Fusion v1.1

Welcome to Fusion!

Not only do we have a new name but we also have a whole host of fantastic new features and updates to make the user experience even better! Below are just a few of these features.

Office 365 Integration

Fusion has four new dashboard panels that integrate with your Office 365 account, showing unread emails, calendar events and quick links to Office 365 tools such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.The OneDrive panel will show all files in your 365 OneDrive, recent files and shared files, directly shared to you by other people.

Homework Editor

When creating homework, the description box now uses a rich text editor, so you can style it up however you want. This allows you to format text and insert links/images. Other resources can still be added as previously, using the drag and drop uploader, the clipboard or the new file option.

Forms

There have been several updates to our popular Form builder tool making it even more useful and easy to use! Free text answers can now be marked, forms can be graded, timers can be added to quizzes and more question options have been added.

Metrics and Reports

Fusion has a range of reports, graphs and metrics, which historically have remained scattered throughout the system. We have now created a single place where all reports will reside. Teachers, staff and administrators will now find a new link at the top of the screen entitled “Reports” which will provide a single page, detailing all the reports and metrics available from the platform. Many of our reports have been updated to take advantage of our new Fusion Graphing engine which will now also operate on Tablets and Smartphones.

You also have access to the new “Metrics” button for more detailed analysis of your school community.

Languages

We’re really pleased to announce that we’ve added 14 new language packs to the product. Notable entries include support for Kurdish, Pashto and Kyrgyz with new language splits for two types of Gaelic and support for Frisian (for our colleagues in The Northern Netherlands). We now cover 96% of the world’s language requirements, standing at 113 languages! These language packs have been updated for Teachers, Students and Parents on all devices.

World Book Day 2017

March 2^nd is World Book Day – a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) reading!

Designated by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), it is marked in over 100 countries across the globe, making it the biggest celebration of its kind.

2017 marks the 20^th year of World Book Day when, as always, children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading. I remember the days of receiving a token for £1 off or even a free book, as well as dressing up as a favourite character as part of my school’s celebrations (I distinctly recall the year I turned up to school (aged 6) in a full “Blue Peter style” cardboard dinosaur costume only to find we had gotten the date mixed up and everyone else was in their uniform! Cue total embarrassment and sitting in my vest and pants until my mum arrived with my school clothes).

We've updated your VLE with some features to celebrate this amazing day!

You will find a You Tube channel from Puffin Books which provide some brilliant video introductions to popular books. There's also a new Content Library link dedicated to all the free resources on the WBD Website. Finally, we've also created two special "Themes" especially for World Book Day.

Go and check them out!

The World Book Day website has a huge range of free resources and ideas for celebrating, ranging from Early Years to Secondary. The resources have been created in association with twinkl, one of our VLE content providers, and cover some of the best loved children’s books and authors from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Roald Dahl. As well as book themed resources packs there are many other activities from crosswords and wordsearches to craft activities, writing ideas, teaching notes and much more.

“It’s all about getting kids closer to the books and authors they already love, and letting them discover more books and authors they’ll love every bit as much in the future.” – www.worldbookday.com