EWD What's New Blog
St Andrew's CofE
Our latest project comes from St Andrew's CofE Primary School in Levenshulme, Manchester. St Andrew's have ordered our very latest fully-comprehensive website package. We are very excited about starting work on this project as it promises to be a very impressive website with all the whizzes and bangs you would expect from a truly high-spec Primary School website - and more!
Images of pupil on your school website
There is widespread fear that images of pupils on school websites can pose certain risks. But we believe that any risk can be minimised as long as no individual child is identified my name or by any other marker beyond the image itself. One thing that must be remembered however is that if anybody, of mal intent or good, can if they so wish download any images at all that appear on your website and there is nothing that can be done to stop this. Little tricks like disabling the right-click function on a web page serves only as a weak deterrent to any user that is not aware of the 'Prt Sc' (Print Screen) function or by those who know how to identify the location of an image by inspecting the source code of a web page.
If your school is genuinely concerned that pupils will come to harm if you display their image on your school website, then our advice is do not, as one school recently exposed in the national media did, place images of your pupils with their faces blurred-out or masked with smiley faces! We believe this practice serves absolutely no purpose and only looks at best very silly and at worst, as in the case of the blurred-out faces, positively sinister. Instead simply refrain from including images of pupils on your website at all.
Choosing a VLE
BECTA has shocked the Open Source for Education community by refusing to include Moodle as an approved Learning platform despite Open University's unconditional support for the software. See this short film: Secondary ICT Management - Choosing a VLE from www.teachers.tv that provides some good objective advice on choosing a suitable VLE for your school.
System status service
We have recently launched our new system status reporting service at http://educationaldesign.co.uk/system-status.php and http://loquela.co.uk/system-status.php. These pages keep maintain a 24-hour running commentary of any planned maintenance and known issues with our web hosting data centre. In the unlikely event that you should experience problems with your web website, please refer to these pages before contacting customer services.
Picassa slide show
We recently incorporated the Picassa Flash Slideshow from Google into Broadstone Hall Primary School's website. This custome feature allows the Broadstone Hall school webmaster to embed any of their Picassa Web Albums into the homepage of the school website providing fresh new visual content on a regular basis.
Visit the Broadstone Hall Primary School website and see their new Picassa Flash Slideshow.
St Mary's RC Primary School
St Mary's RC Primary School in Stockport, goes live today with the very latest version of our Primary school website management system. This latest version enjoys a completely reworked administration control panel developed from the ground up. We have also made huge improvements to the online calendar and image galleries.
Visit the new St Mary's Primary School website.
Educational Web Design - New design
Educational Web Design our arm dedicated to accessible, standards-compliant school websites has re-launched its website with a brand new design and offering significant developments to its School Website Management System.
EWD offers a very cost effective way for UK schools to manage and update their own professional-standard website that exceeds recommendations of BECTA for website accessibility. This unique school website management system boasts a whole range of advanced features designed to allow schools to easily manage an their online curriculum, multiple image galleries, online events calendar, forums and much more...
Pay a visit to the new-look Educational Web Design website and take a glimpse into the future of school websites.
Blurton High School Online video prospectus
Blurton High School, Stoke-on-Trent have included their prospectus online on their website - in video format. Educational Web Deign has taken their professionally produced DVD and converted it into a suitable format that can be displayed on a dedicated page on their website. The online video prospectus can be seen on the Blurton High School website.
St Winifred's Primary School
St Winifred's Primary School in Stockport goes live with their new Educational Web Design website today.
Visit the new St. Winifred's Primary School website.