These Forums are where you can discuss things that interest you with other pupils who are interested in the same things. You can seek support if you are having difficulty in a particular area, or you can show off a little and post your favourite images.

Where do I start?
The first thing is to read what forums are available. From the home screen, click on the Forums bar in the navigation panel. You will be greeted with a long page of different groups and sub-groups. Click on the group name or the icon beside it to go into the forum. If there is a further sub-forum that is closer to your interest, then click on that.

You now see a list of the most recently updated topics on the page. Clicking on anyone of these will open up the particular message thread. They go in order of importance
Announcements - are there as of the highest importance. Please read these at least once. Some announcements are placed across all forums so that we can try to make sure you read them.

Sticky These are of reasonable importance and give good information to the group reading the topic. They often hold useful faqs and update for that particular group.

Topic These are the individual message threads of the forum. The original topic comes first, followed by comments underneath it.

All message threads show ten posts per page, then at the bottom of the posts, you can click on 2 for page 2, or Next for the next page in the message thread.

Any topic that has a new or updated message will show these icons,
or

Topics that have more than 20 posts are called Hot Topics and have a pulsing icon.
or

Sometimes it is necessary to stop and lock a thread topic. This means that pupils can still read the topic but no more posts can be added to it.
or

So now you can read the posts and gen up on all that is new

But you want to say something!
If you feel a particular urge to say something about a post you have read, There are two ways of doing this;
Below each topic thread there is a box titled Quick Reply. For speed you can type in your reply here, (make it as long as you like) and when done click Preview to see what the post will look like and Submit to place it in the message thread.

Otherwise you can click <a><span>{L_POST_REPLY_TOPIC}</span></a> , the post reply button.
You now have the reply page to leave a comment about the post you have been reading. Do not change the subject field or the message icons (this should only be done by moderators, admins or the original author of the topic).

Underneath you have a section called Message body, where you can type, format and 'groove up' your post.

On the left are emoticons that can help express feelings into your post to help the reader understand the meaning of your text. Consider the following message;
'You did that really well.' Now think how it would sound with one of these emoticons after it...


Next in the main Message body column, you have some font menus. These add style to your post but use them wisely as a wildly colourful posts are often ignored.

Then you have some format icons. Much as in a word processor, these help you layout your text to make it look its best. As you place your pointer over the icon a small reminder of its function will show above the text box.

These align the text in the post, when read. This will not show until you preview or submit your post.

These offer emphasis of Bold, Italics, Underline, [strike]Strikethrough[/strike], [sup]Superscript[/sup], and [sub]Subscript[/sub].

These buttons do not work at the moment and I am trying to find out why not.

These add scrolling text if you want it
This shows scrolling up... [marq=up][align=center]A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away...

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a

hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic

Empire.

During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the

Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armored space station

with enough power to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home

aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her

people and restore freedom to the galaxy...
[/align][/marq=up]
[marq=down][/marq=down]
[marq=left]You can have fun with scrolling Left![/marq=left]

---

[/hr]
Or now with scrolling Right!
and included in this is a return key..
Twice!

The next set of images allows you to insert things into your post and caution should be used here! I have disabled the HTML code at the moment for your own safety! but there are still many things to play with.

These two have been disabled at present. As time goes on they may be released to allow you to show your own code. For now these display the text of the code but .... Must finish here but will continue soon.
[hr] [/hr]
I have just uploaded this here, it is a work in progress.

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