Please try not to lose your information sheet, especially in the dog. It is difficult to re-issue a child's passcode due to stringent safeguarding issues. We recommend you photograph your passcode for safekeeping.

However, if you have lost your information sheet you should:

1. Contact the school in the first instance, as only they are capable of verifying registered parent email addresses. Schools are provided with pupils passcodes and can help you, but they are already busy people so only contact them if you have completely lost your sheet.
2. Otherwise, you can contact us and we will do our best to help you. This is sometimes possible if you have a code for one sibling and not the other. If not, we usually require an image of your child holding a piece of paper with the name of the school on (to verify guardianship) and even then may need to communicate with the school to validate your email address. We do realise how burdensome this is for you, but the protection of children is paramount.
   

All orders, for both digital and printed items, are processed and despatched to schools or homes only after the deadline date has passed, not your order date. While this can take up to twenty working days, we will turn them around as quickly as we possibly can. You may therefore have a wait if you have ordered early in the ordering window and we thank you for your patience. Also, please note that delays after despatch are sometimes out of our control, e.g. postage delay during busy periods and schools may even retain orders if it is raining. If this is not acceptable to you, please do not order.

Definitely! All packs can be mixed over different individual or siblings from the same household. We believe you should have one affordable pack for all your needs if that is what you want.

We do think it's unfair when other school photography companies artificially restrict packs, e.g. only allowing one image for all the prints in lower priced packs thus making you climb their 'sales ladder' and forcing you to spend more than you otherwise would. We believe in giving you your choice of images in the pack you can afford. So, mix up your school-photos packs!

We sympathise! You can browse images and products, but we sometimes require an account with findmyphotos.co.uk to add to basket and purchase.

Why? There are many benefits, including a) you can tag your favourite images to make a personal gallery which b) makes ordering easier if you have multiple children (especially with mixed image packs), c) passcodes become optional after 'tagging', d) your basket is held safely on your account, not your device, meaning you can construct your order over time (e.g. if you visit your parents) which means e) you don't lose your basket if you clear your device cookies, f) accounts persist over time and g) we can better assist you with customer service as we can view your account and your current basket contents on the server. We fully respect your data.

The information sheet explains how you can view and order images online (on any device) using a unique passcode that unlocks only your images - please do not lose your passcode! Benefits of printed information sheets are numerous, including: all pupils receive them on photo day, taking it home the same day minimises multiple contact points, it cuts out considerable administration for the school, most schools are now cashless and won't accept money at the reception, it is more environmentally friendly and means that you can view your photographs sooner.

If you are separated from your child's other parent and they have legitimate access, please share the information and passcode with them.

Your passcode may not work because

• Images are awaiting upload. If your child has received their information sheet on or shortly after photo day, then please allow at least a few working days for us to process and upload the images before contacting us. You will be informed if your school's gallery is currently offline after entering a valid passcode.
• Please check and input your passcode carefully. It is usually an eight digit alphanumeric passcode (alpha characters are lower case only). Be aware that certain characters can appear similar - e.g. 0 (zero) looks similar to o (for oscar).

If you are sure it's not working when it should, please contact us and we will help you.

Please order within the ordering window allowed for your school if you wish to order printed items. We normally allow at least a two weekend window for ordering printed and digital images. We usually allow a few extra weeks after the first deadline for digital image only orders.

Otherwise individual pupil galleries are sometimes re-opened at different times of the year, e.g. during class photo ordering periods.

It is rare for our payment provider to block a payment being made. If the payment has been blocked and your card is issued from a UK registered bank registered to a UK address, then it is usually the issuing bank that is blocking the payment.

Our payment provider will only sometimes block a transaction if the attempted payment comes from a non-UK issued bank account or if it has been flagged for risk assessment, e.g. payment using a 'virtual card'. If your payment has been blocked, please contact us and we shall try and help you.

Glass reflects light, and whilst we try our very best to minimise our lighting equipment showing in spectacle lenses, please be aware that sometimes this is simply impossible - spectacle prescriptions can vary considerably, we are often restricted in the space we can place our lighting equipment and are very time limited per pupil. Please choose your photographs based on the previews as they appear in your gallery.

No. All of our prints are 'compatible' with the most common sizes of mounts and frames available. We only sell prints in 12×8, 9×6 and 6×4 inch sizes as they exactly match the 3:2 camera sensor ratio and therefore the image you see on your preview gallery is the image you get. However each will fit most common print frame inch sizes of 10×8 (5:4 ratio), 8×6 (4:3 ratio) or 6×4 (directly) with either a little overlap behind the edges of the frame or you can trim the edges of the print down yourself. Most frames, mounts and overlays overlap by ¼ inch per side also.

As an approximate print sizing guide, your information sheet (A4 paper size) is almost 12×8 (more accurately 11.7×8.3) inches; fold in half length-ways to give approximately 9×6 (8.3×5.9) and fold length-ways again to give roughly 6×4 (5.9×4.15). Each being half / twice the area of the other.

Green-screen, sometimes called chromakey, is where a pupil is photographed against a green background. The green is then removed from the image leaving a transparent area, allowing you a choice of different backgrounds. If you know your child is going to be photographed against a green-screen then please do not have them wear any green coloured clothing or hair accessories. Also note that a pure white background is not possible with green-screen.

Any personal information you provide to our ordering website findmyphotos.co.uk is held in accordance with the privacy policy (shown at account creation and login) and is in compliance with the spirit and principles of the GDPR regulations. Contact us to discuss. Please note we do not receive your card details from our payment provider and no financial information is stored locally or on your account.

Normally, though it is at the discretion of the school. Internal siblings (brothers and sisters at the same school) are usually photographed during the school photo day, but only when time permits and it's not guaranteed. External siblings (brothers and sisters not at the same school) are usually photographed before the school day (if pre-arranged) and we sometimes employ a slot booking system. The school will notify you. The exception is when a family photography day is offered again with slot booking, which usually replaces any external siblings time period.

Yes. In fact, the majority of orders are now made on mobile devices. Our website and image galleries are 'responsive' and automatically adapt to your viewing device (desktop, tablet or phone) while still offering full accounts and secure ordering.

Unfortunately, orders cannot be amended or added to after they have been placed. Please ensure your basket contents are correct before checking out.

All photographers are DBS certified.

When we receive multiple orders for the same child, they are always placed in separate parcels and returned to the school. However, the teacher or administrator can only reasonably give all parcels to the same child to take home on the day they are despatched. If this might cause a problem for you, please choose home delivery at the basket so that your parcel is despatched directly to you.

All online school portraits are passcode protected into individual galleries and parents can only see the child / children for whom they have a passcode. Even so, if you do not want your child's image to appear on our website whatsoever, please let us know and their images will be removed. Consequently, you will still need to purchase via online ordering using the image filenames and will incur restrictions including reduced choice of images and products - e.g. no digital images as they are supplied through the website.

We do offer minor adjustments, though it is at our discretion, is for minor adjustments only (such as spot removal) and only after receiving explicit instructions from parents so as not to confuse permanent marks such as birth marks. When purchasing images, please include details of any adjustments you would like to request by tapping 'Make a note on this image'. If this is deemed complicated or too difficult to look natural, we will contact you further to discuss.

Yes. We understand that some parents / carers prefer digital images so they can share them easily online and maybe arrange their own printing. Unlike others, they are freely available for purchase from the start - they are not restricted to being an 'add-on' item to expensive packs. N.B. digital images are not available for any class or team photographs.

Yes. Sometimes photographs may show the background edges, the front edge of the background or other paraphernalia. We are often space restricted at school settings so can't use a large background and therefore we can 'catch' it in the photo occasionally as cameras are used handheld. However, all purchased images will be correctly 'photo-shopped' to remove any background distractions. If your child was photographed completely off the background, then it may not be possible to amend in that instance.

School photography does involve a lot of processing and manual handling, and even with the best of intentions, things can occasionally go wrong. Please contact us no later than one month from receiving your order detailing any issues you may have, quoting your order number (provided on your order confirmation email) and we shall investigate.

Also note that one order means one parcel - if you have images of multiple children on a single order, then all items will be returned in one parcel, not one per child. This is usually received by the eldest child, though not always.

We normally offer two methods of delivery:

1. school collection (no charge) and
2. home delivery direct to your door (charged).

School collection is preferred as it is easier, faster and cheaper than home delivery, which is more for separated parents or grandparent that live away from their child. Please share passcodes with other relevant authorised people. Also note we do reserve the right to choose the most appropriate delivery method from all those available.

Sometimes a school will require all photographs to be delivered to parents / carers home addresses rather than collected from the school. Also, galleries are sometimes re-opened outside of the normal, post photo day ordering window. In these instances, only home delivery will be available to you in the online ordering system. Of course, digital images do not incur any delivery costs!

Unless you have been provided with a paper based order form along with your information sheet on photo day, then we no longer accept cash / cheque as a means of payment. Your information sheets include full details of how to view and order online through our website and we have made the ordering process as simple as we can. If you get stuck, contact us.

Online only ordering is more efficient for all, keeping costs down, freeing school administrators time for more important tasks, is more environmentally friendly, reduces physical contact points, ensures accuracy and, as most schools are now 100% cashless, is the only way to order.

All of the photographs that we produce are copyrighted - ©school-photos.co.uk. Images that are shown on the website for sale in your online gallery include a watermark copyright notice. All purchased prints and digital images that you receive do not include any watermark. Additionally, purchased digital images come with a personal usage licence and you are free to make unlimited personal prints.

Class photographs are only available in print format because they show multiple children and digital images are too easy to share online, creating security concerns. So class photos are print only.

Some of our galleries are available with the option to purchase black and white prints, and this will be shown in your gallery options. However, this is not always the case, e.g. greenscreen galleries do not offer a printed black and white option. If you still want monochrome images, we recommend you purchase digital images and convert to black and white with any photo editing package.

Please note that we don't have any control over how pupils are presented to us, and as photographers do not touch children, cannot always amend things for them such as collars. However, as parents you might give their children haircuts beforehand, or place long hair in a ponytail. We do sometimes ask children with long hair to place it behind their ears to see their full face. Full clean uniform also helps.

No. As long as your school continues to use our services, we do not delete images that are less than five years old. However, they are not held online and will need to be ordered by contacting us directly. It is therefore very important that you retain your unique passcodes for future reference if you intend to purchase in the future - again photograph it for long term safekeeping.

All of our prints and products are made to the highest professional standards using quality archival materials. All standard prints are wet, silver halide processed that makes dye-based RA-4 chromogenic prints for maximum longevity. However, like all photographs, please keep them out of direct sunlight or they can fade and bleach within a few years. Although rapidly improving, we do not use inkjet 'dry-lab' style prints at all.

Most schools prefer that photographs are taken in the autumn term, as they want their school database pupil images updated as soon as possible and parents can order in time for Christmas. However, not all schools will follow this and some prefer the less busy spring term. Subsequently, schools will usually stick to the same time frame every year, so if your school photographs were taken in the spring in previous years, this will likely remain the case this academic year. Class photos can vary, but are usually offered for sale in the summer term.