Wow… It’s Christmas Eve already! Here at Webanywhere we’d like to wish every customer, non customer, teacher and school the Merriest of Christmases – and a delightful New Year.
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It doesn’t seem five minutes since the new school term started, does it? Yet here we are, into December already – and I’m sure you’ve started counting down to the last day of term!

If you’ve already decorated the classrooms, start thinking about getting your school’s website all festive too. If you’re a School Jotter user, we’ve listed three ways you can make your website more festive – and more fun to visit!

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January 2013 saw thousands descend upon London’s Excel exhibition centre, discovering the latest in educational technology and seeing talks by Professor Brian Cox and Professor Sugata Mitra. January 2014 will see the BETT Show bigger and more of an experience than ever.

Why? Well, for a start the biggest event on the e-learning calendar will be hosting more content than ever before. 2014 is the 30th anniversary of BETT, so this January there will be more presentations and ‘fringe’ events, as well as three CPD-accredited Summits. Visitors will also get the chance to ‘try and test’ – with interactive demonstrations, free guidance and advice on using all the latest products that’ll make a real difference to learning.

Webanywhere will be in attendance as always – but BETT 2014 will be a landmark event for us, too. We’ll be using the show to launch a brand new product. We can’t say too much right now – but we’re confident it’ll revolutionise how our customers use our products – making them easier to use, more enjoyable to integrate into learning, and ultimately more rewarding for teachers and pupils. We’ll reveal more closer to the event.
If you’re considering a visit to BETT, get more information at www.bettshow.com.
You can keep an eye on Webanywhere product developments by regularly checking this blog, and www.newsanywhere.co.uk. You can also follow updates via our Twitter, @webanywhere_ltd.
The BETT Show 2014 will take place from the 22nd – 25th January, at Excel, London.

Whether your school already has a website, you’re about to get one, or you’re thinking of changing your school website, one thing should always be a priority for you: Keeping it up to date.

This may seem like an obvious statement. But bearing in mind that a regularly updated website can vastly improve your Google rankings, and that many people will keep on coming back if they see new content each time they visit, it’s vital to make your online presence a priority. Keeping your content fresh is vital for attracting prospective parents to your school website.
So, in order for you to keep your school website up to date without having to devote a significant amount of your time to it, we have five ideas for you.

Choose A System That’s Easy To Use
The easier your website system is to update and manage, the quicker you can update it. No one likes using a system that’s laborious and complicated; least of all busy teachers. When choosing a school website, or moving to a new one, always consider how much of your time it’s going to take up with creating new pages, adding text and uploading photographs. Of course, School Jotter is designed to be as simple as possible – because we believe that if a website system requires weeks of training before you can even get started, it’s not worth bothering with.

Assign Responsibilities
Many schools will assign one person to keep the website updated. However, if you have luxury of a few members of staff contributing, assign different people to different areas of the website. For example, your secretary could keep your events pages up to date with the latest open evenings, sports days and school parties, or your children could write blog posts for their teacher to upload. If each area of piece of content is assigned to a specific member of staff, it’ll be easier to keep all areas of your website up to date.
Also, giving deadlines for when certain content needs to be added – for example, updating of classwork pages every Friday by 3pm – may also help with ensuring content is regularly added.

Try Different Things
You don’t want maintaining your website, or creating content for it, to become boring for you and your staff. If you lose interest, so will your website’s visitors. So, try new ways of adding content every now and then, and keep your website fresh. Getting the children involved with the school website is a great way to improve their ICT skills – and they’ll feel a real part of the school too, both online and offline.
One example of trying something different could be creating a video of the children’s classwork, narrated by the children, rather than uploading the work itself.

Have Website Meetings
Keep the website front-of-mind for all concerned with regular website meetings – or, have the website as part of the agenda for your other regular meetings. This is also a great way to generate new ideas for content – and you can check on progress of updates and changes to the website.

Encourage Feedback
There’s no better way to find out if your school website is doing the trick than to ask visitors what they think of it. You could set up a form on your website for feedback  – even ask specific questions about the website – and then make any changes according to the information you get back.
You could also widen the net and ask the children themselves what they think to it – or send out a short survey to parents. This way, you can get vital information about things like how regularly the News section should be updated – or whether the website design is appealing enough. Respond to the feedback with what people want – and you’ll have visitors coming back to your school’s website again and again.

This is a question we hear many teachers ask – and our team regularly speak to schools wanting help with choosing the right content for their website.

Webanywhere has already created a checklist for schools (which you can find here) but now we can offer you even more help with keeping Ofsted happy – with a number of free events around the country.

Tracey Gentle, a CEOP Ambassador and former teacher, will speak at many of these events, using her knowledge of school websites – and what both you as a school and Ofsted as the inspectorate need to get out of having a website. She will even cover the latest additions to the Ofsted/DfE criteria – as of course the guidelines and requirements are updated all the time.
The full list of free sessions covering Ofsted requirements for school websites is below. If you would like further information, or would like to attend, please email events@webanywhere.co.uk.

Thursday 21st November 9.30am-12.30pm

Wolborough Primary School, Newton Abbott, Devon TQ12 2JU

 

Friday 22nd November 9.30am-12.30pm

Christ Church CE Primary School, Leigh, Wigan WN7 4HB

 

Thursday 28th November, 3.15-5.515pm

Westborough School, Westcliff-On-Sea SS0 5BS

 

Friday 29th November, 9am-12pm

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 7DG

 

November is always a busy month for e-learning events – and for Webanywhere, it’s four weeks packed with calendar dates across the country!

Nurturing Online Learning is a series of events taking place (predominantly) in local primary schools. Many of these schools are winners of the Create Your Character Competition, and have kindly agreed to help out with the hosting of events.
Most of the events feature CEOP Ambassador and former teacher Tracey Gentle, who has a wealth of knowledge in e-learning, e-safety and Ofsted requirements for school websites. Tracey has already presented at two successful Webanywhere events, in Sheffield and Hull, and has helped schools meet Ofsted requirements for their website, as well as helping them to understand the benefits of e-learning better.

You can find out details about the events on our Events page over at Newsanywhere, but below you’ll find an overview of the Nurturing Online Learning sessions. All of these events are free for schools to attend. If you would more information, or wish to attend, email david.smith@webanywhere.co.uk.

Wednesday 13th November 9-11am

Nurturing Online Learning: Leeds

Rose Bowl, Leeds LS1 3HE

This event will cover e-safety and cyberbullying – both a big part of Ofsted inspections now. Tracey will take delegates through the facts and figures, and explain how schools can prevent and combat cyberbullying. The event will also cover broadband services and how schools can benefit from an internet service that allows them to control access for children and staff.

Thursday 21st November

Learn Learnanywhere 4-5.30pm

Holy Trinity Dobcross Primary School, Oldham OL3 5BP

A learning platform training session, giving a back-to-basics overview of using the Webanywhere learning platform, Learnanywhere.

Thursday 21st November 9.30am-12.30pm

Nurturing Online Learning: Devon

Wolborough Primary School, Newton Abbott TQ12 2JU

Devon’s Nurturing Online Learning event takes place at Wolborough Primary School near Newton Abbott, and will cover Ofsted requirements for school websites. This is a useful overview of essential information you will need to include on your website – and if you’re a School Jotter user, useful hints and tips on updating your website. There will also be a session covering e-learning in the classroom, which will cover ways to get the most from a learning platform.

Friday 22nd November 9.30am-12.30pm

Nurturing Online Learning: Wigan

Christ Church CE Primary School, Leigh WN7 4HB

Webanywhere’s e-Learning Consultant James Norris will present alongside Tracey Gentle at this event, covering e-safety in the classroom, and Ofsted requirements for school websites. There will also be a short presentation by Christ Church CE Primary School’s Clair Gornall about creating and managing a school website effectively.

Thursday 28th November, 3.15-5.515pm

Nurturing Online Learning: Essex

Westborough School, Westcliff-On-Sea SS0 5BS

Tracey Gentle will cover Ofsted requirements for school websites, giving an overview of how to update your website and the information you will need to include. Tracey will also cover integrating e-learning into everyday teaching, explaining how technology, and a VLE, can assist you in the classroom.

Friday 29th November, 9am-12pm

Nurturing Online Learning: Stoke

St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 7DG

Tracey Gentle will give an overview of cyberbullying and explain how schools can prevent and combat this growing problem. There will also be useful e-safety resources and information available, as well as an overview of using an e-portfolio system to promote e-safety, presented by Webanywhere’s e-learning consultant John Standhaven. Tracey will then cover Ofsted requirements for school websites, again giving an overview of how to update your website and the information you will need to include.

So, by now you may’ve seen our winning avatars from the Create Your Character Competition (if not, you can view them here). We’ve had some wonderful responses from the winning schools – and we have begun to present the prizes to our top ten. The competition is even getting into local papers!

Our in-house artist, Jonny, has been busy recreating the five winning avatars for Learnanywhere, one of which you can see below.

Jonny has tried to stay very faithful to the originals – and we think he’s done a fantastic job!

Some of our winning schools are also going to be hosting events with Webanywhere. There will be one event at each of these schools,  covering things like Ofsted requirements for school websites, and getting more from a learning platform.
The first event we can announce at a winning school is on Friday, 22nd November at Christ Church CE Primary School, Leigh, Wigan. After we visited their school this week (see winning pupil Maciek, in the picture above, holding up his avatar for the local Wigan paper) they have agreed to host Nurturing Online Learning: Wigan. The event will be split into two sessions, covering e-safety in the classroom, and Ofsted requirements for school websites. You can find all the details here.
If you would like more information about our events, or you would like to be a host for a Webanywhere event, please get in touch here.

We’re now into the final few days of the Create Your Character Competition – so if you’ve registered to take part, now’s the time to start submitting your entries!

Many schools have already submitted their avatar designs for Webanywhere’s latest primary pupil competition – and as the picture from Parkwood Primary School, Keighley shows (above), the creativity knows no bounds!

A lot of the children have been using the avatar templates supplied in the teacher’s pack and adorning them with cool clothes, fetching hats or useful implements – whilst others have created their character from scratch. Below is an example of the latter, from Pennine Way Junior Academy, Derbyshire. This cool-looking fellow has apparently been named Rock QX, and doubles as a superhero!

To get involved with the competition, and to find out the latest competition news, you can now use the Twitter hashtag #createyourcharacter. If you want to register and stand a chance of winning thousands of pounds’ worth of e-learning prizes for your school, plus get your avatars used in Learnanywhere, click here. The closing date is this Friday at 4pm.

Websites are fantastic tools to get information out, especially those that are easy to edit and update. This is especially so when Ofsted make updates to their requirements, meaning that you need to add more information to your school site.

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