Primary Technology Ltd

Supporting Schools During Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Free Blogging Trial

In light of the impact of COVID-19 with school closures and disruption to learning, we want to do our bit to help and will be granting free access to our school blogging platform – PrimaryBlogger, for any affected schools, that don’t currently have blogs with us, until at least the end of June.

Blogs can help schools during this time in a variety of different ways, including:

• Communicating with parents and pupils to set work and tasks
• Allow open communication between school and home in the form of comments
• Reassure parents they’re not alone and allow them to communicate easily with class teachers if they need to
• Allow pupils and parents to show what they’ve been doing at home
• Give students something new and exciting to engage in
• Continue relationships with other schools you may already work with through the use of blogging and commenting
• Further learning on the subject of eSafety

If you would like to start using PrimaryBlogger, please complete our usual sign-up form here. Please note you will not be invoiced until at least July, and only if you confirm you would like to keep your blog(s) and start a paid subscription.

We hope we can help schools and their parents/pupils via our small part of offering another method of communication and learning during this tough time. Please spread the word so we can reach relevant schools.

After the free period, we will contact any school that has created a blog during this time to ask if you would like to continue you with your blog(s) and start a paid subscription, yearly pricing can be seen here. If you no longer wish to continue with the blog(s); the blog will be removed and the content will no longer be accessible. This offer is limited to six blogs per school and new customers only.

Your school blog will now automatically look great on an iPhone or Android device.  Enjoy!

Screenshot:

How to put it onto your blog:

1. Log into your admin panel
2. Click Appearance – Widgets
3. Drag a new Text widget to your sidebar
4. Open a new Tab in your internet browser
5. Goto http://revolvermaps.com
6. Click Get Standard version
7. Set the size (Recommend 180×180
8. Set the style and colors
9. Copy all the contents of the box “Copy the code to your side” 
10. Go back to your Primary Blogger dashboard Tab
11. Click the down arrow next to Text (This may already be open, if it then skip this step)
12. Paste the contents of your clipboard

Alternatively just drag the Feedjit or Map Stats widget over for an alternative appearance.

We assume you have already created a class or school blog.  If not, go and sign up now, it’s free and easy.

Creating individual pupil blogs on Primary Blogger:
1. Login to your Primary Blogger Account at yourblog.primaryblogger.co.uk/wp-admin
2. In your address bar type in the address of the new pupil blog
3. Type in your pupils blog title
4. Decide if you want this blog to be searchable by search engines such as Google & Bing.
5. Click Create Blog
6. Click the blog address which will read something like http://mrpurple5.primaryblogger.co.uk
7. Click Site Admin
8. Click Settings -> Discussion
9. Click Users -> Add New
10. Type in a chosen username
11. Type in the pupils email OR your email address in the format of youremail+%pupilsusername%@googlemail.com
Example:  If your email address was mrsJRobertson@greatschool.mgfo.org.uk and you type mrbloggy in the Username box then the email address you will type in is mrsJRobertson+MrBloggy@greatschool.mgfo.org.uk
Note: This works with the following email providers: School Email, Primary Email, Gmail
12. Under Role select Administrator
13. Click Add User
14. Check your email inbox for an activation email
15. Click on the activation link in the email, write down the blog address, username and password and give it to the pupil.
Note: You may want to simplify their desktop and restrict comments, see below:

Highly Recommended
Restricting comments to pupils and teachers only.
Click Users must be registered and logged in to comment if you only want other teachers and pupils to comment on this Blog

Sending pupils an email when a new comment is posted on their blog.
If you want pupils to recieve emails for comment moderation then:
1. Click Plugins -> Installed
2. Under Notifications to all Administrators Click Activate

Simplifying the pupils dashboard/interface. (see picture at top)
1. Login as the pupil
2. Click Screen options
3. Remove any items you don’t want
4. Click 1 Column
5. Click Screen Options

Simplify the interface even more:
This process is difficult and lengthy, we will document it soon!

We recommend Primary Email for a great full school email solution