SpiderScripts

If it is possible, it would be an option in the central administrators console, but to be honest I think it's pretty mad to disable sharing of files. Honestly, if you manage your students use of the computers within school effectively and teach them well about eSafety, then you shouldn't have any problems with them sharing files. I personally make heavy use of the sharing features with my classes, they complete homework electronically and share it with me instead of e-mailing. I create files and share with them to quickly distribute work. We even occasionally create shared documents which we will work on together collaboratively, either me and a student, or small groups of students. The benefits of sharepoint document sharing are immense, and well worth the occasional misuse and reprimand.

That depends entirely on what kind of content you want to put on the intranet and what it will be used for. SharePoint 2013 has a pretty nice WYSIWYG design interface for building basic web content, and it's straightforward to upload documents and other media. But if you want to do much beyond that you will need to set aside a good chunk of time to get your head around the system and create the content. I have been working this year on building a student-facing VLE using SharePoint 2013 since we shifted over to Office365 for Education, and I would be happy to talk to you more about how I have done stuff, but without knowing the scope of what you want to achieve it's difficult to point you in the right direction. If it helps at all I have a little blog talking through some of the content creation I have done so far, you can read it here: SharePoint in School | Developing the use of SharePoint 2013 in a school context

That actually sounds exactly like what I would like to try and do. The built in communication and sharing tools will allow a more flexible environment than a static website, but without some of the fuller features of a true VLE platform. The thing I am trying to work out at the moment is which tools within SharePoint are actually useful, and which are just distractions. I also need to spend some time playing with the Sites aspect to work out what the best way to structure the content is, and any suggestions and tips from your experience would be super helpful! It seems like the sites platform is quite flexible, but I can't work out how I should be separating the content. When should I be creating a new section within a site, when should I be creating a whole new sub-site, and should I be looking at running parallel sites which are not in a hierarchy at all? At the moment my thoughts are to use the team site as a central corridor, with each faculty having a sub-site underneath it, potentially then breaking those down further into course sites were appropriate. I also don't know how easy it is to set up selective content for different users, or how to direct users to specific places quickly and easily. I don't particularly want all students to have access to all content because that could be a little overwhelming, so what would be an effective way of restricting the visible content on a per user basis?

As a school we have recently transitioned to microsoft office365 for education. The mail system is great, and we are working hard to get SkyDrive Pro up and running with all of the staff and students as a central place to keep their work. What I am interested in personally though is the use of SharePoint Online, specifically for creating an integrated VLE on our system. I know that the Sites aspect of SharePoint has the capability of at least creating a central repository of resources for students to access and use. I would love to know if anyone else has been using SharePoint as a VLE, and if so what features are you actually making use of and how was it all set up? I actually have a pot of money set aside for me to research using SharePoint, so if there are any kind souls around who have been using it and would be willing to accommodate a visit from me to see it in action that would be particularly awesome!