We build and run sites for schools. Killer, kicking sites. Sites you'll love.
February 2006
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28  
Jan   Mar

Site structure
News Departments
Members
About us
We want to and will make it easy for schools to keep their staff, pupils, parents, partners, other stake-holders and wider community informed, updated and engaged.

Now, by merely typing in the text you can do it too!

It's so easy even 7 year old children can do it. If you are able to move a mouse, click a few buttons and string a few sentences together you can maintain a cutting edge site.

We'll give you all the training you'll need, support you on the phone or with email, all to make sure you get the best out of your investment.

Our killer features are:
Superb content management and blog software. Excellent Google optimisation.
An email to weblog interface, making updating your school blog a doddle. 
Top draw support and feedback.

Try a demo or build your

30 day free trial

school website yourself. What will you write today's school news to be?

Archive page for Wednesday, 08 February 2006

 We, Feb 8, 2006
What I do for the money
I look after you. Monitoring, mentoring and moderating. Training. Design. Hosting. This is an intimate community. We also have several super cool features that stand us out. Like our email to Weblog. And soon, email to pages. Which make it even easier to add news and content. And of course, our experience in running school Weblogs. Read more about who, what and why.

Or, you could get a free blog. There are plenty of services that do this now. If you do, would you tell us the address of the RSS feed? Don't use blogspot.com though, many places block them due to spamblogs.

In my view, you get what you pay for. Our service is worth every penny. 30 days free trial too :-)
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 8/2/06; 11:17:20 PM to the Walsall Schools business dept.
Comment [0] Trackback [0]
What I do for the money



Design?
Somebody asked if we have more templates. We do, and we like making them too. We've even thought that it'd be kinda cool to have the design of a site left to pupils, as a competition. Just one of the plain black and white themes photocopy it and spread it around the art department. We'd then 'professionally' finish it off.

As these are themes, we or rather the site's owner can switch themes as they would change clothes, only much faster. Within a couple of mouse clicks the whole site looks different.
Diff colour ways of themes     autumn theme

Below, some screens from existing sites. (See the 'Recently updated sites' list at top left to see the real things.)
stjoesphs theme     pelsalltheme
kings hill theme     croft theme testing a long title, to see if it busts anything by changing it

Below are the three base themes, senior, primary and junior. From which we've been working of late. But time to move on creatively, my creative juices are saying.
Walsall Main Theme     Walsall Junior Theme
Walsall Senior Theme

As plain as plain can be...
educatr b and w two.      Educatr black and white theme.
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 8/2/06; 6:09:55 PM to the Walsall Schools business dept.
Comment [0] Trackback [0]
Design?



Steel bands and theatres
Out in the wilderness of Darlaston, Walsall, but still in our warm community, we've a theatre production that made people cry, from Salisbury Primary (don't forget the Friday lunchtime blog club). And from Kings Hill Primary (still in Darlo) a steel band called Juma.

Not forgetting the usual discussion over at Beechadale Primary.
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 8/2/06; 5:45:41 PM to the Community dept.
Comment [0] Trackback [0]
Steel bands and theatres



More skipping?
Wonder if it's a passing fad? Nah! Even my kids here in Dawley, Telford, Shropshire, UK have had a skipping instructor into school, though no news item nor website to point to ;-(

More skipping over at Salisbury Primary, Walsall adding to Croft's workshops.
  • Did you know there was a US Olympic 'Jump Rope' Team? Buddy Lee is a member.
  • If you want to get a pro rope... Here's the shop for you.
  • Better... Some rhymes to sing while you're at it. (I know they're all a bit American, still... ;-))
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 8/2/06; 11:37:48 AM to the Blogging news dept.
Comment [0] Trackback [0]
More skipping?



Internet safety
The BBC are reporting that children are networking socially on the 'net. Chat rooms, email, blogs... But while they're doing this at home and at school, all their lessons are concerned with computational skills rather than using the internet with care.

I guess this again has much to do with the real world against the perceived needs of employers. But there's to be "no room in the curriculum" for another module on safety.

Here's some links: BlogSafety.com. Keep your name and other personal details off the internet.
From the Australian Governement: Be nice to people, and people will be nice to you.
A US maths teacher's advice on blog safety. Will you be embarrassed years from now when a potential employer pulls up a spiteful, edgy or weird commment? School blogs are an extension of the classroom this means no foul language.
CBS News: "Search for your child's personal blog with key words like email address, names, nicknames, school names, friends names..."

Letters home! Need to send a letter to parents? Here's some examples from the US.

With our blogging service, we monitor and mentor and moderate. We're not teachers; we're systems admin, hopefully us combined with real teachers will help safely bridge the gap between schools and the wild internet. Hopefully, we can show how to behave, lead by example and catch any errors in judgement and use them as teachable moments.
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 8/2/06; 10:46:21 AM to the Blogging news dept.
Comment [0] Trackback [0]
Internet safety



News round up
Public Technology: "Growing evidence that much of school/H.E. learning is irrelevant of what people need in the labour market and in life." Employers want oral communication skills, customer handling, problem solving and team working, not really written communication, literacy skills nor using numbers.
Socialist Worker: "Teacher training cuts and 'independent state schools.'" And some info on the 2 March rally and demo for a "comprehensive future."
The Voice: Ruth Kelly lays out her plans with reference to black children.
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 8/2/06; 10:12:05 AM to the Politics dept.
Comment [0] Trackback [0]
News round up