New School Year, New Website

When you’re in the midst of the school year, it feels like there is always another event or major activity just around the corner – whether it’s parents evening, the Christmas holidays and all that comes with it, the school play, or the latest sets of exams and those preceding revision weeks.

Because of this, the school website can often end up packed full of ‘added on’ updates and reminders, with little regard for the overall design and usability of the website, from a user’s point of view. Now is the perfect time to start afresh with a brand new website or a comprehensive upgrade, which allows you to showcase your school’s highlights, provide access to all the information that different users need, and build an online touchpoint.

The Benefits of a New Web Design for Schools

The start of a new year is the ideal time to review your website and decide if it is presenting a good first impression, creating a sense of strong community, and giving all the information it should to the right audience.

There are a myriad of benefits to a high quality school website, but these can include:

• An all-in-one platform which holds basic school information, events and announcements, news and updates, testimonials, information about a virtual tour, your online prospectus, and learning resources for parents and students alike.
• The ability to update timetables, school menus, staff lists, and other flexible insights efficiently for parents and students.
• A way to celebrate your school’s branding and all the little details that you want to showcase and highlight – through pictures, videos, testimonials and maps.
• That all important good first impression of your school is a major factor in recruiting the best staff.

What your School Website Needs

So, what does a high quality school website look like? And what areas should you be focussing on when undergoing a school website revamp?

As part of our school website design and development service, we tend to start by asking schools exactly what they want to achieve from each page of their website. This is because one of the first things to consider is the CTA across your site – what steps do you want users to take, and how can you frame and influence the way they interact with your website?

From there, you have to take into account two key things: Design and Functionality.

Here are just some of the considerations that we focus on when it comes to refreshing or building a new school website from scratch.

1. The importance of having an online presence which reflects and compliments the onsite presentation is important to producing a cohesive user experience. From learning resources to curriculum information and school menus, your website should be an extension of your school and provide up to date and relevant information for users.
2. All content should be planned in advance using a sitemap. This will help to inform the overall user journey through your site and will make the creation of those all-important CTA’s easier to navigate. It will also put UX at the heart of your school website, ensuring that each menu and webpage is informative and easy to use.
3. Make contact information clear and easy to find.
4. Include virtual tours and prospectuses for those who are unable or cannot attend your physical school open day.

The Best Time to Invest in a New Web Design for Schools

The answer is simple – improving your website design is a project that can be carried out at any time throughout the year. Your timeline depends on your individual school and the priority you place on your website; however, to be ready for your September recruitment campaigns we advise schools to start planning the project as early as possible.

Whichever option works best for you, our web design for schools service puts your school community at the heart of every design decision and every webpage – and we’re available to work with you all year round.