EMAIL DETAILS

Monday, May 1, 2017


Dear Parents,It’s almost here! On Tuesday, May 2, Sidwell Friends will launch an all-new, engaging, and easy-to-use website.The School’s website is the virtual hub of our community, and we hope you will spend some time there exploring the many new stories, videos, photographs, and classroom projects highlighted on the main (public) pages. As parents, you also need quick and easy access to calendars, forms, schedules, guidelines, the directory, the handbook, and other critical information about your child’s daily life—so we’ve also built a new Parent Portal with those priorities in mind.The online world has changed dramatically in the 10 years since the School last launched a new website, so you’re likely to find the experience of navigating around the new site quite different from that of the old one. To help you get started, here are the top 10 things you need to know: Welcome, Friends! The main site, www.sidwell.edu, is intended to give people who are new to Sidwell Friends an overview of our community. Feel free to poke around, kick the tires, and check out all the familiar faces in the photos and videos! Where’s My Stuff? The day-to-day information parents need is now located in the Parent Portal. How Do I Get In? To enter the Parent Portal, click on Community in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage, and then select Parents. To log in, use the same username and password that you used on the old site. Investigate Your Options. Once inside the portal, use the top menu bar to navigate to the All-School, Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School pages or to the Parents Association page. Pro tip: Use the Quicklinks menu (on the right in the white menu bar at the top of the Parent Portal) to quickly reach the calendar, directory, our new Carpool Finder tool, and other frequently used pages. Where’s My Other Stuff? Some familiar tools have new names: Health Forms (formerly Magnus), Class Pages (Haiku), and QuakerZone (the student-selected new name for the former Educator Online) can all be accessed through large buttons on the top left side of the Parent Portal. Sign Me Up. To subscribe to iCal feeds for calendars or sports schedules from within the Parent Portal, click on the small gray RSS icon in the upper right corner of the Events tab (for calendars) or Games tab (for sports) and follow the instructions and links. Please delete any iCal feeds you subscribed to through the old website, since those calendars will no longer be updated. Access, Denied. As we turn off the old site and fire up the new one on Tuesday, you may lose access to the website for a few hours. But you can still connect to QuakerZone (formerly known as Educator Online) and Class Pages (aka Haiku) during that time. Ditto. Online health forms through Magnus (now available through the Health Forms button) will also be temporarily disabled on Tuesday as we move to the new site. But there’s a silver lining: Once you’re logged in to the Parent Portal, you won’t have to log in again to access your child’s health record. Please contact healthservices@sidwell.edu with any questions. Can I Take It with Me? Yes! The new site is mobile friendly and works well on a variety of smartphones and tablets. Hey, I Need Some Help Here. Got a question or a suggestion? Please email webmaster@sidwell.edu. We’d particularly like to hear about any problems you encounter with the new site, and please let us know immediately if you don’t receive your regular weekly newsletter (our email program is also changing).We hope you enjoy the new site and look forward to hearing your thoughts as we continue to enhance and expand it. Happy surfing!Sincerely,Lori HardenberghDirector of Special ProjectsJackie LaFranceDigital SpecialistRebecca LanningDirector of Communications


3825 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016 Tel: 202-537-8100 Fax: 202-537-8138


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