Frequently Asked Questions
The Hillsborough Castle and Gardens schools team are hosting and managing the online sessions.
No, our sessions are designed to be interactive and we feel the quality of our sessions diminishes if we deliver to more than one class at a time. However we are able to deliver multiple sessions in a day so why not book a session for each class.
The sessions use Zoom. You do not need a Zoom account to take part, but you should ensure that your school network allows access to this platform ahead of your session.
Our sessions are interactive so it's important that we can see and hear your class so you will need a working microphone, camera and interactive whiteboard with audio speakers so your class can see and hear us.
No, you don’t have to download Zoom in advance. You can open your session in a browser window. However, you may get better functionality and use of a wider suite of resources if you do already have Zoom installed on your device.
You will be sent a meeting link to the email address of the Visit Organiser as supplied on your booking form. Check this inbox for a meeting invitation. This will be sent one week in advance.
On the day, you need to click the meeting link and the session will open either in a browser window, or within the Zoom app if you have this installed on your computer.
It's always good to try out the meeting link ahead of your session if you can. Click the link and you will see a window open that says you are in a waiting room, waiting for the meeting organiser to let you in. If you get an error when you click the link, contact us.
Please don’t share your link with anyone else or publish your link anywhere. If you think your meeting link has been compromised, please let us know so we can reissue you a new meeting link.
Follow the link we sent you again to re-enter the session. If you’re still unable to join back in, contact us.
Your computer may have frozen. Try exiting the meeting and joining back in using the original link we sent you.
Check your computer audio controls aren’t on mute, or that headphones or another audio device aren’t plugged into the computer that might be interfering with the sound.
If you can hear us, but we’re crackly, send us a message in the chat and we will slow down or pause, it might be a slow internet connection. You might still need to exit the meeting and then join back in by following the link we sent you.
Let us know in the chat/message area that this is happening and we can pause the video and try and restart it. If the issue persists, we can send you a link to the video on YouTube to try loading yourself or we can switch to a lower-tech approach using a PowerPoint presentation.
If you see someone you don’t know join our session at any time please tell the facilitator immediately so we can remove them from the session.