PUPILS, parents and staff at Sandymoor School in Runcorn will soon be able to enjoy the benefits of a new cloud-based e-learning platform, thanks to a £10,000 donation from a national housebuilder.

Bloor Homes is currently building the nearby Beamish Place development.

Judith Humphries, business and finance manager at Sandymoor School said: "FROG e-learning is a cloud-based platform which brings together all aspects of school life.

"It makes life simpler for teachers, pupils and parents by giving them a single point of access to things like lessons plans, homework and revision materials and extra-curricular activities.

"The benefits for the whole school community are far-reaching.

"Teachers can share lesson materials; pupils can access homework from home quickly and easily, as well as using the platforms 'gamified' learning for revision and extended learning.

"Parents can more readily see the learning journey their child is on and how they can support this. It also provides a one-stop shop to access other school apps, such as Parentmail, our school Facebook page and website.

"We are extremely grateful to Bloor Homes for their generous donation, which has enabled us to purchase the system and fund the initial set-up and first year’s running costs. FROG is widely used in other countries, such as Malaysia and America, but is less commonplace in the UK.

"The system is currently being implemented by our team of staff and we have shared it with a number of parents for their feedback. We are looking forward to launching FROG to our staff, pupils and parents in September."

Rhys Nicholson, managing director for Bloor Homes North West, said: "We are delighted to be making this positive contribution to Sandymoor School, particularly as the whole school community will begin to benefit from their new e-learning platform as soon as September of this year.

"Bloor Homes prides itself on being a good neighbour to all of the communities we operate in, so the opportunity to directly assist such an important part of the Sandymoor community was hard to resist.

"With our successful, long-running trainee and apprenticeship programmes, Bloor Homes has always invested in future talent, so we are especially pleased to be associated with a forward-thinking programme such as this."