Media Policy

Summary

This policy is divided into the following sections:

  • Policy Scope
  • Social Media
  • Photography
  • Placements
  • Storypark

Petit Early Learning Journey Pty Ltd, its subsidiaries and related entities (“Petit Early Learning Journey”, “we”, “us” or “our”) are committed to engaging and communicating with families of children enrolled at our centres (“Children” or “Child” as appropriate) whilst maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of Children and their families.

This policy sets out how we communicate with parent/guardians, carers and other authorised contacts of Children (“Parents”) and provides guidelines for use of social media within the context of Petit Early Learning Journey.

Petit Early Learning Journey has two sets of policies, one for Parents including parents/guardians who wish to have their children enrolled with us, and one for employees and workers. The policies are written in this way to provide targeted guidance to the relevant parties, and we are committed to ensuring consistency between policies.

This policy is a family policy. It is designed to outline company standards and expectations for external parties with regards to social media.

It applies to Parents, parents/guardians who wish to have their children enrolled with us, parents/guardians who have previously had their children enrolled with us and volunteers or students undertaking placement at our centres. Employees and workers are also required to comply with this policy in addition to the Employees Social Media Policy.

Social Media

Petit Early Learning Journey and each of our centres have a Petit Early Learning Journey Website page, Facebook page, Instagram page, LinkedIn page and/or YouTube account (together, “Social Media”) to promote our organisation and our services to the local community. These forms of Social Media are used as an additional means of communication between us, Parents, parents/guardians of children previously enrolled with us, prospective parents/guardians interested in enrolling their children with us and the broader community.

We use social media to:

  • promote any social events we may have;
  • update Parents and deliver news; and
  • display photos and videos of activities, incursions or excursions and projects

We are careful about ensuring that the content used on our Social Media adheres to this policy, Employees Social Media Policy and our Privacy Policy, and are committed to ensuring that we protect the interests of the Children, Parents and our centres.

Only Nominated Supervisors/Centre Directors, Operations Managers, Chief Operating Officer, and our Marketing team (collectively” Centre Administration”) have the authority to post on Social Media on behalf of Petit and each centre. No other employee may use our Petit Early Learning Journey trademarked name or logo or engage in any promotions or conversations representing our centres. We may, from time to time, promote charities and/or local businesses with connections to children’s families or our centres’ local community.

We will only post names and recognisable facial images of Children, Parents, and our employees with prior consent.

We ask that Parents be thoughtful to and about other families and Children, and to think before they post.  Parents should respect the rights and confidentiality of other families and Children when using or interacting with us through Social Media. We regularly monitor our Social Media and may block any person posting or commenting on our Social Media inappropriately.

Parents, employees, workers or any other individuals who consistently breach this policy may be blocked, removed or banned by us from our Social Media groups and pages and we may take legal action if there is persistent and consistent abhorrent action exhibited by parents.

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of Social Media, please contact us using the details in the Contact Details section below.

Photography including videography

Our employees and workers are not allowed to use their personal mobile phones, cameras or any other personal technology devices to take photographs including videos while at our centres or on any activities, incursions or excursions unless prior permission is given by Centre Administration.

If prior permission is given for our employees or workers to use their personal technology devices for photographs or videos, these will be downloaded into the relevant centre’s IT system and deleted from that personal technology device as soon as possible. We will not use any photographs or videos taken at any centre or on any activities, incursions or excursions on Social Media without permission from the people in the photographs (or the Parents of the Children in the photographs, whichever the case may be).

We will do our best to respect the wishes of Parents who do not wish for their Child to be photographed. We will ensure that the Child is not the subject of any photographs or videos while attending one of our centres or on any activities, incursions or excursions and will take reasonable steps to ensure that photographs or videos are not published on Social Media that indirectly include the Child (for example, in the background). This may mean that the Child may be removed from any group situations where photographs including videos will be taken.

For Parents

If you, including a family member, are visiting one of our centres with the intention to take photographs including videos, you can only use your personal mobile phones, cameras or any other personal technology devices to take photographs of your own Child. No other Children can be in the photograph.

Staff Training/Practical Experience

Each of our centres regularly hosts students studying towards their Diploma or Bachelor in Early Childhood Education and Care who have been assigned to conduct practical placement at the respective centre (“Students”).

As part of their practicum, Students are asked to observe and plan activities for a selected group of Children. Students do not use their personal mobile phones, cameras or any other personal technology devices to take photographs or videos for the purposes of completing their practical placement.

We will notify Parents if their Child’s studio is to be a part of any practical placement. Students will obtain consent from Parents before their Child is part of the practical placement. If Parents do not consent for their Child to be a part of the practical placement, we will move their Child to another studio for the duration of the placement. Parents of selected Children are able to access all records and information related to their Child as part of the practical placement.

If you have any questions or concerns about placements, please contact us using the details in the Contact Details section below.

Storypark

We use Storypark as a secure platform for privately sharing stories, photographs and videos with Parents through real time updates. It is the primary communication tool between our educators and Parents. Storypark allows us to document and report on each Child’s development and allows Parents to participate with their Child’s learning at home. Parents can also securely invite additional family members from around the world (Added Contacts) to view posts about their Child both on Studio Pages and the Child’s Page. If your Child is photographed with another Child and this photograph is uploaded to a Studio Page, both Children’s Parents and Added Contacts can view this photograph.

In our commitment to support our team of educators and their professional growth, Storypark posts may be shared amongst our educators through a private or closed ‘Educators Only’ page.  Our educators have access to a Community of Practice page where photos and stories about programs and activities can be shared across the Petit network.

The educators’ private page includes stories and photographs posted by our educators about the programs and activities at Petit Early Learning. They will be similar to the stories that Parents have access to in relation to their Child, however, they will also be likely to contain information about specific learning objectives and goals and the educators’ professional experience, strengths and development opportunities.

While educators are part of the Petit Early Learning Journey group, they can download photos and stories from the Community of Practice pages to build a portfolio of their professional experience.

For more information on Storypark, please visit: https://au.storypark.com/

You can read more about Storypark’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy at:

Parents using Storypark agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy when they agree to create an account with Storypark (which requires acceptance of Storypark’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy). In using Storypark, Parents consent to and permit us to upload stories, photographs and videos of Children to Storypark. Parents also consent to engaging in discussions with other families and our centres through this medium.

Changes to this Media Policy

We may, from time to time, update this Families Social Media Policy and reserve our right to change our Families Social Media Policy at any time.

You can find the date of our most recent version of this policy at the end of this document. When we make material changes to this Families Social Media Policy, we will send a notification to Parents by email.

Contact Details

If you have any questions, comments or wish to discuss this Families Social Media Policy or any aspect of our procedures, please contact us by:

Telephoning: 1300 173 848

Writing to us at: PO Box 10829, Brisbane QLD 4000

Emailing: enquiries@petitjourney.com.au

Last updated: 15/03/2022