To start registration, click on the ‘School’ link on the left-hand side of the website (fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1

You will be taken to another page where you can choose the school you belong to.

Under the 'Register now!' heading, type the name of the school in the text box. While typing, a drop-down menu will appear displaying a list of schools whose names start with the letters you typed in (fig. 1.2). The more you type, the more accurate the menu will be. Choose your school, selecting it in the menu.

Fig. 1.2

Once your school has been selected, click the ‘Check’ button to go to the next step.

You will be taken to a page that displays your chosen school's address. If they are already registered for Shine then you will be shown the school's Shine coordinator. If not then you will be presented with a form where you can enter your account details. Wherever you see a red asterisk, the information is required (fig. 1.3).

Fig. 1.3

First choose a ‘Username’, as you like, just be careful not to type punctuation, except for periods, hyphens and underscores. You will need it whenever you log in together with the password Afterwards type a valid email address in the ‘Email address’ field. Next, type a password in the ‘Password’ and ‘Confirm password’ fields. Your password should contain a mixture of letters and numbers, but no other characters.

Next there is a checkbox under the 'Arts Council England' heading. Tick this box if you do not want to be informed about other Arts Council England initiatives. Beneath the 'How did you hear about Shine?' heading you can select from the checkboxes and type into the text fields how you found out about Shine.

The next heading is titled ‘My school’. Here you can enter details to let more people know about you school. In the ‘About us’ box you can type in a short description of your school. This is followed by your headmaster’s name and the number of pupils that attend. The last box in this section allows you to state what your school plans to do for Shine week. After this, under the ‘Personal info’ heading, enter your full name. This is necessary so that we can verify your identity and approve your account.

Finally, you need to read and accept the Terms & Conditions. Once you have read them, check the ‘Accept Terms & Conditions of Use’ box and press the ‘Create new account’ button (fig. 1.4).

Fig. 1.4

Your account will not be immediately active, but will be awaiting approval by the site administrator. This stage is necessary so Shine can verify that applicants work for the school stated in their registration. In the meantime, your password and further instructions will be sent to the email address supplied.

If you are a teacher, you need to select the way you would like to validate your account to complete your registration.

There are three options:

1. ‘Print out and return a fax’ - If you make this selection, after clicking the ‘Continue’ button you will be taken to a page to be printed and faxed from your school fax to the given number. Once your account has been validated, you will receive an email confirming your login details.

2. ‘Request a callback (to your school) from Shine’ - Shine will call your school for validation.

3. ‘Email Shine using your teacher .sch.uk email account’ - You should send an email to Shine using your school email account. After clicking the ‘Continue’ button, you will find the email of the Shine address on the next page. After selecting a choice, click on the ‘Continue’ button to complete your registration.