The latest update for School Jotter 2 is an exciting one: all School Jotter 2 users now have access to literally hundreds of clipart images!

The massive bank of images, accessible through your School Jotter 2 account, includes everything from images of the Ancient Romans to seasons, arctic animals to superheroes. You can use them either as part of classroom activities – or to enhance your School Jotter 2 school website.

To access the new School Jotter 2 bank of clipart images, just log in to your account, click on My Site from the top tabs, and then choose My Files from the Manage drop-down menu on the right hand side.  Your files should all appear in the window – but you’ll notice at the top of the window the new Clipart button.

Click on Clipart – and then you can choose from the hundreds of images throughout the dozens of categories on the left! You can download any of the images simply by clicking Download underneath your chosen image.
We’ve tried to cover popular topics being covered by classes this term – and also provide you with images that will enhance your school website. Of course – these are all free to the School Jotter user, to use whenever you want!

School Jotter is Webanywhere’s most popular product. However, the schools that benefit most from what we offer are those who use our three main primary products together: School Jotter, Learnanywhere and Learner Journey.
Cawthorne Primary School are one such school – and it has made such a difference to school life. As well as School Jotter, Cawthorne Primary School now have Learnanywhere, Webanywhere’s primary learning platform, and Learner Journey, the pupil e-portfolio system.

School Secretary Gill Buckingham told us:  “Webanywhere were recommended by our technician who had seen lots of other providers in different schools he visited. We eventually chose School Jotter, along with Learnanywhere and Student Jotter because we wanted children to liaise more between work and school.”
Now, children at Cawthorne Primary School use Learnanywhere and Learner Journey on a daily basis: To share their work with peers and parents, and to do their homework, too. School Jotter has brought more visitors to the school’s website, but Learnanywhere has improved the learning experience.  “I like it because it’s safe, and parents can look at the work their kids have done and the points they’ve earned,” Gill told us. “It has really brought the school, the parents and the children together.”
Read the full case study here.

Last night saw Webanywhere launch Learner Journey here in Keighley. Learner Journey is the new pupil e-portfolio system that allows learners to showcase their proudest achievements – and with the option to communicate with peers in a safe, secure environment, it promotes e-safety in schools.
e-Safety is now a big part of Ofsted’s inspections, so we invited along safeguarding expert Jeff Haslam. Jeff sits on the Education Board of CEOP and is a consultant for the UK Safer Internet Centre – making him the perfect choice for guest speaker.
Jeff took us through Ofsted guidelines and the legal responsibilities for safeguarding in schools, discussing how they can protect both staff and children from the risks the internet presents. A walk-through of Learner Journey followed, with its many functions demonstrated: from sending messages and posting on peers’ walls, to uploading work and collaborating on joint projects. Learner Journey works in a similar way to social networking sites like Facebook – but users’ profiles are not visible or accessible to anyone outside of their school.

Guests were then able to try it for themselves – and enjoy some of the delicious buffet provided! Webanywhere looks forward to working with these teachers further – and help promote safe social networking in schools, with Learner Journey.
If you’d like to keep up to date with Webanywhere events like this, follow us on Twitter (@webanywhere_ltd). If you would like to book a free Learner Journey Demonstration, contact us by clicking here.

This week saw Webanywhere take up residence at BETT and Learning Technologies. Our presence at both shows is bigger and better than ever, and both shows have been incredibly hectic – a great chance to show off our new products and chat to customers old and new.
Follow us on Twitter @webanywhere_ltd , or #BETT_Show for all the latest from the show. Here’s a snapshot of our week so far:

Meanwhile, across town at Learning Technologies

There’s still time to visit BETT 2013, its definitely not to be missed – tomorrows highlights includes ‘An audience with Professor Brian Cox – Bringing Science to Life in Schools’ (click here for the full programme)

Webanywhere are at stand F280. Reasons to visit us include:

• A free Mathsanywhere account for primary schools who visit the Webanywhere stand
• A 5% discount for BETT visitors on the Webanywhere product range. Simply visit the stand and get the promo code(s)
• The launch of the new look Learner Journey e-portfolio and safe social network for schools, with enhanced functionality, improved user interface and a range of new themes
• A chance to see a demo of the great new Learnanywhere mobile app, which allows the primary specific VLE to be accessed on the go
• A joint promotion with Webanywhere partners Planet Sherston (stand F310) – take a product demo at both stands and claim a sticker. Attach both stickers to our flyer and get a promo code for a fantastic special offer

and of course the chance to have a coffee and a chat with our expert e-learning consultants, there to ensure your school is able to unlock the benefits of educational technology in an easy, cost effective manner.

Getting more visitors to your website: how do you do it? With so many websites competing for people’s time and attention these days, there’s one way your School Jotter website can reach more people quicker: SEO.
What’s SEO? It’s Search Engine Optimisation, the art of getting your website as high as possible in search results on sites like Google. All is revealed in our new, free white paper, Increase Your Schools Rankings In Google, which you can find by clicking here.

In this white paper, we discuss the ways to increase your website’s rankings in Google. This will help to increase your school’s awareness within the local area, and get you in front of more existing and potential parents and pupils. Follow the guide, and soon your website will become a buzzing community of web visitors!
If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to improve your school website’s search rankings, let us know below.

e-Portfolios are becoming increasingly popular in schools: they allow learners to showcase their work and achievements to their peers, and gives them a permanent account of their learning path. Crucial when students start applying for jobs – and ideal for parents who want to know what their son or daughter did at school during the week.
Webanywhere’s Student Jotter has been a highly successful e-Portfolio within schools around the world – and now, it’s being relaunched and rebranded: as Learner Journey.
It’s the next generation of e-portfolio, with new features including a re-organised user interface, making it easier to use, integration with Google Apps (so you can embed documents and YouTube clips), and android/tablet compatibility (including an instant picture upload option).

Learner Journey also promotes collaborative learning: the Collaboration page is where students can share work, and actually edit it at the same time from different computers.
Learner Journey will be officially launched at this month’s BETT Show. However, Webanywhere will be hosting a special, one-off pre-launch event at our offices. We’ll have a guest speaker, Jeff Haslam from SWGFL, who will be talking about the new Ofsted e-safety requirements, how your school can protect teachers and pupils from internet dangers – and also provide you with some useful resources. You’ll also have the chance to try out Learner Journey yourself – and there’ll be a £200 discount for any school that signs up for Learner Journey at the event.
To register for the event, click here. For more information on e-Portfolios, and how they can also be integrated into the flipped classroom technique, click here.

At Webanywhere, one of the most common stories we hear is schools struggling to get to grips with complicated, difficult-to-update websites. By the time they’ve spoken to us the ICT Coordinator has resorted to pulling their hair out; the rest of the school having lost interest months previously.

Redlands Primary and Nursery School were one such school. None of the school website solutions they’d looked at were right for them – they wanted something easy for the school to use on a daily basis. School Jotter, however, was just what they needed.

The school’s Website Administrator, Patricia White, loved the features of School Jotter: from the virtual tour option to its multiple contributors capability, it soon became an everyday part of Redlands School life. Now, everyone from the teachers to parents use it. “115 of our parents have signed up to the electronic newsletter and enjoy regular updates,” says Patricia, who found having the website as a communication tool particularly useful during last year’s heavy snowfall.
In fact, Patricia has been so happy with School Jotter, she’s recommended it to others, which is just about the best kind of endorsement we can hope for.
Redlands’ School Jotter experience is now a case study on our parent website, webanywhere.co.uk – you can read it here.

At Webanywhere we love School Jotter. So it’s nice to hear feedback from School Jotter users who also love it – and, in fact, have used it to change the way they interact with parents and the outside world.
One such school is Otley Street Nursery School, in Skipton, North Yorkshire. A School Jotter user of four years, they recently told us how happy they’ve been using the product – and how it’s meant they have a website that’s not only easy for the staff to upload to and update, but convenient for parents to stay engaged with school life and what their child’s up to.

Mrs Margaret Sharples, of Otley Street Nursery School, recently spoke to us about their School Jotter experience – and you can read the results here.
Of the comments Mrs Sharples made, the one that really put a smile on our faces was this one:
“I’ve recommended it to other people. Websites are a minefield but with School Jotter everything is done for you.”
Which just about sums up everything we wanted to achieve with School Jotter. If you’re a School Jotter user and want to tell us about how much you love it and what it’s done to improve your interaction with parents – please get in touch. We’ll publish the best stories!

When your pupils’ parents visit your school website this month, it won’t just be to see their children in the Nativity play. It won’t just be to find out when the last day of term is.
There’s a whole host of ways your school website can attract more visitors, and stay engaged with parents this winter. It’ll make using your website a more enjoyable experience.
Snow Days
There was a time when parents and children alike would have an ear glued to the radio whenever it snowed, just in case their school announced it’d be closed for the day. Still, you’d always find there were the odd few parents who didn’t get the message – making a wasted journey through the snow and ice to drop off their children.

These days, parents can stay informed of snow days by merely visiting your website, when you can keep them updated not just on whether you’re closing or not, but whether you think you may be closed for longer. School Jotter 2 allows you to update your school website wherever you are, even if you only have a tablet to hand – with easy editing capabilities. School Jotter 2 also offers an update app option, which allows parents to stay informed via a free app they can download. It’ll update them instantly as soon as you add news content to your website.
Non-Uniform Days
Christmas time could be a perfect excuse for a non-uniform day. Charging pupils, say, 50p to come to school in non-uniform is an opportunity to raise money for the school, and it helps them relax a little in the run-up to Christmas. You can inform parents of the special day via the website – and keep them up to date with how much you’ve raised. Building excitement around the day and your aim to collect enough money to, say, buy a tablet for the school may even inspire some parents to give more than just 50p!
End Of Term Awards
It’s the end of the year and the end of term – a great opportunity to award pupils for the hard work they’ve put in since September. Announce the awards via the website and every parent will be proud of their child – meaning greater engagement between parent, pupil and school, and a greater incentive to hit the ground running in 2013.
Pictures of the awards being handed out, with smiling pupils and the work they’ve been awarded for, would make great website content and plenty of festive ‘feelgood factor.’
Christmas Messages
Your website is the perfect tool for sending out a Christmas message to parents – both from the school and from the children. If your pupils are making and sending Christmas cards to each other this month, the school website is where you can showcase them. If you have a learning platform and a student e-portfolio system, encouraging children to send each other e-cards via the messaging system will improve student interaction and build relationships between them.
International Christmas Celebrations
Your website is great for showing the work done within school. So a task for pupils like demonstrating how different countries around the world celebrate Christmas – and pictures of their work posted on your website – shows the world how forward-thinking and all-encompassing your school is. It makes great content away from the typical Christmas activities – and may introduce your school to a much wider audience!
And Not Forgetting…
Decorations! Your school website is your shop window to the world – to parents and potential new pupils alike. So decorate especially for the season – with fun, colourful images, some season’s greetings – maybe even a colour scheme change for the month!

Your school website is the perfect tool for communicating with parents – and a great opportunity for them to engage with your school. It means that, instead of having to pop into the school, or find the phone number, they can discover what their child has been up to, read about forthcoming events and even meet the staff, from the comfort of their armchair.
But what exactly do parents want from a school website? A recent discussion on Mumsnet threw up some interesting comments and suggestions for what would make a good school website for parents – and it also highlighted that, in some cases, parents maybe aren’t getting the information they need from their child’s school website.

The most popular requirements for a good school website were probably the most obvious: many mums expressed a need for a list of upcoming events, online versions of school newsletters and a term diary to all be included.

But other popular suggestions were for content that would help parents engage with the school more – things that don’t always seem a priority when a school website is put together. School club details, school uniform list and that week’s homework were all mentioned, with Mumsnet user meredeux suggesting a “List of holiday activities to replace all those leaflets that keep coming home in the bookbags.”

User piprabbit added: “It needs to build its links to social media especially as there are very active FB groups relating to the school.”
Ofsted reports, school rules and copies of letters home were also listed, so that parents could more actively help their children in the evenings, as was a contacts page – maybe even a teacher ‘about’ section. Which suggests that parents are much more keen to be engaged with their child’s school, on all levels, than you might expect.
Some of the users on Mumsnet even provided details of their favourite sites – with user veritythebrave saying they liked the curriculum and classes part on Shipley C of E Primary School’s School Jotter site. Their website is a content-full, extensive one, and they’ve included most of the popular features mumsnet users mentioned.
The comments in the Mumsnet discussion could provide a useful basis from which to plan your school’s website. Obviously, the more appropriate the content and the easier your website is to navigate around, the more useful it’ll be for the parents to use, and the more they’ll use it. But remember that, as well as being a news portal to get messages to parents, and a great advertising tool for attracting new pupils, your school website is also the perfect opportunity to allow parents to get more involved with the school and its activities, and provide more input into what you do.
Your school website is a vital tool for communication in today’s digital world: make sure you make the most of it!