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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Last week, Webanywhere launched the Create Your Character Competition – a chance for primary schools across the country to win thousands of pounds worth of e-learning prizes.

It’s also an opportunity for school children to get creative – and possibly even see their work incorporated into our learning platform, Learnanywhere.
We asked primary schools to get their pupils creating new des
igns for avatars – characters – like the ones currently available in Learnanywhere. Avatars are a great aspect of Learnanywhere: Every time a pupil creates a good piece of work, or achieves a good test score, their teacher can award them ‘points’ on Learnanywhere. These points can then be used to purchase accessories for their avatar. Therefore, the avatars provide a great incentive to work harder – and children love them!

Our assembled judging panel will review all the entries – and five winners will see their characters created for Learnanywhere by our designer.

There are also thousands of pounds worth of prizes to be won: the five winners will receive e-learning packages for their school. Five runners up will receive mini e-learning bundles, and their avatar made into an exclusive poster for their school.
If you fancy getting your class, or your school, involved, there’s still time to register for your teacher’s pack. This will help you plan lessons around creating the characters for the competition, plus give you vital information and guidance when submitting your work.
October 4th, 2013 at 4pm is the closing date – so register now and get creating! Just go to www.webanywhere.co.uk/createyourcharacter. For more information about this competition, including terms and conditions, email competitions@webanywhere.co.uk.

Our MD Sean Gilligan has recorded a video to thank our customers, both old and new, for all their support over the years as we reach our 10th birthday.

This is a big landmark for us, having come a long way in a decade. The company has grown quickly in the last few years, but we remain true to our founding vision and values – to innovate, to stretch beyond expectations, to create jobs, and to improve learning outcomes.

It is an exciting time in the educational technology sector, as online tools become the norm and are having an ever greater impact upon learning, and providing access to knowledge for all around the world. Here’s to the next ten years, to new markets, new innovation, new growth – but the same appreciation and regard for our customers, the core of our business.

Doesn’t July seem like just five minutes ago? It won’t be long now before you’ll be welcoming children into your classroom for a brand new term, the sunny, laid-back days of August a distant memory.

If you’re responsible for updating the school website – or even if you’re yet to try using your website as an engagement tool – here are five things you might want to consider to prepare it for September.
Upload Information About Topics To Be Covered In September
This is a great way to get parents and pupils back into the mindset of learning. For those more proactive parents, it provides them with an opportunity to look at those topics at home with their children; for all parents, it will help them feel more engaged with your school.

This works even better if your school website has a smartphone app; uploading information to your news pages will be pulled through to the app on parents’ phones – meaning they’ll get a notification that there’s something for them to look at on your website! For more information about smartphone apps for school websites, just ask Webanywhere here.
Upload pictures Of Your Newly-Decorated Classroom
As the term progresses, you’ll be decorating the classroom with children’s work. For now, get some exciting photographs of what you have prepared in the classroom so far, giving children a taster for the fun they’ll soon be having in lessons! If your classroom is exciting enough, your children will be itching to get back to school!
Begin Tweeting
Social media is a vital tool for communicating with the world, and schools are using it more and more. If your school uses Twitter already, make sure you start ramping up the number of daily tweets as we approach the start of term, hinting at things to come. Make sure you direct to your school website; if your school website has a Twitter feed, even better.
Check Website Stats
Many school website systems will allow you to look at stats; you may also be able to do this through Google Analytics. If you have it, use this facility to look at the most popular areas of your school’s website – this will help you to determine which areas are most popular/useful for your website’s visitors, and it will also help you to prioritise which areas of the website to concentrate on most.
For example, many schools may find that their term dates is the most popular section of their website. Therefore they may decide to have all term dates uploaded before school starts, for those parents who may forget which day their child goes back!
Have A Spring (Well,  Autumn) Clean
There’s nothing worse than visiting a website and seeing the same content that was on there six months ago. You should always ensure your school website is up to date with the latest news, pupil achievements and the like – but now is also a good time to have a scout through it and remove any content that is either no longer relevant, or is just taking up valuable space.
If possible, try to replace old content with new – but always make sure you have no content that’s going to undermine the website. Scrolling banners inviting people to the upcoming Sports Day – which was two months ago – are among the worst examples.

School Jotter 2 is being constantly developed, and the latest update has some interesting new features for users.
Existing users signing in now will see an updated file manager, that looks and feels easier to use. The file upload section now allows you to ‘drag and drop’ files, which makes adding files is simpler than ever before.

Plus, you can add a profile picture when you log in – making your log in to School Jotter 2 a little bit more personal!
If you’re not a School Jotter 2 user, contact us today to find out more about this innovative easy-to-use school website system – and find out the full range of features and benefits that come with it. Just fill in the form here.