that causes concern, that the request for its removal (or alternatively, significant editing) will be agreed to immediately and without challenge
3. Should a school identify a photograph of one of their students on the web or social media site of a community member of another EISM school’s site that causes concern, that assistance will be given to facilitate the request for its removal (or alternatively, significant editing) by all reasonable efforts.