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

A female teacher sat with a laptop, saving time on planning and creating learning resources with Microsoft 365

We know that time is precious when you work in education; whether you’re marking, planning, or delivering a lesson, it can be tricky to find the time to get back to what you love about teaching.   While we can’t increase the number of hours in your day, we can give you some ideas on saving … Read more

Cloud Design Box logo with a digital tablet displaying assignments.

We have launched a new SharePoint web part exclusive for Cloud Design Box customers called My Assignments, allowing students to see all their current and upcoming assignments from their SharePoint homepage.   Your school’s SharePoint homepage should give students a quick overview of what’s going on in the school community, and their classroom.   Popular features of a school intranet include the latest news, an announcement from the headteacher … Read more

Free webinar: Achieve more in Teams as a MAT with Cloud Box

We are hosting a free webinar for schools, academies and trusts focusing on how you can successfully adopt and roll out Microsoft Teams, without wasting time or money.   One of the main challenges we see schools and MATs face when rolling out new technology is user adoption.   There’s a central group of tech-savvy staff who pick up … Read more

We are hosting a free webinar for independent schools, focusing on how you can successfully extend blended learning in Microsoft Teams with our Cloud Box solution, without compromising your high standard of teaching and learning.   One of the main challenges we see independent schools face when rolling out new technology is achieving seamless user … Read more

Free webinar: Achieve more in Teams as a MAT with Cloud Box

Finding the best way to engage and involve parents in their children’s learning can be a challenge for schools. That’s why Cloud Design Box has partnered with Haldor to deliver a homework app that is seamlessly connected to Microsoft Teams Assignments.   We all know that there are real advantages to parents and guardians being engaged in their child’s learning, especially when it comes to supporting students with homework and … Read more

Microsoft have improved the student experience when it comes to seeing their feedback in reading progress. Take a look at the video to find out more. The new Reading Progress function in Microsoft Teams Assignments works perfectly for language learning. In this step-by-step guide, we show you how you can use the Reading Progress tool … Read more

Microsoft Teams has a new feature, allowing teachers to return assignments to students for additional revisions and changes. This feature is highly anticipated by teachers and solves a key problem that many schools have highlighted to us. The problem: Previously, students could go into their assignments and submit work, even when the work is missing … Read more

Small group of students enjoying the new blended learning features in Class Teams. One of the students is high-fiving their teacher.

A new Microsoft Teams update for summer 2021 brings a whole bunch of benefits for both students and teachers, helping schools deliver blended and hybrid learning efficiently and in an engaging way.   We’ve rounded up our top features that you need to try out in your lessons.   Here’s a quick summary of the update:  Set … Read more

How to create group assignments in Class Teams Microsoft 365

Teams has introduced a new group assignments feature, allowing students to work together and submit one assignment for the whole group. Teachers can then provide feedback and grades to either each individual student within that group or give out an overall grade for the group.    Below is a walk-through of how you can:  Create a … Read more

In this podcast episode, we speak with Rachael Howarth, Vice Principal of Bradford Girls’ Grammar School about how they’re using Microsoft 365 to assess and engage students in a blended in-classroom and remote learning setting. Rachael walks us through some key ways in which they’re using Microsoft Forms, Class Notebook, Polls and Insights to increase … Read more

The Microsoft School Data Sync (SDS) rollover process 2021 has changed slightly since last year, so we have created a video guide to walk you through the process.  If your profile has expired and you’re ready to start the academic year, then this guide is for you.  One thing you’ll notice is that there is … Read more

Reading Progress in Microsoft Class Teams

Reading Progress is a tool in Microsoft Class Teams that supports teachers in tracking their students’ reading fluency and progress. The feature allows students to record themselves reading assigned passages and automatically generates data based on their performance.  In this guide, we show you how to set up Reading Progress and tailor it to your … Read more

Title image for Presenter Mode in Class Teams

Using Presenter Mode in a Microsoft Class Teams meeting gives teachers more control over their lesson. They have access to their presenter notes and all the usual Class Teams tools, plus additional presenter options.   Presenter Mode is only available in the desktop application of Teams.    In this quick guide, we show you how to use … Read more

Microsoft Viva Connections is a great way to communicate and publish information to users in Microsoft Teams. If you are already familiar with SharePoint, then the simple way of describing Viva Connections is “A SharePoint Intranet inside a Microsoft Teams App”. It means that users can access company news, policies, and other published information without … Read more

School teacher using Microsoft School Data Sync to automate Class Teams creation

When considering Teams for your school, there are several different approaches, you can create your own Class Teams manually, use a PowerShell script or take advantage of Microsoft’s School Data Sync.   Below, we have rounded up the pros and cons of each method so you can decide which is best for your school, academy or … 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

Turning off the chat function in Microsoft Teams Meeting

The chat feature in Microsoft Teams is a useful tool that allows students to communicate with their teachers and peers during online lessons. However, there may be times where the chat feature isn’t necessary and is causing distractions during lesson time. Similar to the mute feature on Teams, this can easily be controlled and turned … 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

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