Can class blogs improve writing?

Could blogging be the answer to engaging all children in developing their writing skills – even the most reluctant? Myra Barr and Sarah Horrocks describe the surprising benefits of a more spontaneous, laid-back approach to writing.

With the new primary accountability system now counting reading and writing as two separate subjects, the need for engaging all pupils in developing and improving their writing skills is greater than ever before. But what to do when students are unenthusiastic about writing?

Many teachers are launching class blogs as a way of giving their students the space to share their work with parents and peers, and an incentive to improve. On the flip side of the coin, we have the students who already enjoy writing and developing their skills. Blogs benefit them too, by giving them the chance to share their talent with the whole world! The students in between all benefit as well, as school ‘work blogs’ (blogs set up for educational purposes, as opposed to ‘play blogs’) allow teachers to establish learning dialogues with the pupils and give them another way to document and share their learning, other than creating classroom displays and writing it all down in their books.

The extent to which pupils are involved in organising a school blog and posting their contributions generally differs. In some schools, pupils write their blog posts only in school time, while in others, they blog and post from home – which does raise issues about access to computers and the internet. The extent of teachers’ contributions, as well as the control they choose to exercise over blog content, also varies.

Before now, no research projects have considered whether there are differences between pupils’ digital writing and their regular school writing on paper. There is some evidence to suggest that blogging sparks pupils’ interest and enthusiasm for writing, but little attention has been paid to its effects on the quality of writing in general. It was in light of this that CfBT Education Trust’s London Connected Learning Centre (London CLC) undertook a piece of research to investigate the differences in pupils’ writing on blogs compared to their other writing.

The project also aimed to explore the potential for using blogging to develop pupils’ writing skills, and to identify good practice in blogging. All but one of the four primary teachers in this project had been blogging for more than a year and had taken different routes into blogging. 

The story of Harvey, told in this post, provides one account of how a teacher became involved in blogging and what he saw as the potential benefits for his Year 6 class in this new approach to writing.

Starting up a blog
For Harvey, it was the London CLC’s conferences and professional development opportunities for ICT leaders, alongside the contacts he made with other schools involved in blogging work, that suggested to him that blogging could have real potential for improving children’s writing. He also followed other blogs, particularly that of Ferry Lane Primary School, whose Year 6 teacher had posted some very helpful videos and guidance about blogging. Harvey set up a WordPress blog for his own Year 6 class, with the help of London CLC staff, in January 2012, and chose Primary Blogger as the platform for the blog in September 2012. 

He says: ‘I felt the blog would be a good way of showing what we’d been doing in literacy. Writing was no longer in the SATs – teacher assessment was now the only way of assessing. This freed up the teaching of writing. Our literacy coordinator suggested that we should use class reading texts as the basis for all of our writing work and I chose some texts (The London Eye Mystery, Trash, Holes, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers) which seemed to have potential for generating interesting writing.’

Harvey did not use an ICT suite, but had six computers in his classroom. For blogging, he instituted a system where the class was divided into five groups, each of which had a blogging session once a week during guided reading sessions. At the beginning of most weeks, he put up a blog post for the class to respond to, often – but not always – linked to their class reading. He also sought out short films on particular themes for the class to view and respond to. In their blogging sessions, the groups had to post their responses to these ‘invitations’. 

In the course of the project, these short films included animations (The Lonely Robot, Galileo Galilei), and short films about social and environmental issues (a trailer for An Inconvenient Truth, a film about children who live on dumpsites in Manila related to the reading of Trash). Children were also invited to create their own radio adverts and record them for the blog. They frequently posted their own suggestions for blog posts. In addition, they kept up with the blogs of their QuadBlogging partner schools.

Improving writing
Even though their blogging time was relatively restricted, Harvey noticed some differences between the writing that children did in their literacy books and what they did on the blog. One student, Krzysztof, who had English as an additional language, was ‘very careful’ when writing in his book. His sentences were ‘truncated’ – he would keep it really simple, preferring to get it exactly right. But now he writes on the blog, ‘his writing is … much freer and it’s much better writing.’

Harvey was very clear that one key role of the blog was as a way to improve writing. ‘Writing is the main thing for me,’ he says. ‘It's my focus in the school to improve writing through blogging. Children in my class were way below expected levels when they started in September. Writing on the blog being part of everyday learning will have a real impact and will improve attainment.’

Interestingly, among the schools and classes that took part in this study, only Harvey’s class had permanent computers in the classroom. This enabled him to incorporate blogging into his guided reading sessions or other class-based activities. Harvey saw this as a real advantage, not least because it enabled him to moderate pupils’ blog posts through the week rather than in one go. Although the pupils in this classroom got no additional timetabled provision for blogging, they had a lot more informal access time within the school day. Evidence from other classes suggested that the timetabled use of ICT suites did seem to be holding back developments in blog-writing.

What do the pupils think?
Harvey’s Year 6 class was at home with blogging though many of the class said they liked writing in their books more than writing on the blog. 

One pupil summed up her complex feelings in this way: ‘The reason why I prefer [writing in] books is because it just does its own thing, it’s like the pen has a mind of its own. But in the cyber world, once something’s there it’s there for good. When you think you have edited it, the non-edited bit is still out there somewhere... I enjoy the blog a lot. Because you can show the whole world how articulate you are. It encourages me to take my writing to the whole next level.’ 

Another of the pupils in the class had a similarly mixed response to these different contexts for writing. Shafia was a high ability pupil. Harvey described her literacy writing as ‘ambitious in scope, always interesting and sometimes surprising’. She only blogged from school. The aspect she liked best about the blog was having a big audience, but she actually preferred writing in her book. She compared blog and book writing in this way: ‘Sometimes we write in our books first but usually we go straight to the blog and write. In writing in the book, you’ve already thought about your ideas and pluck ideas from that. On the blog, you go straight to it without thinking so much about it before.’

This quotation highlighted what Shafia found unsatisfying about writing on the blog – it calls for less reflection and less preparation. Shafia liked writing in her book because she liked to be able to ‘think of ideas, how I can change it. Sometimes I plan in my head, sometimes I make notes. I feel more comfortable in a book.’ 

Yet many children in the project schools, responding to the end-of-project students’ questionnaire, said that they enjoyed writing on the blog more than writing in their books. One commented: ‘On the blog you can write about anything you want, but in the book the teacher asks you to write down similes. Sometimes you write as a post, sometimes as a comment. Anything fun you've done. On the blog, I feel that you don't expect the teacher to say “use all your adjectives” – you can write freely without adding in similes. You can easily upload a photo, but you can’t in your book.’ 

This comment reveals one of the attractions of blogging – it was not subject to the same constraints and the same detailed assessment as writing in ‘literacy books’. There was not the same emphasis on the need to include ambitious vocabulary (‘wow words’), or ‘good sentences full of adjectives’. 

The blogging paradox
Among the many interesting findings raised by this project were three paradoxes relating to writing within, and outside, the class blogs:

1. Blogging improves writing despite a more laid-back approach to accuracy

In general, blogging seemed to teachers to have contributed to a general improvement in pupils’ writing over the course of the project, even when their writing on the blog was not seen by their teachers as being as careful or as accurate as their writing in their books. Blogging had been a ‘game-changer’ for pupils – it had made writing fun, even for reluctant writers, and had also given them valuable writing practice as well as a sense of a wider audience for their work. 

2. Teachers are less concerned with editing and revising students’ posts despite the potential global audience

Blogging was viewed by both pupils and by teachers as more informal than writing in literacy books, and was judged by different standards. Teachers were aware that there was a difference between the way they approached writing on the blog and their approach in literacy. One teacher explains: ‘In their books, I pick them up more on punctuation and spelling. It’s more open ended on the blog.’

Pupils were aware that their work on the blog was not being marked or judged in the same way as writing in their books. ‘There’s a massive difference,’ one pupil wrote. ‘In the book, she comments on handwriting, punctuation – “You forgot this, you forgot that”. On my blog writing, her comments are much more positive. ’

Both teachers and pupils emphasised that one of the key features of blogging was that the audience for the blog was potentially ‘the whole world’. And yet, somewhat illogically, there was little emphasis given to editing and revising blog entries in these classrooms. Teachers from Canada and Australia replying to the project’s international questionnaire stressed that publishing on the blog for a global audience routinely involved their students in editing and revising. For the London teachers and pupils in the project, however, blogging had become an area of relative freedom and experimentation.

3. Despite the possibility of reaching people all over the world, students are more concerned with what their peers think of their work

The literature about blogging  constantly emphasises  the importance of the wide audience that blogging can provide for children’s writing; however, it was clear from this project findings that, for the children in these classes, one of the key audiences blogging gave them access to was the audience of their own class. 

Blogging had made the pupils in all these classes much more conscious of each other’s writing. They rarely read the work in each other’s books, but on the blog they did. They would also comment on it, and were sometimes influenced by how each other wrote. 

The commenting function enabled them to communicate with other writers and respond to their writing directly – not everything had to be channelled through the teacher. Consequently, they became more aware of their own writing and more interested in how they might improve it. The blogs had established an area of sharing and a writing community. 

An overwhelmingly positive response
At the end of the project, teachers shared their overwhelmingly positive response to their experience of blogging and taking part in the project:

• ‘I think the blog is a great way to document learning and a great documentary of the year.’
• ‘If you can get children to write without any negative connotations, it’s a very magical thing to hold onto. They enjoy it in a way they don't other writing.’ 
• ‘I know that my blogging teaching has progressed through the ideas we have shared.’
• ‘Digital literacy gives writing a whole new dimension which primary children must be exposed to.  It is, after all, their future.’

Myra Barrs is a freelance author, consultant and teacher. Sarah Horrocks is the Director of London CLC, part of the CfBT Education Trust.

You can read their full report on the findings of this project here. 

Images © CfBT Education Trust

Have you cracked the code of the new computing curriculum?

The new computing curriculum came into force back in September, so the pressure is now on to deliver outstanding results. Here, primary deputy head Anthony Sharp explains the steps his school has taken to successfully deliver new terrifying topics such as algorithms, logical reasoning and debugging.

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In a recent survey from CPD for Teachers, 52 per cent of headteachers who responded said that they felt their school was not successfully delivering the new computing curriculum.

And it's not surprising. There have been seismic shifts in what we expect from teachers to deliver the new computing curriculum. ICT used to focus purely on computer literacy, teaching pupils how to use software packages - for example, creating PowerPoint presentations or producing documents in Word - and e-safety. With the new curriculum, the focus has changed to understanding how computers work, including how to program them.

We have good teachers here at Midfield Primary who are competent and can teach ICT to a more than acceptable standard. However, when we reviewed the new computing curriculum and compared it with our current teaching programme, clear gaps emerged. Quite quickly for example, we saw that there was a gap in programming skills in our school, as well as a lack of confidence from our teachers who were concerned that they would not be able to deliver parts of the new curriculum.

My suspicions were confirmed by the results of the aforementioned CPD for Teachers survey, which showed that we were in the same boat as many others. Forty-four per cent of schools who felt they were not delivering the new computing curriculum effectively had also not received any face-to-face training.

First steps
It was clear that our teachers needed more guidance. We needed to prioritise computing curriculum training to re-set teachers’ thinking, eradicate the fear of programming and give them further information on how to deliver it effectively. We selected a course that met our needs in terms of being practical and hands-on from the start. It covered the fundamentals of computing programming through exciting tasks such as drawing computer graphics, creating simple games and interfacing with the real world.

Resetting thinking
When you talk to someone who doesn’t like maths, there’s often no particular reason they don’t like it - they just don’t. The same applies to a lot of teachers and adults with computers. The approach taken in the training course really helped to break down those feelings and reset their thinking.

Now, for example, the teachers explore how they can engage the children in programming, rather than the preconceived idea, which was along the lines of opening up a computer and looking at wires. This gave them the confidence to approach it. Now, far less concerned about what they don’t know, they focus on what they do know. The cross curricular content from computing compared to science, English and maths is quite extensive, so using the skills and working with these experts to help deliver programming was a great starting point for our school.

Bringing coding to life
Much to our surprise, we didn’t even go near a computer at first! The course instructors had us push all the tables and chairs to the side of the room and literally walk through a program.

One of the methods we used was to create an obstacle course which was navigated by answering/asking questions. The responses to the questions determined the player's next step. This brought programming to life and helped us to understand the way that coding works. It was a simple way of demonstrating binary logic, and we will use this to introduce basic programming to our primary pupils.

In the afternoon, we applied the knowledge from the activities of the morning to digital situations. Overall, the face-to-face training was great and broke down any aversions teachers may have had about how to engage the children. It was fun, engaging and very motivational.

One tricky area for us in teaching the new curriculum to primary school children was making it engaging and fun for children of a young age. The course gave us some really innovative methods of delivery, which has helped us engage children so that they enjoy it.

Confidence to deliver
The feedback so far has been very positive. We now deliver and prepare for lessons as teams so that we can share the knowledge and use a collaborative approach. It has made our teachers less nervous and has increased confidence in the classroom, as it gives them ways to approach it and they are far less concerned about what they don’t know. The focus now is on what they do know and what other existing skills they can draw on to help them deliver programming.

Embrace the IT geniuses
The fear at our school for many teachers used to be that once you set children on their way, it’s possible that they will steam ahead of the adults. This is natural, as adults are scared to press the wrong button, whereas children don’t have that fear so are free to explore. We’ve learned not to fear this situation - in fact, the opposite! We are embracing the possibility of this as a positive outcome, and we can use those skills and even channel them into our own teaching.

We are still at the start of our journey but, I believe, in a good place to move forward in delivering the new computing curriculum with confidence.

Five top tips for delivering the new computing curriculum:
1. Focus on what the teachers already know.
2. Explore curriculum crossover from maths, English and science.
3. Invest in face-to-face training to give teachers confidence.
4. Team up in a collaborative effort to engage your class.
5. Focus on making it engaging and fun for both teachers and pupils.

Anthony Sharp is deputy headteacher at Midfield Primary School in Bromley, Kent. Midfield chose to prepare their teachers for the new computing curriculum with the CPD for Teachers 'How to teach programming' course. Find out more at: www.cpdforteachers.com.

Looking for a short but thorough introduction to programming? In this free training video and accompanying article, Chris Thomas explores the basics of programming and two tools that will make teaching it a lot simpler.

Operation Playground - Free resources to stimulate active learning

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Have your pupils create their own outdoor playground games with this series of free lesson plans from Canopies UK, all designed to encourage active learning and creative thinking skills. Then enter your children's best game into Canopies UK's national competition and stand to win a bespoke outdoor canopy for your school worth up to £10,000!

Research has shown that children respond better in the classroom when they are able to enjoy short bursts of exercise or take part in lessons that encourage active learning.

Active learning allows kids to think for themselves, work individually or in teams, engaging and challenging them to think about different situations enriching their learning. It can come in many varied ways, from collaborative activities to setting them tasks to do. It could even be just as simple as taking them away from the normal environment of the classroom and getting them moving around. This can provide many benefits for them, such as building key everyday skills like communication and teamwork, as well as helping to reinforce key messages or learning aims.

In an effort to encourage more active learning to be incorporated into lessons at a Key Stage 2 level, Darwen-based Canopies UK has launched an exciting new initiative - Operation Playground.

What is Operation Playground?

Operation Playground looks to combine both exercising with learning through five different activities, as well as spending more time outside, all within the realms of the national curriculum.

The project sees kids working together to come up with their own outdoor playground game, either based on a game that is played already, or one that is completely new. The only rules are that games must be:

• safe to play
• inclusive to all pupils
• able to be played outdoors.

Youngsters often have vivid imaginations and so the concept allows them to put that to good use by thinking about how they can not only create games but how they can improve games they play already.

To facilitate this, five lesson plans with associated activities have been written for teachers or PE co-ordinators to use. All lesson plans have been tied to key subject areas and objectives that children are expected to learn as part of the curriculum this year. This not only balances the fun element in the classroom but also ensures that there is a clear, educational reason for taking part.

What are the benefits?

The initiative aims to deliver an accessible class project that gets pupils active and outside. From Physical Education to ICT, Operation Playground can be used in numerous different ways to increase knowledge and build many every day skills that are now fundamental growing up.

Communication is a major factor in the initiative not only verbally but also from a written perspective. Pupils not only contribute significantly in responding to questions asked by teachers but also by talking to their peers, valuing the contributions of each other. 

The lessons ask children to input throughout to build and develop their ideas in a positive manner. It tests their ability to listen carefully to instructions, as well as think about how instructions can be improved.

It is tailored to deliver a fun and enjoyable lesson that lets the pupils do the work and makes decisions themselves.

They are then expected to use their ideas to play the games and think about them further. By playing games, it encourages students to take part in physical activity, while also making them think about how they can incorporate movement and actions.

Schools who have already participated in the project, along with those currently in the process of creating their entry ahead of the closing date of 28th November, have expressed how enjoyable the activity was and currently is for their pupils.

Extra perks

Image: Canopies UK

Aside from the classroom benefit, each school that takes part and submits their best game entry created by the children will receive a certificate for their classroom for taking part. This will hopefully provide a sense of pride for those pupils whose game has been selected as the winning entry.

On top of this, those submissions will then be judged by a panel to win an outdoor play canopy for their school worth £10,000, which includes design, installation and manufacturing from Canopies UK. 

With this being an initiative the whole school can participate in, it can not only help to develop a friendly competitiveness within classes as they look to get the best entry. But it can also lead to healthy rivalry between schools as each one looks to be officially named the best game created.

This all sounds fun – how do I take part?

Schools wanting to take part can visit the Operation Playground page at the following link: www.canopiesuk.co.uk/education/playground/.

On this page, teachers can download the full teaching pack, which contains all the lesson plans and activities, as well as going into more detail on how to complete the entry.

There is also a map where you can see the schools in your local area that have already downloaded the pack and are taking part in the initiative.

Terms and conditions for entry are included in the teaching pack and the closing date for entries is the 28th November up to and including 11:59pm. 

For more information or to register to join (and download those free lesson plans!), visit: www.canopiesuk.co.uk/education/playground/.

The forces of fun! New workshop teaches kids the physics behind park attractions

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Teachers and their children were blown away by Professor Blast’s Learning Lab at a sneak peek of Paultons Park’s unique schools' science experience.

From swings to cogs, weights to wheels, elevation to electricity, they had the chance to get hands on with the science that makes the park run – before going out onto the rides to feel the force of physics in practice.

And they became techies for the day, bringing their own mini ride to life by the power of computer programming.

The industry professionals, heads of science and ICT, headteachers and their families from across Dorset and Hampshire were welcomed to the family attraction in Romsey over the weekend of September 6 and 7 to experience its new interactive workshops.

Professor Blast’s Learning Lab uses the physics behind the park’s attractions to bring science vividly to life for children and is exclusively available for schools and uniformed groups, such as Brownies and Cubs.

With the quirky professor and his research assistant, Peter Petri, overseeing the lab, kids love the exciting mix of UV lighting, bubbling test-tubes, smoke and special effects.

Paultons Park Education Officer, Andy Chapman, said: “It was so much fun for the teachers to see their own children buzzing with excitement when they were doing the activities – and now they can’t wait to come back with their pupils.

“We’re really proud to see Professor Blast’s Learning Lab in action and we’re looking forward to welcoming school groups. 

“What makes it such an exciting ‘edu-tainment’ experience is that children can learn all about the science behind our rides before going into the park to experience them in practice.” 

With the capacity to host 35 children and their leaders, Professor Blast’s hands-on Science Explorer workshop explores forces and energy transfers, allowing children to investigate the dynamics of the park’s attractions.

And the Ride Programming – Control IT workshop offers a new understanding of how rides are technically programmed. The workshop is designed to develop IT skills and provides children the chance to programme their very own motorised Sky Swinger.

Professor Blast's Learning Lab mainly targets key stage 1 and 2. It will be used as a base for a number of school trips and educational workshops, where children will be able to book the interactive lab for a session as part of their school visit.

About Paultons Park
Paultons Park has more than 60 theme park rides and attractions – including the world’s only Peppa Pig World – but education is an important part of its remit, which has earned the park a Learning Outside the Classroom quality badge.

The Park has this year been voted in the top five UK school trips destinations, alongside the National History Museum and Edinburgh Zoo, as voted for by the readers and subscribers of UKedchat magazine.

The amazing mix of rides, birds and animals provides plenty of stimuli for learning on a range of subjects with an experienced education team on hand to guide learners through a full day of curriculum-based workshops. 

A day at Paultons Park
10am: School groups arrive, parking in the large-free car park. Tickets are issued and students head into the park.

10:15am: Head into the park, under the supervision of accompanying teachers. Experience the rides, or visit the many species of birds and animals. Staff can download the free resources from the Paultons Park website to support learning, or use the time for recreational purposes.

11.00am: Attend a pre-booked workshop in Professor Blast’s Learning Lab. Let the education team lead a hands-on exploratory session in its fully-themed lab. All of the interactives are based on rides in the park, allowing clear scientific links to be made between the workstations and the rides. Worksheets are provided to further focus the learning.

12:00pm: Visit the penguins for an informative and fun talk on the Park’s collection of Humboldt penguins.

12:30pm: Lunch in one of its numerous undercover picnic areas.

1:30pm: Continue to explore the park, under the supervision of accompanying teachers. Experience the rides, or visit the many species of birds and animals. Staff can download the free resources from the Paultons Park website to support learning, or use the time for recreational purposes. Alternatively, book another workshop in Professor Blast’s Learning Lab.

Other workshops and presentations
The new Learning Lab activities complement existing schools workshops. In the Feel the Force workshop, children can tour the park to explore the forces acting on their bodies and how they affect the rides. 

For older students, Paultons run a range of presentations looking at different aspects of the business. Marketing covers the main techniques Paultons Park uses to attract customers, and who they market to. Students can also learn about customer service at the park, covering information about its customers, how Paultons meets their needs, measures their satisfaction and communicates with them.

And the Paultons Business Programme includes information on the history of Paultons, its mission statement and core values, management structure, stakeholders, functional areas and responsibilities, customer information, how it communicates with its guests and the marketing mix.

“With all the excitement of a theme park all around them, children love learning how we work – and, of course, they get to enjoy the rides as well,” said Andy Chapman.

“We’re passionate about education, which is why we don’t just offer exciting workshops and experiences for children, but also run inspirational teaching events, giving teachers creative ideas to ignite their pupils’ imaginations.”

Teachers are encouraged to book a pre-visit in advance of a trip, where Andy will give them a tour, answer all of their questions and show them the Learning Lab.

For more information, visit www.paultonspark.co.uk.  If you are a teacher or education blogger and would like to preview Professor Blast's Learning Lab at Paultons Park - please email education@paultons.co.uk. 

Press enquiries to:
Lisa Barry, Liz Lean PR, Tel: 01202 701828, E: lisab@lizleanpr.co.uk

A teacher's guide to Facebook in the classroom

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Since its launch ten years ago, Facebook’s potential for use in the classroom has become undeniable. But how can teachers keep their private life private, while still making use of Facebook as a collaborative learning tool? 

Many people will rightly advise you that to expose your private life to students is to risk public humiliation. It could happen to anyone, anytime. A photo is put up on Facebook, it’s tagged with your name, the privacy settings aren’t as strict as they could be and there you are: on a lively night out, in provocative fancy dress, a bit worse for drink, and for all the world to see.

The teaching profession, in particular, is in the public eye and many teachers are finding that Facebook – and their pupils – are revealing much more about them than they’d expected.

But Facebook has the potential to create an open and supportive environment for the pupils, and allow you to get to know them in a whole different light, and to revolutionise the way homework is planned, completed and reported on.

It can also be a great tool for teachers’ professional development, providing a safe space for teachers to share their expertise and professional practice within and beyond the walls of the classroom.

But how can you make the most of Facebook in your classroom without falling into its traps? Our guide below will take you through the process, and hopefully give you a few exciting ideas to try in your own school.

Creating a profile
The first thing to do is create a new Facebook profile that you only use for school. Only include the information you want your pupils and colleagues to see. Set all your security levels to high.

Next, set up a fan page for your school. Fan pages allow you to distribute announcements, blog posts, events, assignments and more right into the live streams or 'News Feeds' of those that ‘like’ your page. This is better than using a personal profile because there is no need for parents or students to be your friends to get the updates, and it can really be used to develop an online community around your class or school.

Setting up groups and pages
For most teachers, pages and groups will be the two key tools of your communication hub.

A page is public, which means that anyone can view it. Anyone can like a page on Facebook, and students who do will see updates in their News Feed.
Groups enable you to communicate to a smaller audience and allow you to limit membership to only those you approve. Using a page or a group is a great way to use social media with your students without blurring the line between your professional and personal lives.

Facebook groups can be quickly created, with their access easily limited only to a form or year group. Pupils can be invited by email. Files can be uploaded by the group administrator, who can also begin debates using an inbuilt polling feature. Pupils can be directed to the group where they can easily access a set of resources for a specific subject, share links to resources and discuss revision assignments. 

Plus, when a teacher adds a new file, question or post, they are able to see how many group members have seen and read the item.

How to introduce Facebook to your school

• Get leaders on board – get your headteacher, senior leaders and governors to understand the benefits for learning, engagement and communication.
• Talk to ICT – identify and unblock Facebook access restrictions for teachers first so you can test ideas and projects with colleagues. Start simple – experiment with the use of a Facebook page or group where you can test the tools and technology.
• Privacy – if you are working directly with students, adjust your own privacy and security settings on Facebook and get them to do the same.
• Start outside the classroom – consider starting to use Facebook in an out of school hours learning activity like a sports team or drama group.
• Test ideas – use fellow staff members and pupils to explore what works and doesn’t work to develop and test your ideas across subjects to extend the reach of the initial project. Informally test and evaluate its impact.

EXCITING IDEAS!

• Use polling tools to set up a series of questions or debates for a group of pupils.
• Set up a Facebook page for each project you do with your students. You can post news, photos, videos, comments, competitions and information relevant to the project. The page’s Timeline will keep a record of it all, allowing you and your students to track back and access older content.
• Just in time for remembrance day… why not have your students create a comprehensive and interactive history of WW1, or indeed any other time period? Split your class into groups, have each group create a Facebook page, and then ask them to post relevant images, information, articles and other media to the page’s Timeline, pinned to the dates these major events occurred.
• Ask outside experts to chime in on your Facebook page – easier, quicker and cheaper than booking a school visit!
• Use Facebook for foreign language learning and partner your students up with pupils who speak different languages, from Spanish to Japanese. It’s easier than writing and sending letters and allows students to engage with their pen pals frequently and instantaneously outside of the classroom.
• Set up a Facebook group for your students' parents. The group acts as a central hub for information – so using the example of a school trip, you can use it to share relevant staff contact details, itineraries and maps. You can even use it to keep parents updated during the trip itself, for example by posting photos.
• Set up an event on Facebook to ensure your students never miss an upcoming exam or essay deadline. Invite all the relevant students to that event – they’ll receive a notification of the invitation and then when they accept or join the event, they’ll receive alerts when you or other members post information or update the event details. 
• Not really a Facebook tool, but inspired by it... Fakebook allows you to create a fake Facebook account for a book/film character or historical figure (it doesn't create an actual Facebook account). This is a much more inventive alternative to writing a standard biographical piece. There are lots of other tools/templates like Fakebook if it doesn't work for your particular needs. Students could even create their own in powerpoints and word documents.

More advice and an even greater range of exciting ideas and inspiration can be found in our article, Facebook in the classroom, available to purchase from our website.