 Children's Centres Web Sites and Email Services
This page outlines for children’s centres, the support which is on offer for setting up a web site and email services from the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning (HGFL). Please also refer to the Communications Toolkit which is available on the Hertfordshire Children’s Centre web site:
Web Site Hosting
Each children’s centre has web space available for their web site on the HGfL web server which is managed by Research Machines (RM). A domain name for all Hertfordshire children’s centres has already been registered as:
www.hertschildrenscentres.org.uk
Each children’s centre web site will have this domain name followed by their centre name e.g.
www.hertschildrenscentres.org.uk/childrenscentrename/
Children’s centres will be issued with a username and password for accessing their web space.
Children’s centres will need to agree their centre name for their web address, according to the process outlined in the communications toolkit, before the web space and email can be set up by the web hosting service. Once agreed please inform Dee de Bruin so that HGFL can raise a request with RM for setting up the web space.
Email Services
Email accounts which use the HGfL email system ‘Easymail Plus’ will be set up for children’s centres. The Easymail system is accessible via the web browser so it is accessible from anywhere – home or the centre.
Initially two email accounts for each centre will be set up using the following format:
manager.childrenscentrename@hertschildrenscentres.org.uk
admin.childrenscentrename @hertschildrenscentres.org.uk
Each individual email account has 20MB of space. Additional space and accounts can be allocated. Dee de Bruin is the administrator for setting up the email accounts. Once you have agreed your children’s centre name the email accounts can be set up for you. Help for users is available through the HGfL help desk run by NTL on 0800 0521 386.
Web Site Support Services
We provide advice and support for web site development for children’s centres through training courses, onsite visits and telephone help.
We offer an initial visit which will involve some basic planning and guidance on site structure and content and enables you to focus on the goals and aims of what you want to use the web site for. This is usually followed by a longer visit which involves building the web site and adding the content which has been put together following the initial visit. It is a good idea to book the visits around attending the Dreamweaver training course.
Dreamweaver Training Courses
We offer one day training courses in building and updating your website using Dreamweaver software.
‘Dreamweaver - New to Building a Web Site from Scratch’ is for Children’s Centre staff who are new to web site design and are intending to build their own site from scratch. We have a basic template we can supply which you can use to get started with your site after you have been on the course.
‘Dreamweaver – New to Updating your Site’ is for Children’s Centre staff who are new to web site design and have recently taken over responsibility for an existing web site. This course is suitable for you if you have had a website support visit from the HGfL Web Team and have a site already built using templates, tables and stylesheets.
Details of courses are available on the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning web site:
Dreamweaver Software
Children’s centres may need to obtain a copy of the latest version of the Dreamweaver web publishing software. Children’s centres based at schools may already have a copy of the software with the appropriate license, but may need to purchase additional licences. The software can be purchased from Hertfordshire Business Supplies. Tel: 01707 292300.
Preparing for Your Website Support Visit
- Refer to the Communications Toolkit available on the Hertfordshire Children’s Centre web site.
- Refer to the Preparing Content help sheet available on the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning School Web Site section.
- Look at some of the existing children’s centres web sites for ideas for content - www.hertschildrenscentres.org.uk
- Collect information like newsletters, diary dates, what’s on offer and details of toy libraries.
Contacts
School Web Site Support
Tel: 01438 844944 (Monday pm, Wednesday all day, Friday pm)
Email: school.websites@hertscc.gov.uk
Alison Bellerby
Georgina Blott (works Tuesday pm, Wednesday, Thursday)
To arrange an appointment, please email in the first instance as the Web Publishers are mostly out at schools and will pick up messages when they are next in the office.
Further Information
Further information and guidance is available through our series of helpsheets available at:
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