Find out more about the series of webinars that will be hosted throughout the month of June. 

1. School Jotter website training 

Liam and Charlotte from the School Jotter Delivery and Support Team will be hosting this webinar and will cover the following:

• What you need to know about school website development 
• The journey of the School Jotter website
• Pre-requisites and things to consider before building a school website

 

2. Make Your Website Ofsted Ready

This webinar is significant for those who would like to make their website Ofsted inspection ready. It will be hosted by Lawrence Contreras, one of the most experienced Account Managers in the School Jotter team.

We will cover the following in this session:

• How to structure your website to help you achieve an outstanding grade in Ofsted
• How to make your website easier to navigate for current parents
• How to use your website to promote your school to prospective parents and staff

3. Improve online communication with parents

In this session, we’ll discuss effective online communication with parents. This webinar will be hosted by Sam and will cover the following:

• How your website can be structured to make it easier for parents to find relevant information 
• Why and how messaging is important for parents
• How you can use mobile apps to enhance parent communication
• How you can reduce admin costs and costs in postage, paper etc. to support a greener environment

 

4. How to attract new parents to your school

This webinar focuses on how to attract new parents to your school website. It will be hosted by members of our expert team and will cover the following:

• How you can represent your school brand and values to best attract new parents
• The basics of getting you higher in Google search results  — including, page copy, page descriptions, and Google My Business

 

We’ll have a further series of events in the new academic year — if you’d like us to cover a particular subject, please get in touch. 

 Bett Show always attracts a number of inspiring people from the education sector. Bett 2016 wasn’t an exception and today we are sharing one of our favourite speeches.
“How teachers can do what technology can’t”- one of the most interesting discussions at Bett 2016. It was presented by Tom Starkey who is a teacher and a columnist. He made some good points about the things that good teachers can do that any education technology can’t.

This is a topic that can definitely start a very controversial discussion, especially at the education technology exhibition. With all the latest technologies in the education sector, it can be easy to forget what the true role of a teacher is. Discussing topics like this can encourage people to remember that there will always be things that could not be replaced by any kind of technology.

 “It is a battle to be better than a computer because we are not given time enough to reflect on our own practice, to reflect on people in front of us. If a computer could do that, that would be great…”

It is important to look at both positive and negative things when talking about technology in education. There are some amazing things that technology can do to improve learning. For instance, different learning platforms can be used to make lessons more engaging, they can also be used for homework and assignments. Making lesson plans or even marking assignments can be done with the help of technology. However, as acknowledged by Tom Starkey, although technologies create some amazing learning opportunities for students, there will always be things that could not be performed by any kind of technology. Technologies provide information, but a teacher is someone who can motivate, encourage, give feedback, listen and help with building creative and curious personalities of children.
It can be said that technologies are there to provide information whereas teachers are important for guiding students on how to use that information and to provide any other support that could not be done by any kind of technology.
Check the video below for some more inspirational thoughts by Tom Starkey.

Miles Berry and Tom Starkey at Bett 2016 from Webanywhere on Vimeo.

Webanywhere will be exhibiting at Bett 2016 – the world’s largest learning technology event!
When? Event will be taking place from the 20th to the 23rd January.
Where? ExCel Centre in London, stand F350.

Bett is your annual opportunity to experiment with the latest technology, hear from inspirational figures and experts in the industry and meet your peers from all around the world.
Join us at the event and learn more about our education products including School Jotter – the school website builder – the world’s most popular open-source virtual learning environment. Our friendly education experts will be happy to meet you, answer your questions and demonstrate our education products.
We have some exciting things planned for Bett Show 2016! Watch this space for more updates regarding the event.

Planning your time!
Download the official Bett 2016 mobile app as a planning tool for your visit and make the most of your time before the show, at the show and after the show to stay tuned.

• Decide which speakers you particularly want to hear from and plan your schedule
• Find out who else is attending those sessions and strike up a conversation
• Plan your way around the show floor
• Keep a record of your favourite speakers, exhibitors and products.

The Education Technology conference is here, and we’re inviting you to join us at what promises to be the most exciting event in Education Technology in The North.
Hosted in the beautiful and prestigious Hilton Leeds City Hotel, the event will be a great chance to see some of the leading EdTech companies in the country, meet other teachers and professionals and take full advantage of our free catering.

Plus, we’ll be hosting talks from world leading experts in Education Technology and from schools and teachers who have changed the way they teach forever.
You can view more information on our website: www.educationtechnology2015.co.uk

Register today! Tickets are FREE (including lunch and refreshments) and are available now.

For 2015 we’re supporting a national competition where your students could win vouchers totalling up to £5,000! We’ll let them express it in their own words though:
As an online competition that challenges participants to engage in research during a designated time frame, the National Academic Challenge (NAC) is an upcoming 3-phase event designed to help prepare students in Key Stage 3 and above for all the challenges of today’s job market.
Some aspects that make the NAC a unique educational event:

• Teams can participate anywhere, together at their school or individually from their own homes.
• The event develops an active pursuit of information to seek answers to the complex problems presented while other competitions test memory based information.
• The NAC environment encourages the application of new learning methods, teamwork and increases the use of new technologies in the classroom.
• Promotes interaction with the entire school community including teachers, students, parents and school staff.

The competition will take place over two weekends and it will be up to students to manage their time for each phase.
The first phase consists of four hands-on tasks for each team to complete. While these tasks are not scored or mandatory, they are used as the first tie-breaking factor to determine the winner of the competition. Teams will have 5 days to complete as many tasks as they can.
The second phase is a qualifying round and consists of 10 questions from the following topics: History, Environment, Music, Trivia, News, Languages, Art, Technology, Sports, Logical Reasoning and a surprise topic. Each question is worth a number of points based on the difficulty of the question and teams will have 36 hours to complete as many questions as they can. Teams that score higher than the national average performance will qualify for the third and final phase, which consists of a timed Puzzle in an unrevealed format.
The team that has the highest combined score from the second and third phase will be the winner. They will receive £5,000 to be evenly divided between members and an additional £1,000 for their teacher.
The NAC is an extraordinary opportunity for students to learn how to think outside the box, work in teams, manage conflicts, critically analyze complex problems and assume leadership in the quest for knowledge as they interact with students from around the country.
The registration deadline for teachers and their student teams is 13th of March.
For more information and registration, visit the official website at: www.nachallenge.com

You may remember that before the school holidays we were looking for children aged 5-16 to impress us with their poetry prowess by submitting a poem or short story based on the theme – Do Computers Rule the World?
We received over 500 entries – an absolutely amazing response – and are delighted to announce that Ian McMillan, the Bard of Barnsley, has picked three winners.

Cue drum roll…

1st Place: Emily Wilson, Wetherby High School
2nd Place: Sophia Barnett – Bishop Walsh Catholic School
3rd Place: Annabel Cox – Oasis Academy John Williams

A huge thank you to all children who entered. We will be publishing a large selection of the entries in the coming days for you to read and share!

Emily’s poem:
My dog ate my homework
Was the line that used to be,
But now it’s all gigabytes
And my printers ran out of ink

The old park swing
That was full of joy,
Is now empty
Just swinging in the wind

The boy with his head down
Looking at a screen,
Just missed the chance of a lifetime
A friendship that could’ve been

The mother that climbed monkey bars
Can’t get her child to stop watching ‘Cars’
She asks herself why?
Why don’t children want to see the kites fly?

We’re completely addicted,
Addicted to the net.
Those children who want to make computer games
Instead of becoming a vet

It’s got us in its grubby hand
Controlling us through its links,
We’re buried in the sand
Puppets on strings that can’t blink

Children used to cry
From a grazed knee,
Now children cry
From losing to technology

It’s a disease
And it’s spreading fast
There is no cure
No way you’re going to last

The forever chatting world
Is now silent
All the chatting is online
And bullying is no longer violent

It’s all done online
The hate, rumours, the stories
We’re running out of time
To return to our former glory

We don’t dare say it to their faces
But we say it in online places
Where we think we’re safe from torment
But we’re not safe from judgement

So look up from your screen
And see the world as it is
We don’t need to be the robot generation
We need to stop at the outside station

So break out of the chain
Out of your prison cell
To a world without pain
To a world which isn’t technology hell

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Open Source e-Learning for Business

Wednesday 24TH September 18:00 – 20:00

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City Exchange, 11 Albion St, Trinity Leeds, Leeds. LS1 5ES.

5 mins walk from Leeds City Station

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Only 20 places available
to book your FREE
ticket visit
https://bit.ly/wa_business

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A evening seminar on the benefits of open source e-learning to the business sector. Conor Gilligan, Head of Operations at Webanywhere will talk about how moving learning online can help business
organisations to:

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We’ll be exploring these topics via case studies from British Safety Council, who have recently implemented online learning platforms, and discussing the improvements they’ve experienced post-launch.

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If you have any questions,
call us on 0800 862 0131
or email events@webanywhere.co.uk

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