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William Howard School introduced a structured Microsoft 365 environment to reduce duplication, improve access to resources and create a more consistent way of working. By centralising content and moving away from email-led practices, the school has strengthened collaboration, supported student independence and brought greater clarity to everyday teaching and learning.
We go through some of the ways Microsoft 365 is a smarter alternative to a VLE – providing a connected ecosystem where teaching, learning and administration happen in one place.
As schools look to consolidate platforms and strengthen data security, many are making the switch from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. This article explores what’s driving the change – from deeper integration with MIS data to more powerful collaboration and governance – and how Cloud Design Box supports a smooth, secure transition every step of the way.
As legacy VLEs reach the end of their lifespan, many schools and trusts are re-evaluating how they manage learning, communication and resources. Microsoft 365 offers a powerful alternative — one that’s already familiar to staff and students. This article explores how Cloud Design Box helps schools make the move seamlessly, uniting Teams, SharePoint and MIS data to create a modern, secure and engaging digital learning environment.
Staying organised while teaching multiple topics in Microsoft Teams can quickly become difficult. If your OneNote Class Notebook is starting to look like a digital junk drawer, this guide will help you tidy things up, fast.
The collaboration space in Class Notebook allows students and teachers to work together on a learning resource in real-time. This is a great opportunity for students to get more involved in working as a group as they can add text, digital ink (drawing) and insert images and videos. Although letting your class loose on a … Read more
Reflect check-ins in Class Notebook are a brilliant way for teachers to get a good understanding of which students may need additional support or guidance. Meanwhile, reflecting on learning is good practice for students to build self-awareness and take ownership of their own education. In this guide, we show you how to insert a … Read more
Getting students engaged outside of the classroom can be difficult. While most students understand that they must complete homework and assignments for their classes, creating homework assignments that are engaging helps to reinforce learning and development. Below, we have some ideas on how you can use some of the tools in Microsoft 365, Teams … Read more
In this guide, we show you how to distribute a page from a non Class Notebook to a students’ Class Notebook within a Class Team. Here we have a Notebook that has been stored within an English resources folder on SharePoint. Within the Notebook, there’s a worksheet that we need to distribute to the Year 7 English … Read more
Locking a page within Class Notebook is important when marking and assessing work, to prevent the student from editing the document after its deadline. In this guide, we show you how to review students work in Class Notebook and how to lock a page to prevent further editing by a student. How to review pages … Read more
In this guide, we show you how to lock the collaboration section in a Class Notebook. The collaboration space in a Class Notebook is where all students can edit the same pages and work together on projects. After using it, teachers may wish to lock the section to prevent students from editing the page, or … Read more
Our Office 365 User Adoption Podcast highlights real-life stories from schools, academies and Multi Academy Trusts on how they’ve successfully rolled out Microsoft 365, SharePoint and Teams to staff and students. In this podcast episode, we spoke with Rachael Howarth, Vice Principal at Bradford Girls’ Grammar School and Business Studies teacher on how they’re using … Read more
OneNote Class Notebook is free for education users as part of Office 365, it has some additional functionality which isn’t available in standard OneNote files. In this blog post, I want to focus on the additional learning tools available in this version. There is also a video guide for this post below. How do I … Read more
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