ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½

Your school website provides the first impression to potential pupils, and it’s also a requirement to make sure it’s complying with .
Ofsted will often review a school’s website as part of their inspection, so it’s essential to ensure it’s up to date, easy to use and appealing to visitors.
To help you reach the high standards inspectors look for, here’s a handy checklist of things to do to make sure your school website is the best it can be.

Your school’s name, contact details and ethos

Communication is key, and easy contact between parents and the school is something Ofsted will look for. Make sure your website’s got:

• Your school’s name presented clearly
• The ethos, aims and values of your school
• Postal address
• Telephone number
• Name and contact details of your headteacher
• Name and address of the chair of the governing body
• Name and contact details of the member of staff who deals with queries from parents and members of the public
• Name and contact details of your special educational needs coordinator

Your school’s admission process

It sounds obvious, but you need to tell people how to apply for your school in a simple and concise way. There’s no point confusing potential parents and pupils; it’ll just turn them away from your school. Be sure to include:

• Your selection criteria
• Your school’s admissions number
• Details on arrangements for disabled students
• How parents can apply
• Details of your oversubscription criteria

Behaviour and suspension/exclusion policies

Ofsted wants to see that your school can both teach and discipline students. Include:

• Your school’s behaviour and bullying policies. Also make sure they comply with section 89 of the
• Details of your school’s exclusion policy

Equality and accessibility objectives

A school should be an environment in which everyone should feel welcome and like they can succeed. Make sure you’re laying out a clear plan on how you’re making students of all ethnicities, sexualities, genders and backgrounds welcome.

• How your school is fighting discrimination
• Your school’s equality objectives
• How your school complies with the public sector equality duty
• How disabled students are involved and helped in the curriculum
• How your school provides physical access to disabled students

Performance tables

You have to advertise your school and tell people why they should send their children there. There’s no better way to do that than showing the quality of education parents can expect.

• Key stage 1+2 results – average standards of reading, writing and maths as well as the percentage of students who have achieved higher scores
• Key stage 4 results – percentage of students who have achieved a grade of C or above in English and Maths. Also, include the percentage of students who have gone onto higher education, training or employment
• Link to national performance tables

Content management apps such as ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ can be a great tool to help make sure your website is up to date and complying with Ofsted standards. ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ can help you create and manage your website in a streamlined way, so you’ll easily be able to make a website that’s both appealing and easy to use for parents, pupils and other members of the public, but also will get you a good score from Ofsted.
For a more extensive checklist on extra things you can do to improve your school website, have a look at this.

Schools need funding. It’s a fact which transcends politics; when you’re dealing with our children’s futures and the security of the next generation, you need to make sure they have all the resources they need to succeed.
That’s why fundraising is so essential to the quality and upkeep of schools. With inadequate government funding, it often comes down to the parents to prop up their local schools, and even a small donation can go a long way.
However, it’s not as simple as just asking people to give you money. Schools need to make sure that when raising funds, you’re being accessible and understanding.
So take a look at your website. Is it easy to navigate? Is it welcoming and easy on the eyes? Does it have all the information a visitor might need to be presented in a digestible way?
Creating relationships with your pupils’ parents is important, and in the modern age of the internet, a school website is often the first thing a mum or dad will see. Make sure you’re giving a great first impression.

Make sure your website operates cross-platform

The best websites have a design which works across multiple platforms. If parents are using their phones or tablets, they need to be able to navigate around your website just as well as if they’re on the computer. If your goal is to raise money, after all, you have to take into account that people – especially parents – are busy and always on the go, so might not have a laptop on hand.
There’s nothing worse than a website which is poorly formatted for a smaller screen. It’s instantly off putting and aggravating to visitors if they don’t have immediate access to a computer screen.

Use content management systems like ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½

ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ is an ideal app for schools trying to improve their website. Used by over 3000 schools nationwide, ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ can help you create a unique website customised with features that suit your needs. Have you ever seen a website that has left you impressed with its design, and makes you want to keep clicking? That should be the aim for any school website to entice students and potential donors.
ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ isn’t just for website creation, either. You can make school surveys, polls, quizzes and even content to help improve your pupils’ spelling.

Organise fundraising events

isn’t just about parents sending you money through a website. To truly engage with parents you want to go above and beyond, and with applications like ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ you can organise events online. The app for phone can send notifications, too, so it’s a lot more convenient than sending out newsletters every month or trusting the kids to tell their parents!
Want to host a fundraising event at the school? Put it on your website and it’ll automatically update to the ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ app, so your pupils will never miss a beat. Some schools try to get creative with their fundraisers, and it’s something parents appreciate. Go the extra mile in your events: maybe a Britain’s Got Talent-themed talent competition, a Halloween costume contest, or even a cook-off. The more you appeal to your pupils and their parents, the more successful your fundraisers will be.
So, make sure you’re not neglecting your school’s online presence. In a world where we spend on average 24 hours a week online, schools have to adapt with and take advantage of the vast changes to how we communicate with each other. Used well, you can increase admissions and donations to better the education of the next generation.

The humble mobile app has transformed numerous aspects of daily life.
Our social media apps give us the freedom to chat with people all over the world in seconds. Our banking apps let us manage our finances at any time, any place. And gaming apps keep us entertained on buses, trains and in waiting rooms.
But school mobile apps have even more to offer: they provide schools with streamlined ways to stay on schedule, communicate with parents and educate pupils via interactive tools. Any designed to help pupils learn may be downloaded on a parent or teacher’s smartphone as an educational aid.
Many school mobile apps are available today, so how do you know which are the best?
We’ve picked the top 8 below.

#1. ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ – School Web Design and Mobile App

ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½â€™s CMS is a complete solution for schools, empowering you with the means to update your website, add content, advertise vacancies, manage CVs, communicate with staff through text messages and more.
The ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ mobile app is an excellent complement to the CMS, providing parents with various features and information. They can:

• keep up to date with the latest school events
• view calendars
• read newsletters
• check out galleries
• view maps
• see what homework has been set
• complete forms on the school website
• take part in surveys
• book appointments for parents’ evenings
• send free instant messages

This helps parents stay informed of their children’s school’s latest events, keep in touch with teachers and much more.

#2. Duolingo

Educating primary-school children on a second language can be a real challenge, but helps to make it simpler.
It has been called the ‘best language-learning app’ by The Wall Street Journal and is (perhaps best of all) free! Duolingo is designed to help users learn multiple languages, including:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Dutch
• Russian

Duolingo makes learning new languages fun and interactive, utilising quizzes and bite-size lessons. This school mobile app is available on Google Play and iTunes.

#3. My Study Life

Staying on top of homework, exams and special occasions at school is difficult for young children, but aims to change that.
This isn’t just a calendar app — you can use it to:

• see when work is due
• view when exams will take place
• set reminders for classes and unfinished work
• create timetables to reduce the risk of missed deadlines

My Study Life is a helpful app for schools, helping staff and pupils alike stay focused on tasks without confusing dates or classes. It’s available on Google Play and iTunes.

#4. Khan Academy

This free app is well worth looking into, providing access to a huge catalogue of videos and other learning resources across many subject areas.
You can use to:

• watch over 10,000 videos and explanations on maths, economics, history, science and more
• make education more interactive with over 40,000 questions
• try exercises and read articles on countless topics

Khan Academy gives teachers and children a vast catalogue of information, serving as an educational aid when studying a huge range of subjects. Achievements can be unlocked for a touch of gamification too, helping to engage pupils.
It’s available for download from iTunes only.

#5. Quizlet

Quizlet is a learning app based around flashcards, with multiple functions. This can be used by pupils as an aid to learning and practicing for tests through all years of primary school, as well as for teachers brushing up on subjects.
Quizlet offers the following features:

• prepare for tests and exams with the Learn section
• check your memory using Write
• share flashcards with other users
• implement custom audio and images to reinforce learning

Quizlet is free for the first seven days of usage, and multiple paid versions are available with additional functions. You can download it from iTunes and Google Play.

#6. WolframAlpha

refers to itself as a real-life counterpart to the powerful computers seen on Star Trek, offering information on a massive variety of subjects using cutting-edge algorithms to create answers / reports.
Apple’s Siri is used in some aspects of WolframAlpha. This app can help with:

• elementary maths
• algebra
• astronomy
• geology
• animals
• plants
• dinosaurs
• climate
• calendars
• weather
• geography
• oceans
• historical figures
• linguistics

And much more!
WolframAlpha is an impressive school mobile app that to benefit teachers in the classroom and pupils at home. It’s not free, but its low cost and real potential makes it a worthy investment.
You can find it on Google Play and iTunes.

#7. Math Motion: Cupcake!

Many children struggle to learn maths, even at the most basic levels. Not only is the work itself difficult, but just the prospect of studying maths can be incredibly intimidating.
is a colourful, fun mobile app designed to help pupils develop their maths skills by running a cupcake business. It educates through such tasks as:

• fulfilling orders
• working out the cost of every cupcake
• paying loans back

Math Motion: Cupcake! shows how important maths is in everyday life in a practical, more engaging way. This app is available on iTunes only, for a modest price.

#8. Star Walk

Space is a fascinating subject to study at any age, but particularly in primary school. Today’s children have access to countless exciting resources on space, stars and astronomy, and Star Walk is a great way to help them learn.
Using Star Walk, you can explore the sky in real time, identifying planets and constellations using just a smartphone. It allows you to:

• locate and discover facts about celestial bodies
• study an astronomical calendar to find when eclipses, meteor showers, full moons and more will occur
• use the Time Machine feature to look at sky maps of the past and future
• explore the night sky with Night mode, making the app more comfortable to use

Many more features and functions are included, making Star Walk an indispensable aid to educating children on astronomy. It requires no internet connection.
You can download from iTunes and Google Play for a small cost.

Each of these school mobile apps can help teachers, pupils and parents in a specific way, whether that’s building a reliable schedule, exploring historical events or even learning another language.
They’re simple to use and compatible with an extensive range of devices. Prices are generally kept low too, to suit schools on diverse budgets.
Have you used any of these apps, or do you have others to recommend? Let us know below!

One of the most difficult decisions parents make is choosing which school their children will attend.
We all want the best for our little ones. We all want to know they’re learning in a safe, productive environment that will help cultivate their development and, ultimately, give them the right skills to build a successful future.
Researching any school your child may be able to attend is a crucial step, and the first port of call for the majority of parents is the school’s website — which is why it’s so important to get it right.
A website is a school’s chance to essentially shake the parent’s hand and prove why it’s the perfect option. Building a responsive school website is essential to deliver the best browsing experience and demonstrate everything that makes your school special.
But what does that mean and how can it be achieved?
In this guide, we’ll explore the power of responsive school website design, beginning with the basics.

What is Responsive Design?

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is an approach to crafting websites that provide a high-quality experience across multiple devices. We live in a world of 24/7 connectivity now: we’re not just browsing the internet at our desks anymore — our smartphones and tablets allow us to go online at any time, any place.
As the number of searches performed on handsets has overtaken those through desktops, websites have to perform to a high standard on any screen a visitor may use. Responsive Web Design focuses on running a single site incorporating elements which respond in a different way to suit the device in question.
An old-fashioned website might be made primarily to fit large monitors but is totally unaccommodating for mobile users. For example, if a page displays a table containing multiple blocks of data, this would have to be adapted to suit a smaller screen to prevent a cumbersome layout. Anyone trying to scroll across the page to read the table’s contents could become frustrated and look for the same information elsewhere.
Responsive Web Design ensures websites present visitors with the most user-friendly experience every time. Responsive design is vital to give parents the most accessible gateway to your school, offering an effective way to discover everything they need to know without a single moment of irritation.
The more you embrace this approach, the less reason you give parents to leave the site.

Key Features of a Responsive School Website

Responsive school websites tend to share certain elements. These combine to create a browsing experience that suits parents and prospective students alike, catering to the mother who’s researching your school at her office computer just as well as the child doing the same on her tablet.
So, what are these features and why do they matter?

Lots of whitespace

Whitespace is not just the empty parts of a website — it’s actually a major aspect of great design. Whitespace helps to make your text and images appear less cluttered, allows visitors to understand what they’re reading better and makes scanning for relevant information much easier.
Responsive school website design ensures your whitespace will remain proportionate and content will appear formatted just as well on tiny screens as bigger ones. This makes browsing far more comfortable.

Optimized visual content

Images must be optimized to display properly on all devices and load as quickly as possible. Loading times can make or break your browsing experience: if parents or children are searching for information but can’t access text because your images are slowing the site right down, they’re unlikely to keep waiting. If they do, they’ll become frustrated and be reluctant to return in future.
Image sizes must be reduced to facilitate fast load times.

An intuitive approach to navigation

Good navigation matters. Users will never appreciate having to constantly click back and forth through slow-loading pages because they tapped the wrong button or were misdirected.
Your visitors want to find exactly that they’re looking for with the bare minimum of hassle. Your school website should be built to allow for smooth, simple, intuitive navigation on all devices. Clear menus are a must, with obvious category titles and page layouts.
These key elements should guide you in building or overhauling your school website. Always keep the parents or children visiting your site, and their journey, in mind. Put yourself in their shoes and consider what would help you get the most out of the experience.

Helpful Pages your Responsive School Website Must Have

Your website should look and feel unique to your school. It should reflect your school’s values and goals as much as possible.
The tone of voice, images and colour scheme all need to capture the character of your school. Providing all the information parents and students require throughout the year is crucial, and there are certain staple pages you should incorporate to do so.

Calendar

Always keep your school calendar updated with relevant events, such as holidays and special occasions. Give parents at-a-glance information they can find within seconds.
Letting your calendar go out of date may indicate to visitors that your school is unprofessional and disorganized.

Teacher profiles

Parents want to know who’s teaching their children. Include a brief bio and pictures of your teaching staff to help build a closer bond and cultivate a sense of community.

Contacts

Who should parents call if their child is too sick to attend school one day? Who is in charge of organizing field trips or a school event? How can parents reach the head teacher?
Make sure you always carry up-to-date contact details on your school website, to give parents exactly what they need to reach your team. This is vital in emergencies.

ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ is an innovative platform allowing schools just like yours to build custom websites. More than 3,000 schools across the UK work with ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½, creating and maintaining their own domains with simple, user-friendly tools. Upload images and videos, reach out to parents with emails, host quizzes and more to engage with your community.
Please don’t hesitate to contact Webanywhere if you wish to learn more about how ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ can help you create the perfect website for your school.

The Department for Education updated the Ofsted requirements on the 24th May 2018.
To help you check if everything is up to date and get an outstanding rating, we have compiled a quick, easy checklist with all the information schools much publish on their website.

If you are a maintained school please download this guide:

If you are a free school, college or an academy please download this file:

Here at Webanywhere, we offer bespoke school web design and development services that provide schools with unique and highly functional websites, which are scalable, tailored to their needs, and are intended to offer the best user experience possible.
If your target is to generate a strong and unforgettable online brand image for your school, there is a plethora of benefits that come from investing in a bespoke school website.
In this article, we’ll discuss why a bespoke web design offers a more sustainable, professional advantage to your school in the long term.

Superiority Of Custom School Web Design

Your school website needs a personality, and designers will help you come up with a personalised solution, from start to finish. Important factors to consider include navigation, ease of use, layout, graphics and a color scheme.
Since a custom design site is built specifically for your needs, you gain more independence and control. You won’t have to worry about trying to adapt it to suit your purposes as you would with a standard school web design. As long as you are working with a good design team, they will be around to provide ongoing support.

Responsive Design

Responsive websites are designed to give users the best possible experience across all modern computers, tablets, smartphones, and internet ready devices.
In the last decade, mobile data traffic has increased 3000%, .
Think of the amount of times that you check your phone each day… How often do you use your phone to Google something or check on social media?
and there are more mobile users than desktop users. People have much shorter attention spans and will not give a website a second chance if it has a slow load time or will not display properly on their mobile device. Why should they? We live in a consumer savvy society in which people are used to online instant gratification thanks to technology.
On average, we spend three hours a day glued to our smartphones. A recent study showed that responsive websites saw a 37% increase in unique visitors and a 50% increase in time people spend on pages.

SSL Certificates are a Must

Whenever you use the internet, you are sharing packets of information. This might be something seemingly small, like a request for the contents of a website to be sent to your browser. It might be something more important, like details of a bank card. Every time you click on a link or fill in a form, you share a little bit of information and you get a bit back.
For websites without SSL certification, this information is not encoded. If someone intercepts it then they can read the information you have sent. The growth of wireless networks and mobile browsing has created more possibilities for interception than ever before.
SSL is important because it lets people use your website more safely. Those packets of information, however big or small, can’t be read if they are intercepted.
This has a lot of implications for a school website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimization or SEO in short, is a set of rules that can be followed by website owners to optimize their websites for search engines and thus improve their search engine rankings. For example, if a parent searches for your school on Google you want your website to appear first in search results.

1. To make sure this happens, just follow these steps:
2. Check your site’s health on Google Search Console.
3. Submit your sitemap to Google.
4. Take a good look at your title tags.
5. Make sure your meta descriptions are snappy and engaging.
6. Check for keyword cannibalisation.
7. Claim your Google My Business listing.
8. Link to high-authority websites.
9. Share your knowledge in blog posts.
10. Add alt tags to your images. Above all, focus on search intent and user experience.

Support and Security

Ensuring that you keep all software up to date is crucial in keeping your school website secure. This software includes the server operating system and also any CMS or forum software that is used on your site. Hackers can work their way into your website and cause trouble through outdated software.
Your web hosting company should take care of your operating system security updates.
It’s very important to use strong passwords for both your server and website admin areas. It’s equally as important to ask your web users to ensure that their passwords are strong. This will help them to protect the security of their accounts.
If you allow users to upload files to your website, it can be a big website security risk, even if it’s simply to change their avatar. The risk is that any file uploaded however innocent it may look, could contain a script that when executed on your server completely opens up your website.

The Bottom Line

So a bespoke school website should have a unique and true responsive design – not emulated. You will need an expert development and design team, such as Webanywhere, to support and assist you with this.
True scalability and the ability to integrate any online technology (as it becomes available) are a must as well as security from common vulnerabilities.
Most importantly, you need an optimised solution that is light, fast and responsive, and of course good value for money.

As a school, your school web design is your first impression. That means it’s also where your conversion opportunity lies – if you want to attract new parents/guardians and increase enrollment, having a remarkable website is the best place to start.
There’s nothing wrong with having a school website that looks similar to others, but you need to stand out among your competitors in some way. This is why in this article we’ll be discussing the 2018 trends of school web design.

The key components of a school website

To make your school website complete and perfect in 2018, you need the following key components.

• Unique and eye catching design
• (Download a checklist here.)
• GDPR compliance
• Responsive mobile friendly web pages
• Search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Contact page with an email form
• Map showing your location
• Availability and Booking system
• High quality hosting

Each website is unique, but the successful ones generally follow a winning formula that contains the above elements.

Directing visitors towards the most important bits

Understanding influential visual cues will allow you to come up with a persuasive design that guides parents’ eye flow for maximum conversions.
Start with prioritising your website goals for a good visual hierarchy. List key points that visitors want to see on the school website. Then, prioritise and arrange them according to their visual importance.
You can use two types of directional cues to help you direct visitors towards the most important bits. Explicit cues take the form of arrows or lines while implicit cues use imagery to subtly direct your prospect’s gaze.

The principle of contrast

Contrast is defined as the difference between two or more elements. It creates visual interest and directs the attention of the user. Here’s an example of a school website that uses contrast.
If all of the elements on a school web page were the same in style and appearance there would be no organisation or hierarchy and the content would be nearly impossible to digest.
This makes contrast an essential part of effective school web design. It takes practice to learn and create the right amount of contrast in your designs but you can start by studying the work of talented designers to see how they use contrast.

Use User Stories to Build Your Website

A user story is a very short story – usually, about one sentence long, that describes something that the user wants to accomplish by using a service.
A good user story should be simple, engaging and accessible to a range of audiences, for example, young parents to old parents.
Stories can be written, drawn, spoken, or recorded. They are a powerful tool throughout multiple stages of the design process and can help persuade your audience.

Less can sometimes be more

Minimal web design doesn’t compromise your creative cutting edge. Your website doesn’t have to be too cluttered or glossy.
Visitors value a minimalist interface when navigating your school website as well as your social media pages.
Apply minimalist principles to make your school web design attractive and effective with fewer elements, simplifying and improving users’ online interactions. Check out examples here.

Implementing psychological motivators

Having a complete understanding of your audience will help you trigger the desired behaviour and increase enrollment.
There are some motivating factors that drive behaviour or key interactions on your school website. For example, the motivation analysis of your audience might reveal that parents in your area are curious, young and intelligent.
Be smart and create relevant content for your audience on your website. This is how you will convince them to choose your school over other schools in the area.

Responsiveness is key to a conversion centered design

Responsive school web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behaviour and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.
As the spectrum of screen sizes and resolutions is widening every day, creating a different version of a school website that targets each individual device is not practical. The solution is a responsive web design for your school.
The number of users and mobile is the number one choice of device for accessing the Internet and social media.
With a responsive school web design, you will enable people using multiple devices (smartphones, tablets, desktops) to view your website properly.

Try before you buy

There are many school web design providers that allow schools to test out websites for free before deciding whether they want to pay for them. With ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½, you can start a free trial for 15 days!
Buying a website before trying it can be a big mistake that will affect your budget and the school community.

If you are after an outstanding school website, Webanywhere can help you using our ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ website builder. Join over 4,000 schools in the UK that use ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ websites, mobile apps and educational software.

A 2012 report published that there were over 24,000 schools educating 8.2 million pupils across the UK.
These schools were a mix of nursery schools, state-funded primary schools, state-funded secondary schools, special schools, pupil referral units and independent schools.
Of the thousands of state-funded and independent primary schools, there are only a select percentage that fall in the category of ‘outstanding websites’ as far as we’re concerned.
Web design creation and implementation is an art form, and educational institutions such as primary schools need to follow a set of distinct guidelines, when creating and maintaining a website for both parents and pupils to access and navigate.
There are several things that all of the top primary school websites in the UK must have in common.

A Personal and Welcoming Homepage

The homepage is the first thing that a parent or pupil will view as they are navigated from a search engine onto your school website.
It’s a shop window for prospective new parents to peruse as they weigh up what your primary school has to offer their child.
It’s got to entice, engage, invite, and inform viewers as they aim to get a feel for your school’s personality and what the school has to offer.
The homepage sets the tone for the entire school and acts as a doorway into the corridors and syllabus of your institution.
All homepages should include:

A personal introduction

This introduction should include a brief summary of the school, an overview of the schools’ location, and a friendly explanation of what to expect from the school website. All of this writing should be warm and inviting in tone. It’s not just children that have fear around going to school. Parents face the task of deciding their children’s future, so warmth and compassion can go a long way.

A message from the headteacher

Keep this message warm and consistent in tone with the rest of the homepage copy. This paragraph or two really sets the bar for the schools’ tone and personality so make sure it reflects it well, and makes people feel safe and welcome.

A guiding purpose

Visitors go to a school website with a purpose in mind. Therefore, it’s important for them to be able to access and find information with ease. Clear navigation and an uncluttered website, combined with instructional and educational copy, will ensure ease of access to all information.
83% of search query paths begin with an unbranded term, (such as best schools near me), your school’s homepage needs to easily answer five key questions right away to help searchers realise they are in the right place.
What does your school do?
What makes your school unique?>
How can I learn more?
Where can I find you?
Will I fit in?

Clear Cut Navigation

As mentioned above, clear navigation is paramount on all websites, especially school websites as they can hold a wealth of information on a wide range of topics.
Most school websites use an intuitive navigational system. This means that most visitors will find the information that they need, exactly where they expect to find it.
Intuitive navigation uses the following principles.

Simple/Concise Navigation Tabs

Try and keep the number of tabs available on the main navigation bar between five and seven. Visitors can become overwhelmed and confused when there appear to be too many options available. Crowded menus can also create confusion.

Sub Menus for Related Content

Grouping options together in drop-down menus beneath or alongside the navigation tabs is a great way of displaying information without overloading website users’ brains and causing confusion.

Internal Links

Hyperlinking text so that users can happily hop from one page to another to follow related content is a fantastic way to streamline the user journey and display relevant information easily.

Sensible Headings and Labels

Straightforward titles and headings make life a lot easier for people when trying to navigate through a website. If the link is to a lunch menu… Label it ‘Lunch Menu’… Make sure important information is easy to locate and access for all people.

Clearly Defined Links and Buttons

If something is clickable on your . Make sure that it stands out and that the link works. This is incredibly useful and really helps users find their way through your website with ease.

Content

Keep the content engaging and informative throughout the website.

Tone/Personality

Make sure your tone and personality are similar throughout your website and really reflect that of your staff and school in general.
Keep it upbeat and positive so that your visitors stick around. Use a conversational tone in order to entice further communication with the reader.

Documents and Valid Information

Make sure that you upload all documents and information that will help parents, governors, pupils, and prospective parents as they get involved with your school.
Think about all of your frequently asked questions and address these concerns directly in the appropriate areas of your website.

Additional Content

Try and include relevant blogs that highlight the excellent standards, work, and achievements of your school. You may also consider providing links to community initiatives that the school is involved in, or relevant news stories.
Make sure you include clear calls to action right across the board on your website.

Clear Layout and Design

Utilise Necessary Blank Space

A seasoned web designer recognises the effectiveness of blank space. Websites need to breathe…, Ample blank space helps with the flow of reading and de-clutters the screen leaving the design nice and easy on the eye, without disrupting the clarity of information available.

Good Quality Images and Responsive Design

The images that you include on your school website are going to sell your school, your staff, the learning environment, and the facilities available.
Make sure they are clear, high quality, and enticing for all website viewers. Make sure that they are streamlined with the overall design and colour scheme of the school. Above all, make sure they truly represent your school and the values that you hold as a melting pot of creativity and education.
Over 52% of website traffic comes from mobile phone and tablets. Your website has to be designed to load clearly and responsively across all devices. Failure to do this can be embarrassing for schools, and disappointing for users!

It is now a legal requirement for all Multi-Academy Trust schools in the UK to provide training providers access to pupils in years eight to thirteen.
In a push for awareness of non-academic routes of education, the ‘Baker Clause’ requires all schools to publish a policy statement on their setting out their arrangements for provider access.
Introduced by former education secretary Lord Baker in May 2017, this law is an amendment to the ‘Technical and Further Education Act’.
The actual legal obligation for all trusts to publish a provider access statement came into action on January 2nd of this year, but has proven to be adopted slowly across the education industry.
Certain Multi Academy Trusts have been accused of resisting the promotion of non-vocational courses to their pupils, often preferring the promotion of more traditional educational subjects and academic courses.
However, Lord Baker has stressed the importance of fair access for all pupils as they reach important ‘transition points’ in their educational journeys. This is particularly relevant at the ages of 14, 16, and 18 years old when important academic decisions are being made, carving the pathways to further education or vocational careers.

What the statement should include:

The policy statement has to include procedures for accommodating access requests as well as details of the premises and facilities that will be provided.
Pupils and their parents need clear access to an online platform that will list all of the options available for pursuing vocational training courses and the providers of such courses. It should also list the facilities, transportation, and requirements needed for successful attendance and completion of such courses.

Multi-academy trusts fail to implement Baker clause

In a January article, published an article providing evidence that just two of the 10 largest multi-academy trusts in the UK had complied with the legal duty outlined in the Baker Clause.
By the end of January, of ten trusts investigated, only The Kennel Academies Trust and Delta Academies Trust had responded with a copy of their statements and proof that they had published them on their school websites.
Some Academies admitted to FEW that they had prepared a document to upload onto their websites, blaming time constraints and busy periods over Christmas for lack of publication. Others declined to comment when questioned as part of the FEW investigations.

Vocational qualifications to come under greater scrutiny

In 2014, announced that it would remove accreditation and change the way vocational courses were regulated in order to improve quality across England and Northern Ireland.
This move was decided so that more openings would become available for a number of potential school leavers across the UK. With vocational courses focusing on design, delivery and awarding as opposed to entry requirements and accreditation.
Ongoing studies have claimed that future generations of school leavers should turn their backs on university education and opt for a more vocational pathway, preparing them for a trade as opposed to an academic degree.
In the UK, there has been a sharp rise in the projected number of medium and low skilled jobs, whilst across some industries there has been a decline in demand for university graduates across the board.
Another claimed that two thirds of jobs created by 2022 will be in low or medium skilled occupations that do not demand a degree as a requirement.
This equates to more than 9 million school leavers, therefore the demand for vocational courses and access to such courses is expected to increase rapidly.
However, the most ‘in-demand’ occupation of the future will be linked to health and social care as rising numbers of school leavers are needed to care for the aging population in the UK.

DofE Statutory Guidelines

The Department of Education has stated that the reason the ‘Baker Clause’ has been pushed into UK law is that all pupil should have a clear idea of the range of routes into the workplace. This is so that each individual has the opportunity to make educated and informed decisions about their future, with confidence.
To enforce the ‘Baker Clause’ The DofE published statutory guidelines for schools across the UK on January 2nd 2018. These guidelines clearly stated that schools have to provide opportunities for technical education and apprenticeship providers to talk to pupils, and to publish a statement on their website.
In 2017 published the findings of a new report which claims that the number of degree apprentices in the UK is to increase by 650%.

Degree apprenticeships

Degree apprenticeships were introduced UK wide in 2015 and enable applicants to split their time between their universities to study, and the workplaces in industries in which they will eventually be employed. The cost of course fees are split between the Government and employers.
A range of employers of varying sizes are already partnering with universities across the UK to work with these degree apprenticeships.
Some of the brands involved include Mercedes-Benz, Nestle, IBM, Airbus, and Transport for London.
A Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) is a single entity established to undertake a strategic collaboration to improve and maintain high educational standards across a number of schools. A group of schools form a single MAT which has overarching responsibility for their governance.
It’s unclear how long it will take for all UK Multi-Academy trusts to obey the educational laws and publish a policy statement on their websites. However, it is a legal requirement and trusts could face penalties if they fail to comply with government set standards.

Our school e-learning specialists can help you create your policy fast. today for further information.

Listen to our podcast on Bett Show’s survey of 1,000 teachers.