We have recently introduced a new feature to School Jotter 2 which allows you to make content blocks on the website time sensitive.
In the example below,we are going to create an important notice that is set to display between a specific set of dates. Here is how to do it, step by step:

Step 1:
Make sure you are logged in to the website and click Edit Page in the green bar at the top.

Step 2:
Click on Insert Item and decide which type of block you are going to add to the page. In this example, we are going to add a Text block, so select Text from the Insert Item menu. See the screenshot below for illustration.

Step 3:
Decide where you are going to add the block to the page and click the black Insert text here bar.

Step 4:
Type in the text you wish to use as an important notice. In this example, we are going to type “IMPORTANT NOTICE: School re-opens on 5th September.”

Step 5:
Highlight the text that you have just typed in and use the font size icon in the toolbar to set the size of the text. If this text is going to be an important notice, make sure that it is large enough so that it is clearly visible on the page. In our example, we are going to set the font size to 18pt.

Step 6:
When you are in Edit Page mode, you will notice that a set of white configuration icons appear when you click on a specific block on the page. In order to make our Important Notice time sensitive, we are going to left click on the block we have created and then we are going to left click the white cog shaped icon. See the screenshot below which shows where this is located.

Step 7:
You then need to enter the dates that the block will be visible from and when it will be visible to. You can enter the date directly into the box provided using the correct format of yyyy-mm-dd. Alternatively, when you click the box, you will be provided with a mini calendar that can be used to select the date manually.

Step 8:
Once you have entered a date into each box, you can click the Save button, then click Save and Publish.
Please note that the time sensitive block you have created will always be visible when you are logged into the site as an admin. You should therefore log out of the website to test to see whether the time sensitive block appears or not.

If you need further help with editing your School Jotter 2 website, please visit our new online help system at http://wa.schooljotter2.com/

Making use of new the features for tables in School Jotter 2

Tips from Primary Support Desk Analyst, Matthew Basierak

On the support desk we are often asked how to add and work with tables in School Jotter 2 and we have recently introduced some new features to the system which makes working with tables easier than before.
You can now change the colours of individual cells in a table.  In order to get started you first need to create an empty table by using the table icon in the grey editing toolbar.

Once you have added the table to the page, you need to select and highlight the cells where you wish to change the colour.
See the screenshot on the right.

Once you have highlighted the cells, the next step is to go to the Table menu in the grey toolbar, select the Cell option from the drop down menu then click on Cell Properties.  See the screenshot below which shows exactly where this option is located.

You should now find yourself in the Cell properties dialogue box.  If you then click the advanced Tab in the following window there are options to set the border width, style and colour.
In order to change the colour you can either enter a value into the background field, or alternatively you can click on the small back to the right hand side.  After selecting the colour you will notice that this information is automatically added to the style box.
Please see the screenshot below, which shows the background colour box with a new colour added to it.  You can now click on the OK button to save the changes.

If you need further help on working with tables, please see our help guide using the link below:
http://wa.schooljotter2.com/sites/insert-items/tables

Coxhoe School is a familiar name to primary schools all around the country, thanks mainly to a popular website the school created a few years ago.

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Webanywhere’s latest free guide has been put together to help you create a better website for your school.

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It doesn’t seem five minutes since the new school term started, does it? Yet here we are, into December already – and I’m sure you’ve started counting down to the last day of term!

If you’ve already decorated the classrooms, start thinking about getting your school’s website all festive too. If you’re a School Jotter user, we’ve listed three ways you can make your website more festive – and more fun to visit!

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Whether your school already has a website, you’re about to get one, or you’re thinking of changing your school website, one thing should always be a priority for you: Keeping it up to date.

This may seem like an obvious statement. But bearing in mind that a regularly updated website can vastly improve your Google rankings, and that many people will keep on coming back if they see new content each time they visit, it’s vital to make your online presence a priority. Keeping your content fresh is vital for attracting prospective parents to your school website.
So, in order for you to keep your school website up to date without having to devote a significant amount of your time to it, we have five ideas for you.

Choose A System That’s Easy To Use
The easier your website system is to update and manage, the quicker you can update it. No one likes using a system that’s laborious and complicated; least of all busy teachers. When choosing a school website, or moving to a new one, always consider how much of your time it’s going to take up with creating new pages, adding text and uploading photographs. Of course, School Jotter is designed to be as simple as possible – because we believe that if a website system requires weeks of training before you can even get started, it’s not worth bothering with.

Assign Responsibilities
Many schools will assign one person to keep the website updated. However, if you have luxury of a few members of staff contributing, assign different people to different areas of the website. For example, your secretary could keep your events pages up to date with the latest open evenings, sports days and school parties, or your children could write blog posts for their teacher to upload. If each area of piece of content is assigned to a specific member of staff, it’ll be easier to keep all areas of your website up to date.
Also, giving deadlines for when certain content needs to be added – for example, updating of classwork pages every Friday by 3pm – may also help with ensuring content is regularly added.

Try Different Things
You don’t want maintaining your website, or creating content for it, to become boring for you and your staff. If you lose interest, so will your website’s visitors. So, try new ways of adding content every now and then, and keep your website fresh. Getting the children involved with the school website is a great way to improve their ICT skills – and they’ll feel a real part of the school too, both online and offline.
One example of trying something different could be creating a video of the children’s classwork, narrated by the children, rather than uploading the work itself.

Have Website Meetings
Keep the website front-of-mind for all concerned with regular website meetings – or, have the website as part of the agenda for your other regular meetings. This is also a great way to generate new ideas for content – and you can check on progress of updates and changes to the website.

Encourage Feedback
There’s no better way to find out if your school website is doing the trick than to ask visitors what they think of it. You could set up a form on your website for feedback  – even ask specific questions about the website – and then make any changes according to the information you get back.
You could also widen the net and ask the children themselves what they think to it – or send out a short survey to parents. This way, you can get vital information about things like how regularly the News section should be updated – or whether the website design is appealing enough. Respond to the feedback with what people want – and you’ll have visitors coming back to your school’s website again and again.

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.

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.