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Schools are starting to explore social media in order to communicate more effectively. The two are ideally suited to one another as they are not only both communities but schools have a requirement as well as a desire to converse with parents.

By no means is social media a replacement for traditional teaching methods, but older methods are recognised as laborious, infrequent and time consuming whereas using social media is a cheaper.

For educationalists, the content that works well is split into three categories; celebration, urgent notifications and the humdrum information schools need to broadcast.

The majority of social media is based on celebration, used to acknowledge achievements of both the schools and its pupils.  Teachers can effortlessly capture a moment in the school day; using audio apps alongside photography to showcase an event on the various media channels in seconds.

Perhaps the best use is to post urgent notifications in order to guarantee the utmost accuracy of information for parents and guardians. Schools have found that on snow days parents can be easily notified about school closures and be frequently updated on the situation.

Social Media is inexpensive and you don’t have to be completely tech-savvy to benefit. It’s about your school using the best channels to communicate more efficiently with others.

When used properly Social Media is a powerful tool. Is your school website conveying a clear message to parents as well as providing current information which is simple to manage and easy to access?

Since 2006, Twitter has grown substantially in terms of worth and users; valued at $7.7billion with over 95 million tweets sent each day from its 200 million registered accounts.  It’s not hard to see why it’s slowly creeping into the UK’s education system.

To use the micro-blogging site as a successful and effective learning tool, teachers must be certain of the topics that would be best supported by Twitter, as there would no benefit to using Twitter if the same can be done with traditional teaching methods.

Twitter can provide insight for teachers about how their pupils learn. So much of learning is going on inside a pupil’s heads that we don’t know what they understand and how they apply this, Twitter can educate teachers into how they can make their teaching more relevant to these processes.

It can also be used to avoid classroom shyness; we all know that once silence takes over it never lets go.  Using twitter to create classroom discussions can aid learning and create a forum for pupils to express their opinions.  Furthermore, using a maximum of 140 characters to summarise your thoughts, tweeters learn to be effective communicators avoiding waffle.

For schools the most popular uses of Twitter are sharing information with both the local and wider community, showcasing the school and communicating with experts- acquiring information straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak.

With this in mind Twitter can effectively support learning and lesson planning. It is largely idiot-proof and simple to understand, enabling even the biggest technophobe to broadcast information.

With 500 000 new users everyday and mobile users up by 182% from this time last year, Twitter is more popular than ever.  So rather than be sceptical about it, why not post your first tweet and see what potential it has for your classroom.

Follow School Labs on twitter @schoollabs

Predominantly designed for younger users, the reporting option alerts someone in their support system, for example a parent or teacher, to the problem.

The change, revealed at The White House Anti-bullying Conference, attempts to link online behaviour to real world consequences thus merging online and offline actions. For more serious case, users are put in contact with the police or a suitable organisation.

The website also confirmed other changes that make the site easier and safer to use, including simplifying the language of the safety centre and adding more multimedia materials. In addition to these changes, in an initiative with the Samaritans, members can now acquire help for a friend they believe is struggling to cope or is feeling suicidal.

These changes follow the social networking giant’s recent announcement that it has 30m registered users in the UK, half of the total population. In the past the site has been accused of acting slow on claims of online bullying and general safety on the site.

Are these changes enough to address this issue and tackle online bullying? Or is Facebook merely moving the responsibility away from them, the police and onto others?

Facebook is a founding member of the StopCyberbullying Coalition affiliated with stopcyberbullying.org.

The census, carried out every ten years attempts to find out who we are as a nation. The information we provide is used to help the government and local authorities plan resources and services including education, healthcare and transport.

This time round, the 2011 Census has created two innovative projects that aim to bring statistics to life for school pupils of all ages. The CensusAtSchool and Me and My Community projects offer teachers in England and Wales the opportunity to educate their pupils about our nation as well as understand the importance of the census.

CensusAtSchool, created by the 2011 Census team and the Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education (RSSCSE), allows students to run their own censuses in the context of their everyday lives in an attempt to improve their statistical knowledge.

Me and My Community is a toolkit for KS2 teachers, which provides exciting, free downloadable materials to present statistics in the context of everyday life.

Will you help tomorrow take shape?

Visit www.census.gov.uk for more information.

Remember that the 2011 Census takes place on 27 March.

BBC News this week claimed that a father was threatened with arrest at a school in Leicestershire after taking photos at his child’s Nativity play. According to our Information Commissioner,Christopher Graham, such photos did not breach the Data Protection Act.

Since this debacle the Information Commissioner’s Office has released guidance for schools on the rules and regulations regarding photography.

The regulator stated that the Data Protection Act does not cover photos for personal use and that fear of breaching the law should not be used to prevent people taking family pictures or videos.

Mr Graham said: “Having a child perform at a school play or a festive concert is a very proud moment for parents and is understandably a memory that many want to capture on camera.

It is disappointing to hear that the myth that such photos are forbidden by the Data Protection Act still prevails in some schools.”

He added: “A common sense approach is needed. Clearly, photographs simply taken for a family album are exempt from data protection laws.

Armed with our guidance, parents should feel free to snap away this Christmas and stand ready to challenge any schools or councils that say ‘bah, humbug’ to a bit of festive fun.”

So Christmas aside, what are the rules regarding every day photography in and around schools?

The Good Practice Guidance, released by the Information Commissioner’s Office, is aimed at Local Education Authorities and those working within Schools, Colleges and Universities. It gives advice on taking photographs in educational institutions and whether doing so must comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The Guide recommends a “common sense approach” to any photography by simply asking permission. However, to nail down the rules…

• Photos taken for official school use may be covered by the Act and pupils and students should be advised when and why they are being taken.

• Photos taken purely for personal use are exempt from the Act.

Photos used for official school use, such as your prospectus or website will not breach the act, “so long as the children and/or their guardians are aware this is happening and the context in which the photo will be used”.

We’ve put together a simple permission slip for you to send to parents should you require it.

> Download the slip here

> Download the Information Commissioner’s full report: “Data Protection Good Practice Note Taking Photographs in Schools”