Choosing a nursery is an important decision for parents. They want to understand what a setting is like, how children spend their time and what makes it the right environment for their family. Professional photography and video can help schools communicate this before a prospective parent even steps through the door.
Recently, Parker Photography & Video worked with Greenshaw Learning Trust to create new photography and video content for two of its nursery settings. The aim was to give each school a fresh collection of marketing materials to support its website, admissions activity and wider communications with families.
The project brought together nursery photography, filming and headteacher led messaging during relatively short visits to each setting. By combining both services into the same shoot, we were able to create a varied collection of content without requiring a full day on site.
Although much of our work involves primary and secondary schools, the project demonstrated how effectively the same approach can be adapted for nurseries and early years settings.
Creating Photography and Video for Nursery Admissions
For many parents, a school or nursery website is one of the first places they look when exploring their options. Alongside practical information about admissions, opening times and facilities, they want to get a feel for the environment and understand what everyday life might look like for their child.
This is where professional nursery photography and video can make a difference to how a setting presents itself.
Photographs can show the learning environment, activities, staff and facilities, helping parents build a picture of the nursery. Video offers another perspective, bringing together moving images and the headteacher's own words to communicate the setting's approach to early years education.
For Greenshaw Learning Trust, the brief was to create content that reflected the individual character of each nursery while providing the schools with practical marketing assets they could use across different channels.
Rather than producing generic promotional material, the focus was on capturing the real environment, the children's experiences and the people who make each setting what it is.
The finished content included professionally edited photographs, a short marketing video for each nursery and supporting footage showing the children, staff, activities and learning spaces.
Combining Nursery Photography and Video in One Shoot
Organising photography and video does not necessarily mean arranging separate production days or committing to a full day of filming.
For this project, the visits to both nurseries were relatively short. I was on site from approximately 8am until midday, allowing time to capture the required photographs and video footage while keeping disruption to the normal running of the nursery to a minimum.
Combining both services meant we could make efficient use of the time available. The photography provided a bank of finished images, while the filming captured the atmosphere of each setting and the material needed to create its promotional video.
This approach can be particularly useful for schools and nurseries where the working day is already busy. Staff need to continue supporting children and managing activities, so planning the shoot around the setting's routine is important.
A well organised visit can produce several different types of content without making the photography and filming the main focus of the day.
The exact schedule will depend on the size of the setting, the number of images required and the complexity of the video. However, combining photography and video can be a practical way to refresh multiple areas of a school's marketing at once.
Two Different Approaches to Nursery Marketing Videos
Each nursery had its own requirements, so the videos were produced using slightly different approaches. Rather than following an identical format for both settings, we worked with each headteacher to find a way of communicating that felt natural.
A Headteacher Voiceover With Supporting Footage
For one nursery, the headteacher provided a voiceover rather than appearing on camera.
Her commentary was combined with supporting footage showing the nursery environment, children taking part in activities and different aspects of daily life at the setting.
This approach allowed the headteacher's message to guide the video while the footage illustrated what she was describing. Viewers could hear directly from the person leading the nursery while seeing the environment and experiences being discussed.
A voiceover can be a useful option for schools that want to include leadership messaging without having the headteacher appear in an interview.
An Interview Led Nursery Promotional Video
For the second nursery, the headteacher was filmed speaking on camera. Her interview was then edited together with supporting footage captured during the visit.
This format combined a personal introduction to the setting with visual examples of the nursery environment and activities.
An interview can help communicate the personality and approach of a school through the words of the person responsible for leading it. Supporting footage then adds context, making the finished video more varied and engaging to watch.
Both approaches worked well for this project, and both headteachers were very pleased with their finished films and the wider collection of photography and video content.
The project demonstrated that school marketing videos do not need to follow a single formula. The right approach depends on the people involved, the message the school wants to communicate and how the finished content will be used.
What Should Nursery Photography Include?
Effective nursery photography should give prospective parents a genuine sense of the setting. Alongside images of the facilities, it can show how the environment is used and the activities that form part of the children's day.
For this project, the photography was planned alongside the video shoot to create a useful selection of images for each nursery.
Depending on the setting and the brief, nursery photography can include:
- The nursery rooms and learning environment
- Play areas and facilities
- Children taking part in everyday activities
- Learning resources and creative activities
- Interactions between children and staff
- Details that reflect the character of the setting
- Wider views of the nursery and its facilities
The aim is to produce a balanced collection that schools can use in different ways, rather than a small number of images suited to only one page of their website.
Professional photography can also help schools maintain a consistent visual identity across their communications. Using a fresh, well planned image library means the website, prospectus, newsletters and social media can all draw on the same set of photographs.
When photographing children, the arrangements also need to respect the school's permissions and safeguarding procedures. Planning with the school in advance helps ensure that photography can take place appropriately within the normal nursery environment.
How Schools Can Use Photography and Video for Admissions
The purpose of school marketing photography and video is not simply to make a website look attractive. It is to help communicate what makes a school or nursery distinctive and give prospective families a clearer understanding of the setting.
For parents considering a nursery place, written information can explain the school's approach, but visual content can help bring that information to life.
A collection of professional photographs can be used across several areas of school marketing, including:
- Nursery and admissions pages on the school website
- Prospectuses and printed information for parents
- Open day and school tour promotion
- Social media posts
- Newsletters and parent communications
- School marketing materials
- Recruitment campaigns
A nursery marketing video can complement these images by showing the environment in motion and allowing the headteacher to explain the setting's approach in their own words.
The same content can also support wider communications from a school trust, helping individual settings present their work while maintaining a professional standard across the organisation.
For schools reviewing their admissions materials, it is worth considering whether their current photographs and videos still reflect the setting accurately. Updated content can provide a more current picture of the environment and give marketing teams useful material for future campaigns.
The content created for Greenshaw Learning Trust was produced with these practical uses in mind, giving both nursery settings photography and video that could support their ongoing marketing and admissions activity.
Getting More Value From a Single Photography and Video Shoot
One of the main advantages of combining school photography and video is that a single visit can produce several different assets.
For the Greenshaw Learning Trust project, each nursery received a professionally edited photo gallery alongside a short marketing video and supporting footage.
These deliverables serve different purposes. The photographs provide individual images that can be used throughout the website and in printed materials. The finished video offers a more complete introduction to the setting, while the supporting footage can help communicate its atmosphere and activities.
Planning both services together also allows the shoot to be organised around the school's schedule. Instead of coordinating separate visits for a photographer and videographer, the school can arrange a single session with the requirements for both services agreed in advance.
This can make the process more straightforward for school staff and provide a broader collection of content from the time spent on site.
For schools and trusts managing several settings, this approach can also be considered when planning future photography and video requirements. Each school will have its own character and priorities, but the overall process can be adapted to suit the individual brief.
School Photography and Video for Primary Schools, Nurseries and Trusts
Greenshaw Learning Trust operates schools across South London, Surrey, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, Bristol and Plymouth. Working with its two nursery settings provided an opportunity to create content tailored to early years education while drawing on an approach already used for school photography and video projects.
While the requirements of a nursery differ from those of a secondary school, the underlying principles remain similar. The content needs to reflect the setting accurately, communicate what makes it distinctive and provide useful material for the school's marketing.
For primary schools, secondary schools, nurseries and academy trusts, combining photography and video can be an effective way to refresh admissions materials, improve website content and build a library of images and footage for future use.
At Parker Photography & Video, we work with schools to understand what they need from their content before planning the shoot. This includes the intended audience, the messages the school wants to communicate and the different places the finished material will be used.
Our school photography service can be combined with video production to create a coordinated collection of content suited to the school's requirements.
Feedback From Greenshaw Learning Trust
The feedback from Greenshaw Learning Trust was very positive, with one of the nurseries particularly pleased with how the finished photography and video captured the character of its setting.
After receiving the completed content, the team commented:
“The photos and video look fantastic, really captured the spirit of the EYFS.”
It was great to hear that the photography and video reflected the experience the nursery wanted to communicate to prospective families.
The wider project also received positive feedback from the schools involved. One review highlighted both the quality of the work and the experience of working with Daniel:
“We booked Daniel to capture videos and photographs of two schools and he did a fantastic job. Staff and pupils loved working with him and his work was brilliant. Thank you!”
For school photography and video projects, the experience of the people involved is just as important as the finished content. Working around staff, pupils and the normal school day requires good communication, organisation and a flexible approach.
These comments reflect the aim of the project: to create professional, useful marketing content while making the process straightforward for the schools.
Planning Your School or Nursery Photography and Video
The Greenshaw Learning Trust project is an example of how useful marketing content can be created during a relatively short visit, with photography and video planned together from the outset.
By adapting the filming approach to each headteacher and setting, we created two distinct nursery videos alongside professionally edited photographs. The finished content was designed to support admissions and marketing while giving each nursery material it could use across its communications.
If your school, nursery or academy trust needs fresh photography and video for its website, prospectus, admissions campaigns or social media, Parker Photography & Video can combine both services into a single, efficiently planned shoot.
To discuss your requirements, visit our school photography page or get in touch to talk about the content you need and how best to capture it.