It’s been a busy year for the team at VSware. We were delighted to welcome aboard 52 new schools since January, and as our user base grows, the product continues to grow and improve alongside it. Let’s take a look back at the highlights of 2017.

Make Editable V2

We’ve seen a lot of changes within the system this year, big and small. Most notably, Make Editable returned to VSware with some new and improved features. We really worked hard on this one to make it as user friendly and powerful as we could for timetablers who are faced with making changes to schedules after publishing their timetable file. Adding team teaching, swapping teachers, classes and rooms and easily adding resources classes are all useful features that were included in Make Editable V2.

Product Innovation

Our product innovation took a leap forward this year with the introduction of a new collaborative process with the NAPD ICT Committee (National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals). We meet with this group regularly to discuss suggestions from users, and assess which of these suggestions are of benefit to the majority of schools. This has resulted in real improvements; the edit substitution button, the ability to send a text from a group and the new add behaviour button to name just a few.

Training events

In terms of training events, this has been one of the most exciting years yet. We held a massive 74 events nationwide, with well over 1000 people attending. We were also delighted to introduce some new training events, like the Aspiring School Leaders Seminar and the VSware Certification Course. Our training events are in high demand so make sure to check out our schedule in the new year when we will be announcing a brand new calendar full of events.

The Blog

Last but certainly not least, let’s give a quick shout out this this very blog! It has been great to see so many people getting involved by subscribing and leaving feedback since the launch back in September. Our aim is to continue to develop and expand this blog with content that is relevant to you, so if you haven’t already, please take two minutes to fill out our reader survey. Here’s wishing you a Happy Christmas and New year.

‍

Special Mention

By Carol Kavanagh

Our busy trainer Conrad has been hard at work this Christmas with his helpers. They created Christmas hampers that will help over 300 families in the Clonmel town and district area as well as the Women’s Refuge and those affected by homelessness. There were many items donated for this very important cause from some very generous people and colleagues. Homelessness affects an extremely large percentage of the Irish population. Focus Ireland reports that there were 8,857 people homeless in just one week during the month of November across Ireland. We are happy that we could contribute to this worthy cause and are especially proud of our dedicated trainer Conrad.

Here’s a video of the hampers which helped over 300 people!