Training and e-learning
The forums
Where schools talk to each other rather than to the council, and what moderation there is.
On this page
The forums are where schools talk to each other. They are not a route to City Council, and that distinction is the point of having them.
What they are for
"Has anybody written a policy for this yet." "What did you pay for yours." "Is anybody else seeing this." Questions where another school's answer is worth more than the council's, and where the answer is useful to the forty schools who did not ask.
If your question is for City Council, the help bubble is the place: it goes to somebody whose job it is, and it does not sit in public waiting for a volunteer. See asking for help.
How they work
Forums are organised by subject. Inside one, a topic is a question and its replies. Start a topic, or reply to one, from the forum's own page. Your name and your school appear beside what you write.
Who can see it
Everybody with an account on this site: every school in the borough, and City Council. Not the public. Write accordingly — a forum is the wrong place for anything about a named child, a named member of staff, or a live safeguarding or employment matter, all of which belong somewhere with a much narrower audience.
Moderation
City Council can hide a post. It is used for the obvious cases — something identifying a person, something posted to the wrong place — rather than for disagreement. A hidden post is hidden rather than erased, so there is a record of the decision.
Keeping up with a topic
Replies reach you through the ordinary alerts, at whatever frequency you have set on your account page. If you are following a thread that matters this week, immediate is the setting you want.
Getting an answer
Three things that make a difference: say which phase and size of school you are, because the answer usually depends on it; say what you have already tried; and come back afterwards to say what worked. A forum where nobody reports back stops being worth reading, and the schools that answer are doing it in their own time.
Newsletters
City Council also sends newsletters, addressed by rule rather than to a typed list — every primary, every school holding a particular agreement. Anything sent to you is on your notifications page whether or not you read the email.
Not what you were after?
Ask City Council in the bubble at the corner of any page, or open your help conversation in full. It is one conversation that never closes, so there is nothing to raise and no subject line to invent.