Over the next three months, as we approach the end of the school year, Webanywhere will be hosting more and more free events for teachers and schools. We’ve recently announced a selection of events around the country – and they can be found on our Events page. We’ve given an overview of each one below.

24th April: Nurturing Online Learning: Liverpool
Our series of free Nurturing Online Learning events reaches Ranworth Square Primary School, Liverpool later this month – where we’ll be covering two key topics: Pupil Premium, and e-safety.
CEOP Ambassador Tracey Gentle will run through the Ofsted guidelines for Pupil Premium – and then explain how our free online rewards system, School Merits, can help you evidence improvements in behaviour, attendance and achievements.
Tracey will then walk teachers through cyberbullying, how to spot it, stop it and prevent it. There will be a Q&A session where delegates can ask anything about e-safety, Pupil Premium or e-learning. Everyone who attends this event will receive School Merits for free.

Find out more about this event here, or sign up by emailing info@webanywhere.co.uk.

29th April: LMS Matters West Yorks

If you’re new to LMS, yet to try it – or need some refresher coaching, our free LMS Matters West Yorks event is for you. Our expert Ben Wagner will explain the benefits of being part of the community, give tips for implementing an LMS, plus give you a ‘quick start’ guide if you’re completely new.

LMS Matters West Yorks, which will be held at Wetherby High School, is Webanywhere’s first event for 2014 – and we expect several more to follow around the country.
Find out more about this event here, or sign up by emailing info@webanywhere.co.uk.

2nd May: Introducing Bloganywhere
Webanywhere launched another new e-learning app this month. Bloganywhere has so far proved to be one of the most anticipated app releases yet – and is an important addition to our Jotter Suite. In this free webinar, you can find out how Bloganywhere can be used to improve literacy skills, encourage collaboration, inspire creativity and engage both pupils and their parents.
Sign up for this free webinar by emailing your name, school name and school postcode to info@webanywhere.co.uk.

Pupil Premium grants for schools increased at the end of last year – although, as you may have noticed, Ofsted has stepped up its requirements around evidencing the impact of the spending.

It means every school is now accountable for every penny spent – so making sure the money is spent wisely and effectively is of paramount importance.
In November, Professor Steve Higgins from Durham University led a discussion on Pupil Premium with the National College online community (you can see the full transcript on the DfE website (here). He covered purchasing technology to have a positive impact on learning, and provide evidence of improved learning. “Invest in technologies which you see will work well with your children and families, but look carefully at impact,” urged Professor Higgins.

Last month, we launched School Merits, part of our suite of e-learning apps, and it’s a perfect example of how technology can be used to help improve engagement as well as evidence the improvements. School Merits is a reward system that allows learning to be tracked and recognised, as well as flagging bad behaviour. It’s such a perfect tool for helping to engage learners that, this month, we will be running a webinar to show how it can help make a difference.
The webinar will cover behaviour interventions, feedback interventions, mentoring interventions – and then explain how the reporting feature within School Merits will allow you to evidence the subsequent improvements in attainment.
Making A Difference With Pupil Premium will take place on 28th March at 12pm. To sign up for the webinar, simply email your name, school name and school postcode to events@webanywhere.co.uk.

Webanywhere’s recent string of Nurturing Online Learning events have been a huge success – and we’re now planning more for March and April.

During February, to coincide with Safer Internet Day, we’ve visited Manchester, Swindon, Halifax and London – with two more events, in Carlisle and Birmingham, scheduled for this coming Monday. Each event, joint-hosted by Webanywhere and a local primary school, covered e-safety and cyberbullying, and Ofsted requirements for school websites. Both sessions of each event were delivered by CEOP Ambassador Tracey Gentle.
During each session, cyberbullying was covered in detail: What it is, how teachers can spot it, and how your school can prevent it in the future. Then, Tracey helped teachers make sense of Ofsted’s ever-changing list of requirements for school websites, discussing each area in plain English and giving suggestions as to how, aside from pleasing the inspectors, a school website can benefit from meeting the requirements.

At each event, a local school presented their website and explained how they used it to its full potential – engaging parents, pupils and other teachers.
If you missed our recent events, we’re now scheduling follow-up sessions for late March and April. Most will cover e-safety and Pupil Premium, and will take place in Oxford, Liverpool, Norwich, Chelmsford, Blackpool and a follow-up event in Birmingham.
To keep up to date with our latest event news, and to find out when the dates of the new sessions are, keep an eye on our events page (www.webanywhere.co.uk/events) and our Twitter handle (@webanywhere_ltd).