Blogging in schools is a hot topic. We're told lots about the impact that getting your students blogging can have on literacy performance and concentration. It's all really good stuff. We will be covering our own best practice guide and discussing some opinions on students blogging next month. Because we don't hear lots about blogs for teachers and other staff so we thought we would cover that first.

If you've stumbled across this page and are very much getting started with blogs in your school, head on over to our post entitled Blogs - Getting Started - which will tell you everything you need to know about the practicalities of writing a blog.

In this post however, we will find about how you can implement blogs for teachers. Why you should blog. And how to really make sure your content is of value to your readers.

Blogs for Teachers - Why?

As a member of staff within a school or college, your voice is important. Keep those in the community in and around the school informed about what is going on in your school. If you are a class teacher, the parents and carers of the students in your charge want to know how their children are doing and what is happening that might affect them. Writing a blog is a really fantastic way to achieve that.

If you are in management at a school or college you will have an entirely different reason for blogging. If you are a headteacher, the school community needs to hear from you. Support the partnership with parents and carers by sharing regular content with them.

A blog is a great opportunity, whoever you are, to regularly engage with the community you serve. By offering valuable content to them you can effectively reach out the community you are integral to.

Blogs for Teachers - What?

Always, always, always start with your audience. Your own interest in bird-watching does not mean your website audience shares that interest. If you think that what you write would be of interest to your readers then you are off to a great start.

If you are a class teacher, you could blog about what the students have focused on that week. This also has the great, added benefit of being a superb way of keeping a record of the work done in class.

If you are a headteacher, write about the direction the school is taking as a whole. Include any suitable to share decisions made in SLT or Governors over recent weeks. You can write about things that are going on in the local community or the press that warrant your comment. As a result you can publish content that will be reassuring or of interest to parents and carers of students in your school.

If you run the catering department, you could write about what is happening in school at the moment, tell parents of any special offers or event days that might be taking place or how a recent event went down with the students.

The options are limitless; just keep the audience in mind at all times and you are much more likely to hit home.

Teacher Blogs - Who Does it Well?

Examples are always a helpful way to help us find our own voice and decide where we might want to take our own blog. Also included below are a few blogs that we think are really useful and worth keeping an eye on. Especially note the formatting, the length, the content, the frequency. Think about how you might apply this to your community.

• Tabula Rasa - an entertaining, sometimes irreverent but inspirational blog
• This Is My Classroom - A detailed record of everything that happens in this primary school classroom
• Hunting English - a brilliant, inspirational blog written by an English teacher based in York
• Walmsley Primary School Year 5 - The Year 5 teacher and students all have their own blogs and regularly post short but valuable content