School Websites, Podcasting, Learning Platforms, Moodle

Monday 21 January 2008

January Websites of the Week

Field End Junior School -

www.fieldend-jun.hillingdon.sch.uk

Fivemiletown Primary School -

www.fivemiletownps.fivemiletown.ni.sch.uk

Fountain Primary School

www.fountainprimary.leeds.sch.uk

Gooseacre Primary School

www.gooseacreprimaryschool.org.uk

Harefield Junior Schools

www.harefield-jun.hillingdon.sch.uk

Haydon Wick Primary School

www.haydonwick.swindon.sch.uk

Holy Trinity C of E Primary School

www.holytrinitydarwen.org.uk

Holy Trinity School, Guildford (Junior)

www.holytrinity.surrey.sch.uk

Kildwick Church of England VC Primary School

www.kildwick.n-yorks.sch.uk

Moor Row Community Primary School

www.moor-row.cumbria.sch.uk

Moseley Chuch of England Primary School

www.moseleyce.co.uk

Mowlem Primary School

www.mowlem.towerhamlets.sch.uk

Ramsden Infant School

www.ramsden.cumbria.sch.uk

Rillington Community Primary School

www.rillington.n-yorks.sch.uk

Sherwood Hall School

www.sherwoodhall.notts.sch.uk

Saint Charles Catholic Primary School

www.st-charles.leics.sch.uk

Stirchley Community School

www.stirchley.bham.sch.uk

St Mary's Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided First School

www.st-marysrc.northumberland.sch.uk

The Stonehill High School

www.stonehill.leics.sch.uk

St Patrick's Catholic Primary School

www.st-patricks.coventry.sch.uk

The Ellis Church of England Primary School

www.theellisschool.org.uk

Thomas Buxton Junior School

www.thomasbuxtonjunior.org.uk

Walkeringham Primary School

www.walkeringham.notts.sch.uk

Learn Moodle

This intensive one day course aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the administrative functions of a Moodle site.

Participants will learn how to adapt the layout of a Moodle site, how to manage users (including authentication, enrolments, course groups and the roles system), back up an entire site and individual courses. In addition, participants wll explore many of the features which impact on the experience of tutors and learners.

Who should attend?

- Individuals responsible for the day to day administration of a Moodle site
- Those who need to understand Moodle from a more strategic perspective

Overview

The course covers the principal areas required to successfully administer the layout, modules, blocks and users on a Moodle site.

Structure

The course is arranged into sections as follows:

- Site layout
- Customising the interface terminology
- Installed theme options
- Module, block and filter options
- Calendar options
- HTML editor options
- Adding and editing user accounts
- Manual and Email authentication
- Manual enrolments
- The roles system
- Site / Course back up

You can enquire regarding Moodle Training by following the link below and filling in the form:

http://www.schoolanywhere.co.uk

Fully Managed Moodle

We offer fully managed and supported Moodle learning platforms.

Moodle is a VLE, Learning Platform (LP) or a Course Management System (CMS) and meets the requirements to provide a Learning Platform by 2008 as specified by the DfES !

Moodle provides the following modules (plus many more) which in a fully managed and supported environment:

- Assignments
- Forums
- Questionnaires and Surveys
- Wikis
- Resource links
- Calendars
- Comprehensive monitoring
- Plus more

Why a Managed Moodle Service?

It's like outsourcing the provision and technical support of your Learning Platform to a specialist organisation like SchoolAnywhere. This shouldn't be confused with handing over the day to day management of your Moodle or that it limits your control – it frees up educational resource from technical hindrances.

What are the Service benefits?

* Cost effective & tailored service packages
* Fully managed on your behalf by educational technology experts
* Each school's Moodle can be very different yet all are based on a master Moodle that SchoolAnywhere looks after, so backups, servers, updates and modifications are all centrally managed.
* Managed MIS data extraction and account provisioning
* Secure service or 'hardened' SchoolAnywhere servers located on the National Education Network and managed by CRB checked staff with e-safety in mind
* Service resilience – ensuring your Moodledo is always available
* Data backups daily
* Tailored support packages:
* Primary & secondary themes
* Pre-approved plugins

You can learn more at our website below by filling in the form here:

http://www.schoolanywhere.co.uk

Or call 01535 604026 to learn more.

PS We are an official Moodle Partner and contribute back to the Moodle Trust in Australia.

School Mocks - Create Quizzes Online

School Mocks is an easy to use, online quiz maker that marks your tests and quizzes for you.

You simply create your quizzes and your learners take them online.

- Link directly to quizzes from your website or emails
- Create multiple choice, true false, and fill in the blank tests
- Add your own images to quizzes
- Embed tests and exams within your own website

You can enquire by following the link below and filling in the web form:

http://www.schoolmocks.co.uk

Moodle Conference Bradford

WebAnywhere is one of four official Moodle partners in the UK. We would like to invite you to attend a Moodle conference in Bradford. This conference is being held on the 6th February at 9.30am until 3.00pm at the Aire Valley Business Centre in Keighley. Moodle is a course management system designed by Martin Dougiamas to enable educators to create quality online courses.

The conference invites both teaching and non teaching educational staff to learn more about this fantastic Virtual Learning Environment. It will draw on the experience and expertise of individuals already working within the education sector who currently use Moodle to fulfil the DCFS directive of Spring 2008.

You can learn more about the conference here:

http://www.bradfordnetwork.com

- Seminars
- Guest keynote speakers
- Lunch and light refreshment
- Question and answer sessions
- Expert advice

To register your interest in this fantastic event please fill in the web form below:

http://www.traininganywhere.co.uk/booking.php?id=35

Or call 01535 604026 to book your ticket whilst places last.

Tickets cost £50 per person for the conference and will include lunch and light refreshments.

Pupil Voice Surveys

Given the increasing importance which schools and national policy are placing on developing pupil voice online surveys provide an easy method of capturing student's opinions and thoughts.

Once the data is captured instant reports can be formulated for the leadership team to analyze. Furthermore, the data can be exported easily to Excel to produce more sophisticated reports.

Our online surveys helps your school with:

- Assessing pupils perceptions’ of prosocial and antisocial behaviour
- Pupils’ associations of classroom environment and academic efficiency
- Students collaborating with teachers to tackle bullying
- Pupils as partners in learning

You can learn more on pupil voice at our website below by filling in the form:

http://www.feedbackanywhere.co.uk

Google Lesson Plans

Here are 8 lesson plans covering different elements of the curriculum for students aged 7-11. We hope that these will stimulate ideas that you can adapt, expand and apply to other curriculum topics. The full lesson plans are available to download in both pdf and word formats.

- Animal habitats
- Settlements
- Climate change
- Visual Arts
- Exploring your area
- Development
- The Romans in Britain
- Chocolate and fair trade

Download the lesson plans here:

http://www.google.co.uk/schools/primary.html

You can get more classroom ideas for your primary school by visiting the websites below:

Create Tests Online
http://www.schoolmocks.co.uk

Spelling Tests Online
http://www.spellanywhere.co.uk

Maths Tests Online
http://www.mathsanywhere.co.uk

Spellings with Sound

SpellAnywhere version 2 has now been launched. The SpellAnywhere website allows teachers to create weekly spelling lists so that pupils can test themselves in a new and fun way!

The new benefits of SpellAnywhere include:

- Audio to aid not only the improvement of spelling in school but also reading
- Spelling lists organised by group for class, year or subject
- Case sensitive on and off options

Click the link below to see an example spelling list with sounds played!

http://www.spellanywhere.co.uk/spellings.php?view=2&id=3749#

You can requests an online demonstration by filling in the enquiry form on the SpellAnywhere website here:

http://www.spellanywhere.co.uk

Or call our Account Management team to book your free online demo.

Call 01535 604026.

Monday 12 November 2007

School Management Information

Case Study: The Three Valleys Partnership

The Three Valleys Partnership is a group of 5 schools in the Keighley and Ilkley areas who work in confederation with Park Lane College, Keighley in delivering a 14-19 programme for local students.Gareth Chapman, deputy headteacher at Greenhead High School, contacted WebAnywhere looking for a solution to some of the administrative problems associated with having students from all institutions attending different lessons at different sites.
The temporary solution which the schools then had in place involved taking a paper copy of the register at one site, and then transporting it by car to the ‘home school’ of the pupils concerned so it could be entered into the system. Not only was this time-consuming, but it was unsatisfactory in terms of data reliability and security.

Webanywhere agreed to provide the schools with a web-based Management Information system designed in-house called ‘SchoolMi’®.

Using SchoolMi a teacher could now take a class register online, using a laptop in the classroom. The attendance data would then be immediately available to the attendance and other administration staff in the offices of the ‘home schools’ of all the students in the class.
In addition, any comment the teacher wishes to make about a student’s performance, whether praise or concern, can be appended to the student’s individual record, and is immediately available to administration staff and, indeed, to the teacher of the student’s next class.

The benefits of this solution quickly became apparent. Administration staff were able to make good use of the time they saved, support staff no longer needed to ferry paper registers back and forth, and the improved accuracy and availability of registration data made monitoring attendance easier and more accurate.

Learn more at:

www.schoolmi.com

Websites of the Week November

Common Road Infant and Nursery School -
www.commonroad.org.uk

Wylde Green Primary School - Birmingham
www.wyldegrn.bham.sch.uk/

Chittlehampton CofE Primary School - Devon
www.chittlehampton.devon.sch.uk

St. Stephen Tockhole's Primary School - Blackburn with Darwen
www.tockholesschool.org.uk

Ponteland Community Middle School - Northumberland
www.pontelandmiddle.northumberland.sch.uk

Carr Green Junior, Infant and Nursery School - Calderdale
www.carrgreenschool.org.uk

Bean Primary School - Kent
www.bean.kent.sch.uk

Heatherley Primary School - Nottinghamshire
www.heatherley.notts.sch.uk

MathsAnywhere

MathsAnywhere is a fun new way for pupils to learn and practise their weekly sums.
Using a simple online interface, teachers can set up a maths test in minutes which pupils can then access from home.

The maths test can be embedded into your school website, which not only makes it more convenient for pupils, but also generates more visits to the site.

You can enquire by visiting the website below and filling in the enquiry form:

http://www.mathsanywhere.co.uk

Or call 01535 604026 to learn more.