What is RSS?

In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you want can be difficult. Wouldn't it be better to have the latest news and features delivered directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site? Well now you can, thanks to RSS.

There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but the majority plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. Put plainly, it allows you to identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to you. It takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by showing you the very latest information that you are interested in.

The Philip Morant School and College is pleased to offer RSS feeds for the content of several areas of our site, with more feeds planned for the future.

Website News
Parents' News
Parents' Correspondence Archive
Job Vacancies

How do I start using RSS feeds?

In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want - an RSS feed is available wherever you see the orange RSS logo. .

If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. For more details on these, please check their websites.

How do I get a News Reader?

There are a range of different news readers available, many are free to use and new versions are appearing all the time.

Here are a selection to try:

Windows

• Feedreader
• Newzcrawler
• Feed Demon

Mac

• Newsfire RSS

Web Based Services

• Newsgator

The Philip Morant School is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. The sites or products listed above are unconnected to The Philip Morant School and any product or service offered by them is to be used entirely at your own risk.

Thanks to the BBC for help in preparing this article. The BBC offer a large range of RSS feeds from their site www.bbc.co.uk .