While at Churcher's College you will use shared resources and communicate with Staff and other Students.
This page will help you to understand :
- What facilities you can use
- How to get to email and how to use it
- What Firefly is all about and how to use it
- Expectations for organising your work in Files and Folders
- School Policies on Acceptable use of IT which is designed to keep you safe and the shared resources safe for everyone's use.
- Where to find help and an Introduction to the Helpdesk
IT Facilities
C63 to C67 are used for both teaching Computer Science and are bookable to be used by other departments. The computer rooms can only be used under teacher supervision. There are banks of bookable laptops and iPads that classes can use. D&T also have computer rooms. The library has computers to access as a research resource.
Students need to respect these shared resources and CCTV is installed to help ensure these resources are not abused. You are not allowed food or drink in the computer rooms and we ask that you do not bring your bags into the rooms as there is limited space and wires under the desks that the bags can get caught on.
The computer rooms have printers you can print to and there are various photocopiers around the school you can print to from the laptops using follow-me printing explained here.
IT Helpdesk
During your time at Churcher's, there is a chance you will need to contact the IT Team. If you have a question about IT at school you can click the 'Need Help' button located on the http://my.churcherscollege.com home page. This will take you to the help section on Firefly where there are lots of useful articles/guides.
If the answer is not answered on the help guides, you can go and see them - they live behind the white door at the back of the Sports Hall here. You can also email them using support@churcherscollege.com
Acceptable Use Policy
To use the facilities at Churcher's you need to abide by the Acceptable Use Policy. It is designed for you to easily understand the 'spirit' of proper e-tiquette and not an all encompassing document that you can try and 'catch-out!'
Your form tutor will go through this with you in more detail and your computing teachers can answer any questions you may have.
Your Files
You have a Username and Password to access the School Network. You must keep your Password TO YOURSELF.
When logged in you have access to a special drive called the O: drive where you can store files. It needs to be organised into Folders and all File Names given meaningful names. You should get in the habit of saving your work 'early and often'. The O: drive links through to the OneDrive website, so you can access these at home over the Internet. There is another drive called the F: that you may be asked to save files onto for some specialist software where the O: will not work. These files are ONLY available within school.
Your school account is linked to a Microsoft Account that provides you with 1TB of online data storage for your SCHOOL files. You can access your OneDrive files in school using the O:\ drive in "This PC". You are advised to store your files on your O:\ apart from those needed by specialist software, which may not work with it.
This means you can access these files at home or anywhere. You will see an icon for OneDrive on the school home page. In school, you will also see OneDrive as a location when looking in Windows Explorer. Follow instructions for Home Access to access files at home. Alternatively you can always go straight to OneDrive from a browser using http://onedrive.churcherscollege.com. To sign-in you use your school email address firstname.lastname@churcherscollege.com and your school password.
If you are at home and you need to access files that are stored at school not on your OneDrive, there is a guide here.
Along with access to OneDrive your Microsoft account allows you to use the Microsoft Office apps within your web-browser. Again they are Apps from the Home Page or you can go to http://www.office.com This is useful if you do not have the software installed on your home computer. Any files you create are stored within your school OneDrive account.
Additionally, you are able to download and install the office software on your home computer to use while you are still enrolled at Churcher's College (do not try to download the file when in school as you cannot download executable files).
There are some more guides on Microsoft 365 here.
Firefly
There are useful video guides and information on Firefly here.
Firefly is Churcher's VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and full of rich resources to support your learning and school life. You can access it from the Home Page and selecting the RED senior icon.
If you have a problem getting into Firefly you can type in the URL in your web browser: https://churcherscollege.fireflycloud.net . You will see a panel to login - MAKE SURE YOU SELECT 'Staff and Students' and DON'T type in your email where it says 'Parents'.
You will have Homework set using Firefly Tasks. You can also make a note of your homework in your calendars. It will support you in making sure you know what is expected of you and when it is due which can be quite a challenge in your 1st year.
NOTE: To stay organised you need to 'mark as done' when you complete a task. Sometimes you will be expected to hand in something electronically, particularly in Computing lessons. This link shows you how from the Firefly Dashboard.
Student Firefly App: The 'Firefly for Students App' is available on every App store to put on any mobile device. Download and install it, the School code is 'churcherscollege'. Use this to easily see your homework tasks and mark them as DONE.
Home Access
When at home, you can remotely log in to your school account and bring up the same Home Page as you see at school. Just browse to http://my.churcherscollege.com.
If you select to open Firefly, OneDrive or Outlook or any other Microsoft product you will be asked to login to Microsoft - this is your school email and password. Once logged in to Microsoft, Firefly will open without an extra login required. Your login information is the same as your school login with @churcherscollege.com at the end of it (this is also your school email address).
Your e-mail is Microsoft 365 Mail. You are expected to check it regularly and use it just for School. You can access it from the Home Page by selecting 'Outlook' or by typing in this URL http://webmail.churcherscollege.com which redirects you to the Microsoft login page (save as a favourite/bookmark at home or even add the account to your phone). You will receive an email each time one of your teachers sets you a Firefly task so it's important that you log in often to delete these messages when they are no longer relevant.
Microsoft Teams
The Microsoft Teams app/website is very useful for contacting your teachers and sometimes accessing learning from home if you are unable to attend school.
Google Account
Your school account is also linked to a Google account. This is useful if you need to sign up to a website for school work as then you do not need to make up a username and remember yet another password. All you need to do is write in your school email address and use your school password.