PARENTS of York pupils could soon be asked to give formal written permission for their child's photograph to be taken in school.

Education bosses have drawn up guidelines for senior teachers regarding the filming and photographing of their students in school, for publications and in the media.

Civic leaders want to protect children by preventing unauthorised use of pictures, while allowing parents, schools and newspapers to record activities and continue with traditional activities.

Murray Rose, assistant director of education and leisure for City of York Council, said the advice encourages schools to collect one-off consent forms at the beginning of a child's schooling. Parents can opt out at any time.

He said: "The key message delivered in the guidance is that the filming of school plays and other activities is an important element in recording the achievements of children and contributes to their self-esteem.

"The guidance ensures that any filming is done in the most sensitive and safe way possible."

Head teachers and school governors will be issued with the guidelines, endorsed by the Area Child Protection Committee, when the new school year starts in September.

They follow fears over the misuse of children's images that have been recorded at schools, online and in publications, as well as worries over making children's names available to the public.

Some local authorities have run into conflict with parents and the media over decisions to stop newspapers publishing pictures of school concerts, sports days and Nativity plays.

But earlier this year Government Education Secretary Charles Clarke said there was no ban on identifying children pictured in the Press and said some local authorities may have misinterpreted official guidance.

Coun Carol Runciman, executive member for education, said: "They are very sensible guidelines about an area that concerns people greatly. If head teachers and governing bodies read it carefully it will clarify a lot of issues.

"We wanted a balance between people having a record of their children in school, while making sure that there was nothing untoward going on. I think this does that."

The guidelines were approved by the council's executive committee.

Updated: 14:25 Thursday, August 05, 2004