FAQ

Envelopes and flyers – most schools send our order envelopes containing the product information home with your child prior to the day of photography. This gives you both cash or online ordering options. Schools will also provide you details on how to order via email/newsletter/school app, with the online ordering access link or code, so please check for this communication from your school.

At most schools there are 2 ways for parents/carers to order school photos – online (before, on or up to a week after photo day) or using one of our order envelopes (which needs to be handed in to our photographers on the day)

You can find our how to order video here.

Phone orders – we cannot take credit card or bank details over the phone, we can only accept orders submitted online or paid in cash using an advancedlife order envelope.

For orders received online prior to photo day - photographs are dispatched approximately 6 weeks from the final day of photography (as we may come out to your school on more than one day) and are delivered to your school for distribution to the students.

Please note however, schools sometimes have additional photo days after the main day of photography – sometimes weeks after the main photography day. advancedlife cannot print and package photo orders until after the final photo day at your school (so all portrait photos and class group photos have been taken), and everything has been approved by your school, including the names and data, and package front cover designs.

Any orders or reorders placed via your child's personal advancedyou student site, at any time after the day of photography, will be delivered to the home address you supply when ordering.

Preamble

Our Student Image Capture procedure is followed by all advancedlife portrait/group photographers and staff members involved in high school student photo sessions.

1. Guidelines for non-physical Interaction between students and staff
Directing students:
• Students will be politely asked to adjust their appearance if necessary. For example, “Could you please straighten your collar?” or “Can you fix your hair over your left ear?”
Requesting the assistance of peers:
• If a student is having difficulty, our team may ask a school friend to assist. For example, “Could you help your friend straighten their tie?”
Requesting the assistance of teachers:
• If peer assistance is not adequate, our team may request help from a teacher. For example, “Ms. Smith, could you assist Johnny with fixing his shirt?”

2. Appearance adjustment process
• A mirror will be made available for students to view their appearance and make necessary adjustments.
• Our team may request that students adjust their uniform or appearance to ensure the best possible image is captured e.g. “Please use the mirror to adjust your hair on the right side.”
• Clean combs may be supplied to aid the subject adjust their appearance; the comb will be handed to the subject to use on their own hair. Used combs are placed into the used comb bin for cleaning and sanitising.

3. Communication and support
• Our team will clearly explain to students and teachers that we are going to ask for their help in preparing them for their photographs.
• Our team will use clear and concise instructions to verbally and visually assist students in adjusting their own appearance issues.
• We have trained our team to ensure they understand and adhere to these guidelines and understand the importance of maintaining a professional and respectful environment.

advancedlife staff members are committed to maintaining high standards in all aspects of their work. They will make every effort to address and correct any issues that may arise during the photo session without any physical interaction. This includes providing clear and precise instructions to students and teachers on how to adjust their appearance, posture, and positioning. advancedlife staff members will guide subjects verbally or through demonstrations, ensuring that students and teachers are comfortable and confident in their presentation.

By adhering to these guidelines and avoiding physical interaction, our team aims to maintain a professional and respectful environment. This approach not only ensures that students and staff are well-prepared in a safe environment.

Simply return the unwanted portion of your package within 14 days of receipt along with your name, address, email, contact phone number and a description of your payment method, to receive a refund of your package.

Please note: A refund cannot be given if the high-resolution digital image file has already been downloaded.

Whilst every effort has been made to capture a perfect "moment in time" image of your child, we’re sorry if we were unable to capture that moment for your child and you are not happy with their portrait.

Unfortunately, advancedlife cannot return to a school to re-take a portrait. We do, however, offer re-take days throughout the year at all our regional offices, should you wish to come in and have your child's portrait photo re-taken. If we do re-take their portrait image, we will provide you with a printed copy and a high-resolution digital image, but depending on the photo package format your school has chosen, we may not be able to include that portrait in a reprinted package.

For personalised gifts

A preview of your design is provided online to enable you to check your order prior to purchase. advancedlife takes no responsibility nor will provide a refund if you change your mind about a product you have ordered or if you have made an error when designing your item or used an image that has not reproduced correctly. If your item is damaged during delivery, please photograph the damaged item and notify us by email within 7 days of receipt. All refunds on items damaged during delivery are made at the discretion of advancedlife.

Your school has its own advancedorder code – this is a secure 9-digit code that is unique to your school. The code can be found at the top right-hand corner of the advancedlife ordering envelope sent home with your child. The advancedorder code allows all members of your school community to have access to your advancedorder school site to order their child's photos. All purchases made using the advancedorder school code will be returned to your school for secure distribution.

Please note: advancedlife cannot give the unique order code out over the phone. It must be distributed by your school to ensure your child's security.

Your child also has their own unique Student Image Code (SIC) – this is a secure 9-digit code that is unique to each student. This code can be found on the back of any purchased package you have already received and gives individual families access to the advancedyou student site (each child’s personal site) where you can view current and previous years images of your child's portraits and group photos, and purchase past images and customised gifts. You will be able to view your child’s current year’s image from the day your child brings home their photo package.

Click here to view an outline of everything contained in our packages.

Also, if you enter your school’s 9 digit advancedorder code on the home page of this website, you will be taken to the school’s secure advancedorder school site and the package options your school has chosen are presented there, together with the pricing.

Depending on what package design options your school has chosen, we will always take a portrait of your child and possibly also a group photo of the class/year (which will be presented as either a traditional group photo or the full set of portraits for that class/year in a composite style).

A 1.5% merchant fee is applied to all orders placed online. This fee covers the cost of providing secure online payment solutions that is charged to advancedlife by our e-commerce providers. The fee applies to any purchases by credit/debit card or PayPal, but does not apply to purchases made with LatitudePay.

Are you using a smart phone/android mobile phone or tablet? Occasionally mobile phones do not display our website correctly, so if you are experiencing any issues ordering using your phone, please read the instructions below, or consider using either a desktop computer/laptop or tablet to place your order instead.

If you are having trouble ordering using your mobile phone, please try these tips:

• Did your your device auto-fill text into any fields on the payment page using information it remembered from the last time you used this information? Can you please check and delete any of that auto-fill text and manually type all your details
• Email address error - please check your email has not been auto-filled, as our systems can read it as a blank field, and please avoid putting a space at the end of your email address as our systems read a space as an email error
• Our websites work best on Google Chrome, so please use Google Chrome as your browser instead of Internet Explorer or Safari, and please also try clearing your browser history and starting again, as your device will remember failed attempts to our site
• At the Payment screen, please only complete the required fields, these are the fields with a red asterisk * Any field without this asterisk can be left blank, like the ‘class team name’ box, as they are not required for your school and any incorrect data in this field can be read as an error at our end

When you place an order online, the receipt number will come up on your screen. Once your payment clears, we will send you an email with your tax invoice/receipt and it will include a summary of what you have ordered, under the ‘description’ section.

advancedlife send receipts to the email address provided when you place the order, but sometimes our receipt emails are misdirected to your “Junk Mail”. Please check your Junk folder and if you have not located your receipt, please provide your child's name, class and details in the field below to submit an order enquiry.

Distribution of photographs by the school can take several days. If other students have received their photo package, but your child has not, please wait 3 working days before contacting us again, in case your school is still in the process of handing out that class or year.

If you are missing anything from your order, please contact us using the form below, tell us what is missing and provide your receipt number.

We are happy to help – just complete the details on our contact page to request a refund, and also please include your child’s full name, school, and the order receipt number.

Please note: A refund cannot be given if the high-resolution digital file has already been downloaded.

If you need to change your order, please contact us using the form below.

Sibling photos must be ordered before photo day, so your school knows to bring together your children so their sibling photo can be taken. We provide the school with the list of sibling orders right up to the day of photography, so no one misses out. If you do miss the deadline for ordering, you must instruct your school to make sure that your children still have the sibling photo taken and you will get a chance again to order online after photography day.

Online orders Close - final online sibling orders must be placed prior to 12pm midnight on the day before photos are scheduled to take place.

To order online simply enter your 9-digit advancedorder school code (from the envelope) and complete the order process. If you are ordering both sibling packages and school photo packages, you can order everything together on the same order.

Simply start by ordering your first child’s school photo package using the ‘individual’ tab and complete the order process, and to add the next student's photo pack just click the blue tab ‘add another child’ and repeat the order process. Once all students have a photo package added to your order, finally add your sibling/family photo order by using the ‘sibling’ tab. Once all items have been added, click the blue ‘finish’ tab.

Cash orders - sibling photographs can still be ordered up until photo day by using a "Sibling Photo Envelope". This envelope requires you to pay by cash and you must enclose the correct moneyas our photographers cannot provide change. Go to your school office to collect a Sibling Order Envelope and make sure to confirm with the school that your children should be brought together on photo day for their sibling photo. Credit cards can only be used when ordering online through your school's advancedorder site. We cannot accept cheques.

Make sure to tell your eldest child that you have ordered a sibling photo

Important: No matter what payment method you have chosen when ordering a sibling photo, please ensure that your eldest child is aware that they are having a photograph taken with their siblings on photo day, so they remind the school on photo day that a sibling photo is taken.

Please note: Not all schools offer the opportunity to have sibling photographs taken.

Late Sibling Orders: If sibling pre-orders have closed online, these photos can still be purchased after photo day as long as a sibling photo has been taken on photo day. When the pre-ordered photo packages are distributed by your school, you will receive a ‘don’t miss out’ card advising you that a sibling photo has been taken. All the details of how to order the sibling photo will be outlined on this card. Please note that orders placed after photo day will have a processing and handling fee applied, to cover the cost of sending your late order to your home address and not with the other orders to the school.

If you have ordered online, we have a record of your payment and you do not need to return an envelope. We will photograph all children presented by the school to us for photography, regardless of whether their family has placed an order or not.

You can reorder all photo packages through your school’s advancedorder website, just follow the "how to order" steps and your order will be delivered to the school.

You can also reorder packages through your child’s advancedyou personal site, using the unique 9-digit code for your child, found on your photography package. To head to this site, just enter your 9-digit secure code here. Once you are redirected to the advancedyou site, click on ‘photography packages’ in the top menu. All orders made on the advancedyou site will be delivered to the home address you supply when you place the order.

For more information on how to order, head to our how to order page.

Free portrait image downloads are only available at no charge if you originally ordered a photo package that included a separate portrait page and you download the image prior to the following year's school photo day. Once the following year's portrait photo of your child has been taken and purchased, that image becomes your new free image.

If photo day has already been held at your school, then you are only able to order photos online, we cannot accept cash payments in an advancedlife order envelope after photo day.

You can order online any time before photo day and up to a week after photo day. If you have missed pre-ordering before photo day, you can still order photos after photo day by going to your school's advancedorder site and entering the 9-digit advancedorder school code found in the top right-hand corner of the ordering envelope, which will give you online access to easily purchase photos. Late orders may not always make the main delivery of all orders back to your school but will be delivered to your school as a separate delivery.

Orders can be made up to a week after the main day of photography, at regular pricing. After the week, all orders are closed and the order will incur a reorder fee. This fee cannot be waived.

Another way you can order after photo day is by using your unique advancedyou code and visiting your student’s advancedyou site. Your student’s unique, personal, advancedyou code can be found on the packages you have purchased for your child in previous years. Orders placed via advancedyou will be delivered to your home address.

All students are photographed and given a card with a unique number.

There are many reasons why we hand these out. For those students who did not place an order, the card offers another opportunity to purchase photos.

This gives you the unique code to download your free image, if you have purchased a portrait and group package.

The card also gives the families a chance to look at all the photos that advancedlife have taken and have the opportunity to purchase them.

Your teacher will give your child their photo package/s to take home, but we know that this may cause some issues when parents are separated and a child divides their time between parental residences. If you would like to collect your order from the school office, because you anticipate this may be an issue, please place your order online prior to the day of photography and check the appropriate ‘collect your package’ check box on the payment page.

This will separate your order from the regular distribution and give you the opportunity to collect your package directly from the school office or you can liaise with your school to agree a delivery plan that works for you. All orders placed on the school's advancedorder ordering site will be delivered to the school and we are unable to change this to have individual orders sent to home addresses.

advancedlife cannot accept orders over the phone and cannot record or accept credit card information provided manually or verbally. For the security of our customers, all credit card transactions can only be made by customers online, using our secure websites.

If your school has chosen to have to have sports, leaders or extra-curricular group photos taken, you have two choices – to order early and get a discount, or to order later and see the photos before you order them:

• Get a 20% discount on early orders placed in the first 10 days after photos have been taken

  Shortly after photos have been taken, your school will send out an email or message with a unique 9-digit code that allows you to order these photos online at your school’s secure advancedorder site at a 20% discount on the usual price. This offer is available for 10 days after your school is supplied with this order information. To order these photos, simply choose the group photos you would like to purchase, complete your transaction, and these prints will be delivered to your school for distribution. Please note that we offer a 100% money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with your photos once you receive them.

• If you miss the 10 day early order offer deadline or want to see the photos before placing your order

  If you miss the early order discount 10 day deadline, or you want to see the photos before you decide whether to order them, then you can order these photos online at your school’s secure advancedorder site at full regular pricing. Just find your school’s 9-digit advancedorder ordering code – this is the same code you used to order your school photos and can be found in the top right-hand corner of the order envelope – and enter this code on our advancedlife website to visit your school’s advancedorder site, and click on the “Group Photos” tab. Then select and order your photos. Please note these photos will be delivered to your school for distribution and we still offer a 100% money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with your photos.

Our ordering site is dynamic and responsive across home computers, mobile phones and tablets with internet or Wi-Fi access. If you do not have internet connection, the local library, internet cafe or a friend may be able to help.

If you place an order after photography day for packages, sports groups, extra-curricular groups or event photographs through the School advancedorder site, your order will be delivered to the school.

If you order any of these through the advancedyou personal site using the unique 9 digit code for your child (found on your photography package or advancedyou card), your order will be delivered to the address you supply on the site.

If your child’s image is not Is “not for publication” and your school is aware of your decision, your child should not be presented to our photographers on photo day and school photographs will not be available for purchase.

All students presented to our photographers by your school for a photo on photo day will be photographed, their images will appear in school photography packages and these packages will be available to purchase. If you are uncertain as to whether your school is aware that your child must not appear in photographs, please contact your school to confirm your wishes are complied with on school photo day and your child is not presented for a photograph.