Hybrid/Blended Learning

With the on-going pandemic, we are focusing on ensuring that we can supply a first-class educational experience, whether the pupils are in school or at home. The school has invested heavily in technology to ensure that teaching can continue, whatever happens.

Every pupil has been assigned an iPad and access to the full suite of Microsoft learning software (Teams for Education, Office 365, Exchange Email).

Every staff member has been equipped with a portable computer, and the teaching staff have been receiving on-going training with Microsoft’s preferred training partner, Tablet Academy (The trainers from Tablet Academy are mostly ex-teachers, so they understand the needs of our staff). This will ensure that we can deliver the curriculum and support the pastoral needs of pupils.

This Hybrid/Blended learning model is usually aimed at secondary schools and further education but because of the on going COVID-19 pandemic there has been great interest in using it for Primary Education.

Below are simple guides to the main technologies that we are using in school.

Hilden Oaks, Fit for now, fit for the future!

Teams for Education

What is Teams for Education? Microsoft Teams for Education is a digital hub that brings conversations, content, assignments, audio and videos together in one place, creating a safe and secure learning environment—all in a single experience. Teams for Education is a purpose built learning solution.

From Teams for Education—Distance Learning with Office 365: Guidance for parents and guardians

The Teams for Education project was started by Microsoft a couple of years ago as an off-shot from the original Teams project in collaboration with teachers in the UK and around the world. There is nothing to buy, nothing to download (unless you want to!). Just go to the URL in a web browser and sign in.

Teams for Education basics

Teams is free to all pupils of the school, they just need their username and password. To make things easier, the username & passwords are the same you use for Foldr but the username has to have @hildenoaks.co.uk appended to it . If you don’t know this please contact us and we can give it to you.

If you are using an iPad or an Android tablet you can download the free Microsoft Teams application from either the Apple App Store or Google Play. You still use the sign in details below.

So Alice Brown in Form 6, started at the school in 2014, the user name would be 14alice@hildenoaks.co.uk because you are signing in to Microsoft you must finish the username with @hildenoaks.co.uk to identify the school domain to Microsoft. If you don’t know the username, please contact us.

If there were two pupils called Alice in the same class, their username would have the first letter of their surnames appended to their first name
e.g. Alice Brown & Alice Hatter, would be 14aliceb@hildenoaks.co.uk and 14aliceh@hildenoaks.co.uk

From a Windows or MacOS computer, in a up to date web browser (Safari, Edge, Chrome or Firefox) go to…

https://teams.microsoft.com

and enter your username, followed by your password, it may ask you if you wish to remain signed in.

If you are using the computer with another Teams account, maybe a parent’s business account or another pupil account, to separate the users it is best to open a new window in private/incognito mode.

Once you have signed in, you will see your dashboard and the Teams that you are a member/pupil of.

If you want to download the free desktop app for Teams, you can download it from the sign in menu at the top right of the Teams window.

If you need a copy of Microsoft Office 365, you can download a free copy for school use from Microsoft, go the the waffle in the upper left of the Teams window, click, and then click on the Office 365. You can then install Office 365, this is valid for Windows or Macintosh computers, you can also download the apps for iPad or Android tablets and activate them with your school account. The Windows and Macintosh version will also need to be activated with your school account. This is a full copies of Office 365 and will be free all the time you have a pupil in the school.

Download link for apps: Word for iPad, Excel for iPad, Powerpoint for iPad, Word for Android, Excel for Android, PowerPoint for Android.

Click the waffle, then click “Office 365” — **Click the *waffle,* then click “Office 365”**

Useful Resources

Distance learning with Office 365: Guidance for parents and guardians

Remote learning with Office 365 for students

Please download the Microsoft Teams for Education Quick Start Guide

Please note: Alice Brown and all information shown is a fictional.

Foldr

Any file, any time, anywhere on any device. Foldr is by the great people at Minnow IT, it allows Hilden Oaks to share documents, audio, and video with the whole school community. It is easy to access and easy to use.

You can use Foldr from any modern web browser by simply going to the web address:

https://foldr.hildenoaks.co.uk

Or if you want to use it on a mobile device, such as an iPad, Android tablet, or smart phone, you can download the free Foldr app.
If you do download the app for mobile devices or computers, the server address you will need is: foldr.hildenoaks.co.uk

Instructions for the web version of Foldr

Go to https://foldr.hildenoaks.co.uk you will then be asked for your username and password. Staff and pupils it the username and password you use to sign into your computers at school.

So Alice Brown in Form 6, started at the school in 2014, the user name would be 14alice. If you don’t know the username please contact us.

Once you are logged into Foldr, you will see a list of available drives. The Home drive is personal to each pupil and is where they save their own work, that cannot be seen by other pupils.

The Microsoft OneDrive is for future use and can be ignored for now.

The Form n drive contains folders for any other work for that particular form group.

There is also a Media Folder that contains audio and video for all the pupils in the school.

*Staff, please note your home drive is now on the OneDrive

You can navigate around folders by clicking/tapping on them and back by following the “breadcrumb” trail at the top of the window.

When you tap/click on a document you will be given some choices. For Word, Excel, and Powerpoint you can download the document directly into the applications if they are installed.

Most of the time you will just download a copy to your home computer/tablet.

If you are using the Foldr app on an iOS device (iPhone/iPad) or Android device you can preview the documents on the device by tapping on them.

Once you have finished in Foldr you can just close the browser window or you can go to the top right of the window, click/tap on your name and then select sign out.

If you are logged into Foldr, clicking on your name (top right corner of the window) the menu contains links to versions for Foldr for Windows and MacOS.

These versions of Foldr makes it look like you have connected a memory stick to your computer that contains your files from the school. Read more about Foldr here.

To upload a file from your own computer to our system

Navigate to the location you want to upload to. (here, we are in Home—Documents)

Then simply drag the document onto the browser window, the window will highlight a blue/green colour to show that is ready to upload.

A copy of the file will then be on our systems and the teachers can access the file to mark or assess it. You still have a copy of the original file on your own computer/tablet..

Our virus and malware scanners are integrated into Foldr and check every file that is uploaded to our system.

Click/Tap here for the Foldr knowledge base which has a lot of answers to frequently asked questions…