Tips and Hints - complete listing

What you can do 

1. Ask everyone in school to search for the school name on Google, ignore the old site name – your new name will usually have .org at the end. Then click on the link and go to your new school website – this will increase the searches and ranking.

2. Ask parents to search for the new school website from home

3. When using your Moodle VLE ask the users to goto the Moodle site from your School Website link

4. Keep your school website alive - make sure that you change and add things to your website every week ! Share the load so that everyone gets involved and the website is useful and an interesting place for new parents, pupils, staff and even those that have left your school

What we can do 

We will already have set-up the search engine optimisation for your website and included metatags for the pages

1. We can add articles to our Edis Education Website promoting your school and website like this one for Ash Grove Primary School which will have a link back to your school. Send us an article or give us an idea for an article that we can write for you to add to Edis Education

2. We can publish articles on key article sites which include a link back to your school – again we need some ideas to write an article

3. We can add a link from www.school-website-now.com showing your school website with a link

4. We will have already added your website sitemap to Google which helps your website ranking

5. We will have also added your school website to Google Analytics so you can see the traffic increasing to your school website – this linking also helps ranking. We can provide your login details.

6. If you have an e-learning Moodle VLE provided by us this will have provided a link back to your school site

Send us your articles to improve your ranking

Large numbers of users using WiFi in the same area at the same time can result in a very poor service. There are many challenges for groups of Wi-Fi users in areas such as classrooms using tablets, hopefully the following tips will maximize your chances of success.

Don't plan time-sensitive activities on the use of wireless service. Many factors go into the reliability and available bandwidth of a school wireless network, most of which cannot be centrally controlled. Wi-Fi clients in nearby hallways and classrooms (including those above or below your classroom) can consume the bandwidth of access points servicing your classroom. Service interruptions from interference will probably not be resolved during your class, so it is best to have a backup plan. Wireless should work most of the time, but it is not possible to guarantee service availability all the time. It's not recommended using wireless to deliver important or time sensitive tests.

Always advise your users to turn off unnecessary Wi-Fi devices. Ask your students to turn off or put to sleep smartphones, iPods, and any other Wi-Fi-enabled devices that are not being used as part of the class. Devices left on may consume bandwidth and reduce service for the devices that you want your students to use.

Encourage the use of 802.11n (5 GHz) clients for tablets. The 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz) client space is generally more congested and traditionally has more sources of interference (like microwave ovens and mobile phones) than the 5 GHz space, so encourage everyone to use 5 GHz 802.11n. Users of 802.11n benefit from 54 Mb/s connection speed, though at 5 GHz frequency the wireless signal has difficulty penetrating walls - though this could be an advantage with Wireless Access Points located inside a classroom. Many mobile clients, such as phones and tablets, support 802.11n only in 2.4 GHz frequencies. For example, the iPad 2 supports 802.11n 5 GHz operation, while the HP Slate 500 only supports 802.11n in 2.4 GHz. Both devices will work, but the iPad 2 will have a much better Wi-Fi experience using 5 GHz channels, while the HP Slate 500 will use the more congested 2.4 GHz channels.

You will need a router that supports the 802.11n standards. That means it operates at 2.4GHz and ideally 5GHz, delivers bandwidth of up to 300Mbps and is backward compatible with 802.11g and b (when operated at 2.4Ghz).

Encourage students to update their wireless drivers. The driver is the piece of software that controls the operation of the Wi-Fi radio on the device. User issues are among the top reasons for wireless service problems, especially in larger enterprises. You can often resolve issues with connectivity by upgrading to the latest version of the wireless driver on your device.

How many access points do you need ? Many consumer grade wireless routers will only support 10 devices on each access point. These WiFi chipsets are designed for home use or small business environments where there aren’t many users or devices accessing the wireless network. When the threshold of the chipset is exceeded, the device will lock up and will then need to be reset to start working again. It’s important to estimate or control how many users and devices you expect on your wireless network. Remember that each user may have multiple devices including a laptop, tablet and smart phone. This means that even 10 users may be using more than 30 devices connected to that access point, so asking users to switch off other devices really helps performance.

Ideally for a WiFi Access point installed in a classroom you need 802.11/b/g/n with the ability to handle at least 32 users operating at 2.4 GHz but better still if dual frequency band of 2.4Gz and 5 GHz.

Wireless routers have built-in security features. Even the most basic allow you to select the level of security and create a password. Select the highest level of security and create passwords that teachers will remember and can advise their class if they are to use their own devices - devices such as tablets will normally remember the network passwords even after being shut down or restarted, so ensure tablets are pre-set with the correct password when they are configured for WiFi.

WiFi Access Point for the classroom 

The UK Government has passed legislation requiring schools to publish the following information on their websites

• Name, address, contact details AND named contact person
• Admission arrangements
• Most recent school report published by her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills
• KS2 and KS4 results for the school as published by the Secretary of State
• A link to the schools performance tables published on the Department for Education’s website
• Curriculum information for each year including in KS1 the names of any phonics or reading schemes adopted
• Behaviour policy
• The schools allocation of Pupil Premium Grants
• A school report on special needs provision
• Charging and remissions policy
• A statement of the school's "Ethos and Values"

The full published website regulations can be seen here

If your website does not comply please contact us for advice on updating your website

This demonstration site shows how the regulations can be incorporated into a school website

The cost of many replacement projector lamps is about the same as the first year lease payment for a 55" Touch screen. The touch screen has no maintenance costs and will last 10 years or more but during the same 10 year period you would need to buy another 5 replacement lamps for your projector ! 

So in reality a Touch Screen costs about the same or less than the replacement lamps