Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 Hi, We are considering setting up a Facebook page for our Playgroup, which I and another member of staff are happy to moderate. I just wondered if anyone already has one and whether they have a policy on it that they might like to share? I'm assuming that as long as confidentiality is observed and no photos of the children are posted, there shouldn't be any problem and it could be a great way of sharing news, wish lists, reminders etc. Would love to hear everybody elses views on this before we go ahead...
hopeytg Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 We have a facebook page and I monitor the 'friends' - it is useful to put information on and share the odd photo - we ask for parental permission on our registration form and only parents can become friends.
mrsbat Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 We have one and it is a godsend, I put reminders, newsletters, policies etc all on there and it's brilliant. I don't put any photo's on there apart from one's of the staff. I moderate it and go on there most days to just put a note of what the children have enjoyed that day etc. It really works well as a reminder to the parents and also when we need something - like the other day we had run out of spare children's socks and the day after putting a note on the facebook page we got 3 full carrier bags donated! so it does work
Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 I have seen them set up so that memebers can comment on posts by the owners, but not start their own posts - protects you a bit more from trolls and aggrieved parents.
Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 Yes, I had an idea that it could be really useful and a great link with parents. Does anyone have a policy covering it?
Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 We have a facebook page and I monitor the 'friends' - it is useful to put information on and share the odd photo - we ask for parental permission on our registration form and only parents can become friends. How do you word your parental permission... do you mean to put photos on? I don't envisage us putting photos of the children on, just things we've made or found etc.
Cait Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 We have one, a closed group so parents have to be invited or request to join and only my deputy or myself can allow them on. We can remove posts and photographs and it's jolly useful!
Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 This is something we too have been thinking about for a while. How do you go about doing it? Do you set it up as a person or create a group? If I create a group, do people who join then get to see my profile? I thought I knew about facebook until I thought about doing this!!
Cait Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 You set up your profile so only specific people can see it - everyone else just gets a message, 'Suzie only allows certain people to see her profile, if you know Suzie click above to be her friend' or whatever. I've actually got 2 personas on there, the one that's the Preschool 'me' and my family and friends have the other 'me'
Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 You set up your profile so only specific people can see it - everyone else just gets a message, 'Suzie only allows certain people to see her profile, if you know Suzie click above to be her friend' or whatever. I've actually got 2 personas on there, the one that's the Preschool 'me' and my family and friends have the other 'me' Yes, I already have a personal account but I want to set up a Playgroup acount. Is your Preschool one a group or just another like your personal one?
mundia Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 I have found the less positive experiences with facebook I'm afraid, and personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I also think you need to consider parents who don't have access/skills/ to use facebook and can therefore feel very excluded if many messages/info/conversations etc are shared this way. Facebook creates its own 'microculture' in which 'in' people can very quickly form a clique and to which others feel left out. It can then become divisive. Its just one perspective (ie mine!) but if you do do this for your groups, I think you have to walk the extra mile for families without this access to ensure that they still feel included. Digital exclusion is something I am really interested in researching, should I ever get around to it, and this is one of the aspects of it.
Cait Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 Absolutely, Mundia, it's really important that parents without access/wish to join facebook don't feel included. There are elements of it that I really don't like, but it's the medium of choice for lots of our young parents these days.
Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Posted April 6, 2011 Absolutely, it will be as a additional method of communicating rather than instead of and all parents will continue to be given the usual slips and things will still be posted on the notice boards etc.
Guest Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 this thread interests me and in this day of modern gadgets, i think we have to move with it. Has anyone ever had some one post a derogatory comment on there? And if they did would just un friend them ( cant think of the correct term:))
Cait Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 I've not had one Suer, but if there ever was one I could just remove it
Guest Posted April 27, 2011 Posted April 27, 2011 Well, I've put together a policy and got the go ahead from the comittee and set up a Facebook page as a group. Parents have all signed consent forms stating whether they are happy for us to use photos, happy for us to use photos with their childrens faces pixelated or blocked or don't want us to use photos of their child online. amazingly eveyone is happy for us to use photos and so the page is up and running and we have loads of positive feedback at Playgroup. If anyone wants to have a look, it can be found under Pastures New Playgroup (I hope) Constructive comments welcome.
bugbabe Posted June 13, 2011 Posted June 13, 2011 We have a Facebook page which is locked down to current parents only. We post photos and videos of the children on there weekly for the parents to see. We have had some lovely comments which makes up for the extra time this takes to do. As soon as a family leaves, the photos of the child are removed and the parents are removed from the friends list. We always insure that when posting photos and videos, these are for friends to see only. Our parents like this service and we have never had any complaints.
karenlatoy Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 Can I just ask those who have a Facebook page for their setting how you get round issues of confidentiality? I set up a page for our playgroup last week but I was told to remove it by one of our committee members because the security risks were too great. (A parent was concerned that someone might post her child's name on the page.) I had no choice but to remove it but now feel rather disappointed because I wanted to use it as a blog to inform parents about what we are doing. I was particularly keen to do it for some of our young parents and also the working ones who we don't see very often to speak to. Other parents have given positive support so disappointed all round really. Any suggestions? Karen
Cait Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 I would just remove a post that mentioned a child's name if there ever was one.
karenlatoy Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 I would just remove a post that mentioned a child's name if there ever was one. That's what I said but she was worried about what could happen in the time between it being posted and an admin removing it, a risk she feels is too high.
Beau Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 Perhaps you should look into setting up a closed group as Cait has done? This can only be viewed by those in the group and you can set it so that only admin can accept new members. Of course groups aren't quite as functional as pages, since 'old' posts etc can quickly move down and off the top of the page but they are at least much more secure.
Inge Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 Closed group is probably the way to go... set up correctly only those in the group can see the entries, and admin has to approve all members... and they are easy to add and remove.. so they could be kept at current parents only... I have one group which does go back quite a long way, just checked and I can see back as far as August... and I can add pictures to it... not as versatile as a page but would be a way to keep in touch with the parents who use it..
Smiles Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 Ihave had several attempts at setting up apge for our setting but although I am able to do this I cant seem to do it so i can allow friends to join it? Obviously I only want parents or staff to join it .any ideas what im doing wrong? I have published the page. smiles
karenlatoy Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 Ihave had several attempts at setting up apge for our setting but although I am able to do this I cant seem to do it so i can allow friends to join it? Obviously I only want parents or staff to join it .any ideas what im doing wrong? I have published the page. smiles If you set it up as a 'page', anyone can use it but if you set it up as a 'group', you can set it up so that only users you have 'accepted' are able to view it and add comments. What I would really like to be able to do is set up a 'page' with the security of a 'group' but that doesn't seem to be possible. Our committee are very against the whole thing though so I can't see either happening any time soon. Shame! Karen
Devondaisy Posted October 12, 2011 Posted October 12, 2011 How about just getting every parent'e e-mail if they have one and e-mailing everything when you need to. As a response to a parent's comment on last year's questionnaire I now do a weekly newsletter by e-mail, which contains lots of photos of what the children have been up to that week. Parents love it and I have had so many positive comments. I also really enjoy putting it together!! Having all the e-mails is also useful when I need to let parents know about something quickly - we had hand, foot an mouth recently so i was able to send a link to the relevant NHS page giving information about it. I still have a folder with all the newsletters/info printed out, butall our parents at the moment are happy with e-mail. I just worry about facebook as i'm never sure just who can see what, so this solution is better for me.
Guest SueV Posted November 3, 2012 Posted November 3, 2012 One of our parents set one up last year and it has been slightly useful although not all parents contribute. We did have a little bit of a verbal war between two of the parents but one has been blocked now. It can be useful for me to remind parents of dates, photographers etc. so providing it is monitored well it can work.
thumperrabbit Posted November 4, 2012 Posted November 4, 2012 I only ever put on standard information, so for instance I email newsletters (as well as hard copy) and put it on Facebook telling everyone to check their 'in-box' I will post about committee meeting dates and fundraising activities. No children's names/photos are ever posted, but occasionally i will add a photo of a display board that we have created. To be honest for us it's just a marketing tool, I hate the idea BUT as my parents are getting younger I realise they are all on it CONSTANTLY! 1
Mouseketeer Posted November 4, 2012 Posted November 4, 2012 That's exactly how ours is used thumperrabbit. Is yours a separate account or a group from own page ? Still undecided whether to go down the photo route (with parents permission) I don't see how it's any diff than emailing photos to parents, unless it's only their child in them, but to be honest Its the group photos that I'd like parents to see, I try to do a collage showing diff activities through the week to display for parents but am always conscious of the ink being used(and making sure its not always same children in pics)
thumperrabbit Posted November 4, 2012 Posted November 4, 2012 That's exactly how ours is used thumperrabbit. Is yours a separate account or a group from own page ? Still undecided whether to go down the photo route (with parents permission) I don't see how it's any diff than emailing photos to parents, unless it's only their child in them, but to be honest Its the group photos that I'd like parents to see, I try to do a collage showing diff activities through the week to display for parents but am always conscious of the ink being used(and making sure its not always same children in pics) I don't have my own personal account, as I really don't like it on a personal level, so ours is a group that has it's own page. Because there is nothing of any personal significance to anyone, it is open to all who request to 'be friends'....at first I got really worked up wondering who all these people were requesting to be friends but my young and trendy chairperson told me they were friends of hers who had children but not yet at pre-school age, and therefore may choose us based on the little information that is posted I also do the weekly collage that you do I know it's ink wasteful, but my Ofsted Inspector spent ages looking through all that photo evidence, not sure she would've got the same picture if it was on a computer screen? 1
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