So, I struggled into work this morning (the "school closed" text message arrived whilst I was driving, and I was concentrating on not sliding off the icetrack - sorry road - I was travelling on) to discover just the DHT and caretaker there.
With the school not opening, and the fact that we've already lost a day last week due to snow, I decided it was time to get the children working from home. I'd seen several teachers in my PLN on twitter carry out the same thing last week, so quickly added a post to the school website giving the children an activity to carry out during the day (it actually involved a post added the previous evening by the HT discussing healthy lunchboxes).
So the task was set - create a poster or pamphlet using 2Simple's Online Tools, or a presentation using Google Apps - and once completed post it to their learning spaces, as well as comment on the initial post left by the HT.
After returning home, the comments began to arrive thick and fast, and the hit count on the website started rising. Using the Revolver Maps widget we have, I could see how many people were viewing the site in real time, and where they were coming from.
Not long after this the schools text messaging service beeped, and a message from the HT to the staff told them to look on the website, and see that work could be posted for pupils. It obviously stimulated them, as two thirds of them had added a post before the end of the school day!
By 6pm we'd had over 1,300 hits on the website today (up a little from normal!!), lots of comments - some from parents congratulating us on our communication skills, and examples of work from the children too.
It won't be long before we're not needed at the school anymore ever again!
