Let’s discuss what this means.

What is a Parents’ Evening Booking System?

A parents’ evening booking system is, essentially, a website that allows parents to book a timeslot for their parents’ evening attendance. For staff, there is very little administration involved. Parents are sent a link with available booking times. The parents book. It is that simple.

The booking system contains all available time slots and bookings, and parents, teachers, and administrative staff can refer to this whenever needed. The booking system takes some of the headache out of running a parents’ evening.

Why Schools are Switching to Online Parents’ Evening Bookings

As we said before, there is already a lot of effort running a parents’ evening. A lot of administration. Schools are looking to reduce the headache wherever they possibly can. One of these methods is to ‘automate’ bookings as much as possible. Schools are opting for online booking systems because it reduces the need for staff to dedicate their time to managing bookings, and it gives parents a lot more control over the time they want to attend.

The Benefits of an Online Parents’ Evening Booking System

In this section, we want to go through the benefits both schools and parents can enjoy with a well-implemented parents’ evening booking system.

Reduce Administrative Work

Having an online system drastically reduces school administrative work. All schools need to do is set up the system (which is simple if the right solution is selected), set the times available, and allow parents to book.

Since parents choose their own time online, there is no need for the school administration to try and work out how to schedule parents, or to constantly field booking telephone calls from parents. This is something which normally takes up a hefty amount of time around parents’ evening.

Allow Parents to Book Appointments Online

Parents can book their parents’ evening appointment at their leisure. No need to contact the school and find out what times are available. If they click their link to the booking system, they can see what slots are available and book within seconds.

Prevent Double Bookings

An online booking system will prevent double bookings. This means schools won’t have two sets of parents arriving at the same time, hoping to speak to the teacher. This was a common problem in the past when you had multiple people trying to manage the administrative side, and everything was done on paper.

Improve Parent Engagement

This is a minor benefit, but a benefit nonetheless. Many schools believe that introducing a booking system like this improves parent engagement. Parents will be taking an active role in booking their time slot, rather than being told when to turn up. This may encourage parents to engage with the school in other ways too.

Save Teachers and Office Staff Time

We’ve covered this extensively already. An online booking system saves teachers and office staff a lot of time. A proper booking system doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t have to do anything, but if it takes more than a few minutes each week to manage bookings, we’d be surprised.

How Our Online Parents’ Evening Booking System Works

To demonstrate why our online parents’ evening booking system is so beneficial, we want to go through how our system works.

Create Your Event

Teachers/administrators start by setting up the event in the online system. This takes a few minutes. While we are discussing using the system as a parents’ evening booking system, you really could set up any event that requires booking select times within the system.

Set Appointment Times

Available appointment times are set. You can adjust the length and time of each appointment slot.

Share the Booking Link with Parents

Parents will be sent their own unique booking link for the system. They must click this link to book an allotted time.

Parents Choose Their Preferred Time Slot

Parents can see which time slots are available. They can book any available time slot. Of course, the earlier they book, the more opportunity they have to get a time that is right for them.

Manage Bookings and Changes

On the rare occasion that a parent needs to make a change to the time they’ve booked, teachers and administrative staff can help. It takes less than a minute to change bookings.

Common Challenges Schools Face with Parents’ Evening Scheduling

Running a parents’ evening is tricky at the best of times. Scheduling, for instance, is particularly difficult. Schools need to manage:

• Ensuring that parents get the time slot that is most suited to their schedule.
• Ensuring double bookings do not happen.
• Having to stay in contact with the parents, which takes up a huge amount of time.
• Ensuring that the correct available times are shared with people.

Working with an online school parents’ evening system can reduce almost all of this workload, allowing schools to focus on more important parts of a parents’ evening.

How Parents’ Evening Booking Software Improves Parent Communication

A parents’ evening booking system improves parent communication by encouraging parents to actually engage with the school. Parents will have a full list of all available times for the parents’ evening, and they are free to choose whatever available slot they wish for. No hassle. Parents love the fact that the school is so brilliant at communicating available booking slots, something which was a major problem in the past when everything was done on paper.

Choosing the Right Parents’ Evening Booking System for Your School

When choosing a parents’ evening booking system, it is essential that you opt for the right system. The best system would be one used in real-world situations and developed especially for these types of bookings. We highly recommend the software developed here at ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½. It is used by countless schools already to manage their parents’ evening scheduling. Why not yours too?

Get in touch to learn more about our parents evening booking software, school website design or our marketing for schools.

The post Parents Evening Booking Systems: The Complete Guide For Schools appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

The Trust partnered with us at ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ to alleviate their CMS difficulties and achieve brand cohesiveness while retaining each school’s individuality. For six years, our partnership has proved successful; this latest project of migrating them to the updated J3 platform and redesigning web presence across the trust has been no different.

The Challenge: Bringing Multiple School Websites Together

No matter the organisation, consistency throughout all digital presence is important. But when that organisation has 17 separate websites to contend with, this can be easier said than done. Not only is brand uniformity imperative, but so is ensuring that each school’s unique identity remains apparent.

Beyond design aesthetics, the websites need to come together under one roof to make trust-wide governance a breeze. From content management to compliance, the Trust required efficiency and cohesiveness across their entire web-based ecosystem.

Creating a Cohesive Website Design Across the Trust

With the challenge in mind, we crafted a modern, streamlined school website design that’s evident from the Trust’s main website to each school’s web presence.

A Shared Trust Identity

We ensured each website uses the Trust’s brand colours and implemented an easily navigable structure to guarantee cohesiveness from the start. Whether browsing website or one of their 16 schools’ sites, it’s evident they’re all working under the same banner, thanks to the uniform branding, layout, and design choices.

Preserving Each School’s Individual Character

Unity doesn’t mean loss of individuality. From the welcome messages on each school’s homepages to the content published to the images scattered throughout, we made sure each institution’s personality shines through.

Improving the Experience for Parents, Pupils, and Staff

With responsive designs and easy-to-use navigation systems, we improved browsing experiences for all users. No more misaligned UIs when perusing Trust-led websites and portals.

Migrating 17 School Websites to the Latest J3 Platform

Cohesiveness isn’t where this project stopped. We also migrated all 17 websites to the latest J3 platform during the redesign, ensuring each school benefitted from timesaving, communication-enhancing features.

Planning a Seamless Migration

To ensure the website migration was seamless, we:

Modernising Every School Website

Each school website received modernisation. Once our overarching design received the go ahead, we implemented across all 17 websites. The result? An up-to-date, future-proof website for the Trust and its 16 Rotherham-based primary schools.

Making Day-to-Day Website Management Easier

White Woods Primary Academy Trust now benefits from J3’s MAT dashboard, which provides access to all websites on one platform. Within this dashboard, the Trust can detect Ofsted, receive automatic policy alerts, sync calendars, and much more for effortless management.

Why Multi Academy Trusts Benefit from a Unified Website Platform

White Woods isn’t the only trust that benefits from a unified platform. Every MAT gains the following:

Consistent Branding Across Every School

Each school showcases the overarching trust’s branding to ensure brand cohesiveness across the entire group. A unified platform guarantees future and current students and parents see the community from the landing page, while retaining each institution’s individuality.

Simplified Website Management

Everything you need in one place. Administration can manage content and alerts from all schools inside one dashboard.

Better Governance and Compliance

Unification makes it easy for the trust to govern all schools consistently. On top of that, accessibility and other compliance matters are easy to address, ensuring no website falls short.

A Scalable Solution for Growing Trusts

With a purpose-built MAT website platform, scaling is easy. You may be a three-school trust now, but a unified service ensures adding more establishments is effortless as you grow.

The Results for White Woods Primary Academy Trust

Our implementations have afforded White Woods Primary Academy Trust:

What Other Multi Academy Trusts Can Learn

If you’re looking to implement unification across your MAT’s schools, there are a few key things to take away from our partnership with White Woods Primary Trust.

Create a Trust-Wide Digital Strategy

Digital strategies are important for any academic institution, but this importance increases ten-fold where MATs are concerned. This roadmap should outline how the schools will utilise technology to boost teaching, learning, and efficiency. Some examples include centralising resources and standardising digital systems to guarantee safe, collaborative operation.

Choose a CMS Built for Schools

A normal CMS isn’t equipped with the features demanded by MATs. Our CMS for schools has education-specific attributes that ensure seamless, efficient operation once migrated. Such features include but aren’t limited to:

And the best part? No technical experience needed.

Balance Consistency with Individual School Identity

Make sure your schools don’t lose their unique identities in your effort to achieve brand consistency. While the colours, design, and policies should be unified, the actual content, particularly welcoming messages and the images, should showcase each school’s individuality.

Plan for Future Growth

Whether you’re actively growing or teetering on the edge of adding more schools to your trust, plan for it. How will new additions feet seamlessly into your brand identity? What will you need to do to add a new school to your digital presence? This is where a dedicated MAT CMS works wonders.

Looking to Modernise Your Multi Academy Trust Websites?

Bring your MAT websites into 2026 (and beyond) by developing a trust-wide digital strategy, redesigning to ensure cohesion, and migrating to a purpose-built CMS. And if you need help, follow in White Woods Primary Academy Trust’s footsteps and partner with us a ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ to take advantage of our updated J3 platform.

Get in touch to learn more about our MAT website design, CMS for schools or marketing services.

The post White Woods Primary Academy Trust: MAT Website Design Project appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

Contrary to popular belief, these templates are not generic. They won’t make a school look like every other school that uses a similar template. In this day and age, many of these templates are ‘editable’ enough that they can look unique, without significantly increasing the cost.

Here, we’ll tell you a little bit about why pre-designed school website templates could be significantly better than something that is custom-designed for your school.

What Is a Pre-Designed School Website Template?

A website template is a pre-built website structure. A school template has been designed specifically for schools, and includes all the pages and information that a school would need. A school can then fill in the blanks, or add new pages as needed.

Good school website templates are customisable. While they may all stick to the same rough layout, schools have huge amounts of control over branding, colours, and imagery used on them. This means that schools that use the same templates as their back-end may have websites that end up looking completely different.

Template Websites vs Custom School Websites

Template websites are a quick and easy way for schools to get a quality website online. They’re affordable, and when designed properly will include all the information a school needs. This includes legal obligations, as well as the right information for school stakeholders.

A custom school website is, as the name suggests, custom-designed for the school. They are more expensive, and take a lot longer to make. However, schools have a lot more control over the design, what is included, etc. They are often only recommended for schools with huge budgets that really need to drive admissions (normally fee-paying schools).

The Benefits of Pre-Designed School Website Templates

Faster Website Launch Times

School website templates are ‘ready-made’. Use a school website template and you can be online in a matter of days. Custom-designed website? It could take months.

Since schools need a website, a template is the best route to go down when working to a tight deadline.

More Cost-Effective Than Custom Development

School website templates are more affordable. Considerably so, in fact. For a school website template, where the cost is effectively shared across multiple schools, you’re paying just a fraction of what a custom-designed site would cost.

The fees for keeping the website up and running are much more predictable too. Many of the companies operating school website templates have a predictable subscription model. A custom-designed template? It is made just for your school, and it would require incredibly large costs to keep it running effectively, and these costs can be very unpredictable.

Designed Around School Website Best Practices

School website templates have been designed specifically for schools. This means that they include the features and information school websites need to have. The developers of these templates, including companies like ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½, regularly work with their users to ensure that the user experience remains ‘top notch’. A school website template isn’t set in stone. It constantly evolves to the needs of the school and the users.

Easier to Manage for School Staff

School website templates often boast features that make them easier to use. This includes sophisticated back-end systems that allow staff, even those without technical experience, to update the website. This saves time and money.

One of the most popular content management systems (CMS) is ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½, which offers a school website template that is easy to use for everybody. Even those who have never updated a website before will instinctively know how to keep the platform updated, with little to no training.

Custom-designed sites are not like this. Developing a back-end that is easy to use for staff is tremendously expensive.

Supports Ofsted and DfE Website Compliance

If you’re in the United Kingdom, a good template will meet legal requirements. This means that the site will be in compliance with any rules put in place by Ofsted or DfE. The template producer will also regularly check compliance requirements and ensure that their templates consistently meet them. This means schools using templates never need to worry about falling foul of the law.

Mobile-Friendly by Default

Most people aren’t using computers to browse the internet nowadays, they’re using their mobile devices. This is why you need a quality school website template that works with mobile devices ‘by default’. A pre-designed school website template offers that. A good template, like those offered by ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½, will work just as well on mobile devices as it does on desktop computers, ensuring no website user feels alienated.

Accessibility Features Built In

School websites need to be accessible to everybody. This is why many good school website templates have accessibility features built-in. This includes changing text size, colours, and ensuring that images have alternative text for those who may not necessarily be able to see the image. This comes as default. No need for extra development or effort.

Professional Design Without the Complexity

Website templates offer professional design, without any complexity. A well-designed template will ensure consistent branding across your website. This boosts the image of your school. A good template will also offer regular design updates too, ensuring that your website is always modern and ‘with the times’

Scalability for Future Growth

Over time, your school will grow, as will your need to include extra content. A good template will allow your website to grow with your school’s needs. It becomes easy to add new pages to the website, features, and more. No effort required!

Why Many Schools Choose Pre-Designed Website Templates

Schools are opting for pre-designed website templates because they don’t need anything else. Templates offer all their school needs, without the cost. Templates are also much more customisable than ever before so, even if a school purchases something ‘off the shelf’, they get something completely unique to their school.

The Benefits of Pre-Designed School Website Templates

School website templates are the way to go if you want to get a website up and running quickly, without the costs of a bespoke design. Explore our school website templates of get in touch for a bespoke school website design.

The post The Benefits of Pre-Designed School Website Templates appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

Despite modern, school-specific CMS platforms blurring the line between template and custom sites, choosing one or the other is essential for a seamless, desirable experience for you and your users.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on your priorities, resources, and long-term plans. However, the following sections aim to provide guidance to make the decision as stress-free as possible.

What Is a Bespoke School Website?

A bespoke school website is custom designed for your specific purposes. Everything from appearance to functionality to features are designed from scratch by utilising high-level design services and custom web development to craft a truly unique site. Consider it the digital version of a tailor-made suit.

How Bespoke School Websites Work

Thanks to their completely customised nature, bespoke school websites offer utmost control over the design, its features, and uses. You’ll work with a team of professionals to create it, which usually follows this process:

1. Analysis and specification — You’ll tell the designers what you want, including your goals for the website.
2. Initial design — You’ll receive an initial design for you to provide feedback.
3. Changes — The designers will take your feedback and make changes until you’re happy.
4. Build and testing — After signing off the design, the professionals will create your bespoke website, running it through many tests to ensure it’s working wonders from day one.
5. Launch — Finally, the project manager will send you a preview. As soon as you say “launch,” they’ll make it live for students, parents, and the wider community to see and use.

Benefits of Bespoke School Websites

Such websites afford you:

• Fully unique branding
• Utmost design freedom
• Tailored user journeys
• Custom functionalities

Who Bespoke School Websites Are Best For

Generally speaking, bespoke school websites prove best for large MATs, schools with internal marketing teams, those desiring exceptionally unique branding, and academic institutions with advanced functional requirements.

What Is a School Website Template?

A school website template is a professionally designed, pre-built website that’s available for anybody to purchase. You can choose from a set of purpose-built templates, change the colour palette, add logos, and content, making the barrier to entry much lower.

How School Website Templates Work

Off-the-shelf school websites come with already set up content management systems, so you can customise the content, launch, and manage your website with ease. This plug-and-play nature ensures you get up and running quickly, no matter how small your budget or web use experience.

Benefits of Template School Websites

The benefits of template school websites are plentiful, including but not limited to:

• Significantly faster launch times
• Much lower upfront costs
• Professionally designed layouts
• Stress-free content management
• Built-in compliance and accessibility
• Reliable updates and support
• Consistent performance across all devices

Who Template School Websites Are Best For

Due to the simplicity of template school sites, they are best for the majority of academic institutions, such as:

• Primary schools
• Small to medium schools
• Those wanting ease
• Schools without dedicated marketing or technical support teams
• MATs desiring consistency across numerous schools

Modern School Website Templates Are More Flexible Than Ever

As previously mentioned, modern content management systems are blurring the lines between “template” and “bespoke” like never before. CMS platforms like ours, ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ CMS, allow incredible uniqueness, even while using a professionally designed template.

Not only can you customise the colours, branding, layouts, and content, but you can also add bespoke functionality where it’s truly necessary, saving money by eradicating forced customisation in non-essential areas.

Beyond this, it ensures consistency and usability for each user, both at the back end and on the main website, ensuring ease and seamlessness for everyone — staff, parents, and students.

Additionally, scalability is simpler. Whether you require more user profiles, extra content streams, or more functions, you can do it stress-free with plugins and advice from our qualified staff.

Bespoke VS Template School Websites: Key Differences

By now, you’ve likely made your choice, but for clarity and assuredness of your decision, understanding the key differences beyond everything already mentioned is crucial to putting your effort (and budget) into the right place.

Design Flexibility

As its name suggests, bespoke school websites provide limitless design flexibility. Without a template in your way, you can let your imagination run wild.

In contrast, off-the-shelf school websites run with a template, potentially limiting the design flexibility. Although, various plugins exist to counteract this potential downside.

Branding and School Identity

Bespoke sites are designed exclusively for your school identity. You dictate the entire user journey, such as how parents/students/staff receive and/or find information. Templates, however, work off a pre-existing layout; you don’t have full control over the navigation or journey.

Ease of Use for School Staff

Template school websites are the easiest to use for school staff, particularly for those who don’t have technical backgrounds or experience. They provide everything you need in an easy-to-understand format, ensuring simplicity for everyone.

Bespoke options are trickier to navigate, requiring professionals to manage the back end to guarantee optimal functioning.

Website Management and Updates

While professional web developers offer management, updates, and support before, during, and after launch, it isn’t something many school administration teams can keep up with. For most institutions, template school websites are more agreeable, as the CMS platform behind the site automatically manages content and performs updates to ensure security.

Accessibility and Compliance

Today’s templates are much better at accessibility and compliance than they used to be, especially when working with a school-focused platform. However, many generic website templates require retrofitting to meet such standards.

Since bespoke websites are built from scratch, developers add the necessary code to guarantee compliance and meet accessibility guidelines as they go.

Performance and Mobile Experience

Bespoke websites outperform templates in mobile performance and speed, due to the existence of only necessary code. Templates can have a lot of “fluff,” increasing load time.

That said, both bespoke and template school websites perform admirably and can respond based on the screen size of the user’s device.

SEO and Visibility

Modern template platforms offer tips and tricks to improve online visibility and SEO (search engine optimisation), making it easy to create content and structure your site for the best results.

Bespoke websites are harder to set up correctly, requiring professional management to ensure your site ranks in search results.

Scalability for MATs

Depending on the platform behind your template, the scaling necessary for MATs can leave a lot of bloat behind, causing long load times. While duplicating is easy, the backend management may feel messy.

With bespoke websites, MATs can easily scale, thanks to their custom structure and foundation that allows for integration of new academies and integration of centralised operations.

Development Time

Template school websites are extremely quick to develop, as the fundamentals are already in place. It’s just a case of customising! Bespoke websites, however, take at least four weeks — if not months — to develop.

Which School Website Option Is Best for Your School?

Both bespoke and template school websites have their place in the field. However, choosing the right one for you means careful consideration of your budget, resources, and outcomes. Unless you’re a MAT, have a dedicated marketing/technical, or desire exceptionally customized branding, school website templates are likely the best course of action, thanks to their lower upfront costs, ease of use, and ability to “plug and play.”

You’ve already found the perfect place to get it — now it’s up to you to select your template and get more eyes on your school!

The post Bespoke School Website vs Template: Which Is Right For Your School? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

Schools across the UK are reviewing how pupil imagery is used on websites and social media following increasing concerns around AI-generated misuse of children’s photographs. , ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ has developed a professionally curated AI Image Bank designed specifically for schools.

Our AI-generated imagery gives schools access to high-quality, education-focused visuals without the need to use identifiable pupil photographs online.

Whether you are refreshing your website, updating prospectus content, or reducing reliance on pupil-led photography, our image library provides a safe, modern and compliant alternative.

Why schools are making the change…

Recent reports have highlighted growing concerns around criminals using publicly available school photographs to create manipulated AI imagery and carry out online extortion attempts. UK safeguarding bodies and experts are now advising schools to carefully review the use of identifiable pupil images online. Schools are increasingly looking for ways to:

• Reduce safeguarding risks associated with online imagery
• Limit the use of identifiable pupil photographs
• Maintain an engaging and professional website presence
• Support GDPR and digital safeguarding best practice
• Protect children’s digital identity and privacy

What’s included…

The ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ AI Image Bank includes:

• Hundreds of professionally created AI-generated school images
• Age-appropriate and education-focused visuals
• Images suitable for websites, news articles, banners and prospectuses
• Regularly updated content library
• Easy access for your school website team
• Imagery covering classroom activities, sports, STEM, arts, early years and more

Designed specifically for schools…

Unlike generic stock photography, our AI Image Bank has been created with schools in mind. The imagery reflects authentic educational environments while helping schools avoid the risks associated with publishing real pupil photographs online. This allows schools to continue celebrating learning, achievement and school life in a safe and responsible way.

Get access to our AI image bank:
£95 excl vat

*Available to all ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ customers.
*Our AI Image bank is an additional cost.
*Must have an active ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ website subscription.
*This is an additional annual cost alongside your ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ website package

The post AI Imagery in Schools – A safer way to showcase school life online appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

What is a School CMS?

Your school CMS is the platform that your school website is built upon. We won’t get too technical here, but you can think of the school CMS as consisting of two components:

• The front-end: this is the actual website. The part your site visitors see.
• The back-end: this is where the actual ‘content’ is managed. Depending on the CMS, you can add new pages to a website, add calendars/events, etc.

Basically, the idea of a CMS makes it a whole lot easier to manage your school’s website. A well-designed CMS will be almost as simple to use as a word processor. Anybody can do it.

Why Choosing the Right CMS Matters for Schools

It is essential that the right CMS is chosen for a school. This is because not only should the CMS be easy to use for everybody that is updating the site, but there are school-specific features that will make sharing content or delivering accessibility much easier.

Choose the wrong CMS, and updating the site becomes harder, and it becomes a lot more difficult to ensure that the right content is shared with people. In fact, you may be jumping through hoops to do something that should be very simple.

Essential School CMS Features

In this section, we’ll go through the features that we believe a quality school CMS should have.

Easy to Use

We assume that not everybody tasked with updating school content will be well-versed in computers, or anything too technical. So, things need to be simple to do. Designing pages should be drag & drop i.e. dropping various page elements into place, including images.

Adding new pages should be a breeze and, as we said before, no more difficult than using something like Microsoft Word.

Parent Communication Tools

Most parents will be using your website for updated information. So, there should be a way to send push notifications to mobile devices if any important news is shared. Parents should also be able to sign up to newsletters (or view them online) to always have access to the most up-to-date information on the school.

Compliance & Ofsted Support

Schools have legal obligations from DfE and Ofsted. Part of these obligations are ensuring that the right pages and information is included on a website. A decent school CMS will ensure that Ofsted and DfE required information is included. It will also provide alerts if things need to change.

This will ensure that your school’s website is always legally compliant.

Accessibility Features

School websites should be accessible to as many people as possible. Therefore, a good school CMS will have features such auto-translation for content, and the ability to control the size of the front. This ensures people can read the content.

In an ideal world, images should also have alternative text to them, which will enable screen readers to ‘read’ image content to those with limited vision.

Trust/MAT Management Tools

If your school is part of a trust or a MAT, then things become a lot easier when you have a centralised CMS. A good school CMS will have a central dashboard, which will allow multiple sites to be updated at once.

The school CMS should also work to avoid the duplication of content across the trust/MAT, and ensure that all the correct pages are included where they should be. Remember, a MAT has way more legal obligations in terms of site content than a typical school.

Integrations

The CMS should make things easier for people. For example, there should be the ability to sync up calendars with various systems e.g. Google Calendar.

If your school is using MyNewTerm to recruit for positions, then MyNewTerm integration is a must, as it means recruitment can be shared directly through your website with no need to create and update specific pages.

Engagement Features (Social Feeds, House Points, Pop-Ups)

A school CMS should promote engagement. Give people a reason to keep visiting. This may include:

• Showing a feed of current school news and important information.
• Social media posts e.g. Instagram.
• Showcase current house points (if your school uses that), or student achievements.
• Banners that promote events, or share notices and reminders.

In some cases, you may even want to allow parents to comment on certain posts. However, make sure that you use proper moderation here.

Design & UX (Mobile Optimisation, Themes, Video Banners)

A school website should look just as good on a mobile device as it should on a desktop computer. So, ensure that any CMS that you choose boasts proper mobile-optimisation.

In addition to this, the site should be easy to navigate, have selectable themes (so your school site does not look the same as every other school website).

Some schools also use video banners nowadays. Video banners have a very ‘modern’ feel to them, and can showcase some of the best parts of the school in a few seconds. Not to mention the fact that they’re very eye-catching.

Nice-to-Have vs Must-Have Features

Remember – there is a difference between ‘must-have’ features and ‘nice-to-have’ features.

The must-have features are those that are essential to running a school website. For example, easy-to-update pages, calendars, school policies, and accessibility features.

Nice-to-Have features, such as video banners or engagement features are ideal to have, but shouldn’t be your main focus. Basically, anything that is not essential to running a school website, but can make the school website ‘better’ when included can come under this header.

Why Choose ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½â€™s CMS?

ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ CMS is the leading school-focused content management system in the UK. Built from the ground-up with schools in mind, ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ includes features all schools need. This includes:

• Easy-to-Use
• Mobile optimisation
• Required school policies, plus Ofsted detection features, policy alerts.
• MAT compatibility
• Accessibility features
• Customisability
• AI integration

With ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½, you take the ‘guesswork’ out of creating a solid website for a British school. ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ ensures that your website is done properly, and can continue to grow over the years.

What Features Should A School CMS Have?

When building a school website, it is essential that you use a dedicated school content management system. A CMS should boast features that will ensure that your site works well for your school, including parent communication tools, required school policies, easy site management, and customisability.

Our ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ CMS was specifically designed for schools. Get in touch for a free demo’s or to learn about our school website design and marketing services.

The post What Features Should A School CMS Have? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

Here, we want to help you to not only discover what some of the most common website compliance mistakes are, but provide you with advice on how to fix them.

Common Website Compliance Mistakes

We’ll start by going through a list of some of the mistakes that most schools in the United Kingdom are making. We’ll then provide guidance on how these problems can be fixed.

Missing Statutory Information

Schools are legally required to include certain pieces of information on their website. This includes contact details, SEND policies, admissions information (and appeals process), the latest Ofsted report, safeguarding policies, the curriculum, and much more.

You probably won’t be surprised at how many schools fail to include this legally required information. Many don’t know they are not compliant until Ofsted inspect their websites. Part of the problem is the fact that the DfE and Ofsted are constantly changing requirements, and they are often not great at conveying the right information. Still, obligations rest on the school to ensure that everything is included.

Outdated or Incorrect Content

This is where most schools are failing. Many school websites have so much information that it is nigh on impossible to get it all updated in a timely manner, especially since there are many other school administrative tasks that need to be tackled.

Common issues include outdated policies, term dates, staff lists, etc. However, if things haven’t been checked for a while there is a good chance much of the site could be ‘out of date’.

Poor Website Structure and Navigation

School websites should be easy to navigate. The problem is that many of them are not. There are two reasons for this.

The main is that there isn’t really any sort of structure to the site. Links that you think would take you somewhere toward the information you need simply don’t. Other information may be hidden in the most unexpected of places. Probably because many older school websites have grown up organically, and staff aren’t really thinking about the website’s navigation when they add more and more pages to the site.

There may also be navigational issues where it is tough to find the information a person actually wants. There may also be dead links that will have you darting around a website trying to find some information.

Accessibility Issues

School websites should always strive to ensure that as many people as possible can browse their website. This means taking into account certain disabilities. For example, thinking about colour contrasts on the page, or ensuring that any images have ‘alternative’ text to them, which will ensure that those who suffer from sight issues can have the content read to them and know exactly what is going on.

Websites should also be accessible both on desktop computers and mobile devices, and the experience should be just as good on both. The problem is that many older school websites don’t even have that, despite mobile internet being around for a good while now.

Broken Links and Technical Errors

No broken links. Links should always be working, which ensures that browsers are not spending an age trying to hunt down the information that they need, or not finding the information at all and just leaving.

Technical errors (e.g. 404 errors, or anything thrown up by the content management system) not only impact the way that potential visitors see your site, but can also impact Google search rankings.

Non-Compliant Safeguarding Information

Schools legally need certain safeguarding policies on their site. These policies need to be written in the correct way. Many schools are not doing this, and this will be one of the first things brought up by Ofsted.

Lack of Clear Contact Information

It should be easy to contact the school. Address, names of certain staff members, phone number, and email. Simple.

Failure to Publish Financial and Ofsted Information

Some schools need to publish their financial records. All schools need to publish the latest Ofsted report.

How to Fix School Website Compliance Issues

To fix issues, you’ll need to identify where the issues are. This can be quite tricky. We, therefore, recommend doing a school website audit. This will identify compliance issues, and provide advice on how to fix those issues (step-by-step), ensuring that your website can be compliant.

How to Stay Compliant Long-Term

A school website that is compliant now may not necessarily be compliant a year or two down the line. Therefore, it is highly recommended that your school website is audited at least once per year. Ideally, there should also be an audit shortly before an Ofsted inspection. Regular audits will ensure that a website always remains compliant, even in the face of ever-changing Ofsted and DfE requirements.

Final Checklist: Is Your School Website Compliant

We’ve given you a list of some of the most common compliance mistakes on school websites. We highly recommend that you go through this list and try and spot problems on your website. Chances are, you’ll spot quite a few of them. That’s OK. While your school website may not be quite compliant right now, there is nothing to say that you can’t get it up to scratch quickly.

We suggest doing a school website audit, and using a school website provider that specialises in education. They’ll tell you exactly what needs to be done to ensure your website works.

The post 8 School Website Compliance Mistakes (And How To Fix Them) appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

Let’s discuss this in a bit more depth.

1. Ensures Compliance with DfE & Ofsted Requirements

Both the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted have stringent requirements about the information that needs to be included on a school website. For example, your website legally needs to have pages dedicated to certain policies, SEND, and school governance. The problem? These requirements regularly change, and these changes are not always communicated in the best possible way. Plus, with the amount of work you likely need to perform on school administrative tasks, those that are communicated can easily be missed.

Unfortunately, while Ofsted does understand that these requirements can get missed, it will still have an impact on Ofsted reports (or other random inspections), which can result in the school getting rated down in certain areas.

Regular audits from a third-party will ensure that your website can stay up to date with the various requirements.

2. Identifies Hidden Gaps You Didn’t Know Existed

Many schools, incorrectly, assume that their website works fine. They believe if they don’t updated (which is a problem in itself), nothing can break on the website. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

A website that isn’t regularly updated can have:

• Missing documents e.g. if there are links to school timetables, policies, etc.
• Broken links.
• Outdated information

A lot of the time schools don’t even know that these issues exist. They assume everything is OK. There are some schools that run automated tools to try and check for these errors. The problem is that these tools don’t catch everything and, in some cases, they miss the context of certain information and can highlight errors when there aren’t any.

Human auditors, if they are experienced, will catch issues no other person or piece of software will.

3. Saves Time for Busy School Staff

Carrying out a proper school website audit takes a huge amount of time. Time that schools often cannot spare. Most schools cannot have their administrative staff spending hours cross-referencing documents to ensure their website is legally compliant. Not to mention that some of the guidance documents are a bit vague and can often have staff members guessing what they should do.

Putting it in the hands of an experienced school website will ensure that everything is done ‘by the books’. There will be no guesswork. The information on the website will be accurate as per the letter of the law, and the website will just work.

4. Improves Website Structure & Usability

The job of an auditor is not only do ensure that a website is compliant, but it is usable.

Many school websites are exceedingly tough to browse. The information may be there, but it may be hidden under layers of different links, and can be tricky to find. This isn’t good for inspectors or parents. The information needs to visible.

An auditor can give guidance on providing a better structure for the content of a website. Follow their advice, and your website offers much more clarity for those visiting.

5. Gives You a Clear Action Plan (Not Just Problems)

An auditor doesn’t just provide your school with a list of problems on your school’s website, they provide you with much-needed advice on how those problems can be solved. A good auditor will provide a checklist of problems, and solutions for fixing them.

A good auditor will also highlight which fixes should be a priority on your website, and which ones can be left a little (although, all problems should be fixed as soon as practical). A good auditor will also provide step-by-step improvements for the school’s website, making it easier to keep everything up to date, even if you have little experience with the changes that need to be made.

When Should You Get a School Website Audit?

At the absolute minimum, a website should be reviewed every year. In most cases, legal requirements will have changed during that period and data needs to be updated. In other cases, information about the school will also need to be updated in that period. So, an audit should happen. It ensures no problems are missed before you head into the new school year.

We also highly recommend that a website is audited before an Ofsted inspection. This will ensure that when Ofsted browses your website, and they will, they won’t find any issues.

If you have your website redesigned, have an audit carried out. This will ensure information is up-to-date, and any dead links are handled.

Finally, if you know DfE or Ofsted requirements are changing, get the website fixed.

What Makes a Good School Website Audit?

A school website should be human-led. No automation. Automation rarely catches all issues. In fact, in many cases, automation will throw up false positives. This means you may be spending time making corrections that don’t need to be made.

The auditor should always consider the latest DfE and Ofsted guidance, to ensure that the website meets requirements. So, an audit should only ever be carried out by an auditor experienced with schools in the UK.

Finally, an audit will not just highlight issues, but give clear, actionable recommendations about how they should be fixed.

5 Benefits of A School Website Audit

A school website audit will ensure that the site is compliant with the law, will save school staff time updating things, and ensure that everything is clear for both inspectors and parents. Having a proper audit carried out will remove uncertainty about whether your school website is fit for purpose.

Get in touch today to find out more about our audits for schools websites today.

The post 5 Benefits Of A School Website Audit appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

This is a guide to choosing the right school web design company.

Start With Your School’s Objectives

Before you can start reaching out to potential web developers, you should have a solid idea about what you want from your website. It helps your web designer:

• Compliance: many schools consider getting their websites re-designed because they are not compliant with DfE or Ofsted requirements i.e. missing key information, or it is too hidden.
• Admissions growth: a site re-design can help to boost admissions. This can mean including more updated information, or driving people towards admission inquiries a little better.
• Parental communication: making it easier to share important information with parents, or making it easier for parents to reach out.
• MAT consistency: important for schools part of a MAT. All schools in the MAT should have similar branding.
• Accessibility requirements (WCAG 2.1): making it easier for everybody to access a website, including those with disabilities.
• Budget constraints: have an idea of how much you are willing to spend on your website. We know this can be tough, since schools now have very limited budgets.

You don’t need to have a firm grasp of what you want with the website yet, but a solid idea will really help make things easier for you.

Make Sure They Specialise in School Websites

Any web developer you work with should have experience with school websites. This is because this type of website is completely different from any other site.

Education-specific experience means the designer understands what schools require. This includes:

• Knowledge about Ofsted statuatory requirements, ensuring the right information is included on the website.
• Knowledge of the UK education sector. This means sharing information that parents need, legal requirements, and driving admissions to schools.
• Safeguarding awareness: this includes the protection of parent/student data, and able to put together pages that showcase safeguarding policies.
• MAT structures: many schools are now part of a MAT. These websites need to be designed in very specific ways, and an experienced web designer will have knowledge of how to accomplish this.

If you work with a web designer that has zero experience with UK school website design, then chances are you’ll need to pay have the website changed later on down the line.

Check Compliance Expertise

Schools need to mitigate risk wherever possible. Therefore, you are within your rights to check the experience that a web developer has with school compliant laws and regulations. So, feel free to ask your potential web developer about the following:

• What the current Ofsted school website requirements are i.e. which information needs to be included on a website, and where it needs to be included. If you are having websites for a MAT designed, then ask them about their knowledge when it comes to the difference between the overarching MAT website and the individual schools.
• Their knowledge of DfE statutory content i.e. the content that legally needs to be included on your website.
• Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA). While it is not a legal requirement to conform to WCAG 2.1 AA rules, it helps. Your website should be accessible to everybody, and a good web designer will know how to develop for those who have disabilities such as blindness, motor conditions, etc.
• GDPR & data protection: protecting data is a legal requirement. Talk to your web developer about how they will stay GDPR compliant, and help protect the data of everybody on your website.
• Cookie compliance: there are more laws than ever surrounding cookie compliance, particularly in the United Kingdom. Your web developer needs to understand these rules.

It will help if you have a semi-decent understanding of all these requirements beforehand. It makes it easier to discuss how the developer can help.

Review Their CMS (Content Management System)

Your website will likely be built upon a ready-made content management system (CMS), since it is unlikely a school’s budget will be able to stretch to a custom-made CMS. Still, a good web developer will tailor the system to suit your school. It is important that consider a few things when talking to the developer:

• How easy is the website to update for staff? As simple as possible is important. If pages can be updated in a way that is very similar to using a word processor, then that is a double bonus.
• What pages can be included with the CMS? A school, at the minimum should have pages for news, events, policies, calendar, and staff pages.
• Can different roles be assigned to users of the site? This ensures people do not have access to parts of the system they shouldn’t have. This will help to protect data, and mistakes when updating pages.
• Training: this is important. At least a couple of people will need to know how to keep the website up to date. You don’t want to be contacting the web developer every time a page needs to be added or updated. All good developers will offer some training.
• Support: will there be continual support for the site i.e. in terms of software updates, bug fixes, etc. If yes (and there should be) fine out how long this lasts, and whether there are any additional fees.

Evaluate Design Quality & User Experience

A reputable web developer will allow you to see past projects they’ve completed. Do this. Check out the quality of design for their past projects (make sure they are school-specific). Put yourselves in the shoes of parents and staff members, and think about the overall user experience. Is it good? What issues are there? Only by seeing past projects will you start to understand whether a developer is good at their job.

If the developer has testimonials, ask for them.

Ask About Hosting, Security, and Support

Your website needs to be hosted online. Talk to your web developer about whether you’ll need to find a web host, or whether they can help you with that. Some developers will have their own hosting services they can provide you with (for a fee).

Chat to the developer about site security (i.e. what safety measures are in place to protect your school’s platform). You should also ask what happens should you encounter any issues with the platform. This means discovering whether the developer has a support system in place.

Good developers will be 100% transparent about all of this.

Understand Pricing & Contracts

Unfortunately, school budgets are tighter and tighter. This means that you need to be crystal-clear about the financing your web development project. This means:

• Ensure the developer is transparent about their pricing. Make sure there are no hidden fees. What they quote at the start should be what you pay.
• Learn about whether there are any set-up fees, and whether there will be on-going costs for the site e.g. hosting, support, etc.
• Contract length: if the developer will be providing support and updates for your site, learn how long this will go on for.
• If the developer is purchasing a domain name for you, be 100% certain about who owns that domain name. It should be your school.

Ask the Right Questions Before You Decide

A good web developer will not be afraid of any questions you have. Consider what we’ve mentioned on this page already, and make sure that you ask questions before you make a final decision. You need to be certain you’re working with the right web developer, after all.

Red Flags to Watch Out For

Here are a few red flags to keep an eye out for. If the developer has any of these red flags, don’t work with them:

• No education-specific experience: we have covered this before, but a school website is completely different from any other type of website. Certain requirements need to be in place. If a developer has no experience with education, skip them.
• No mention of compliance: Both the DfE and Ofsted have compliance requirements in place. If a developer doesn’t mention they’ll be compliant, they probably won’t.
• No training: a good developer will ensure that you have solid knowledge about how to use your new platform.
• No ongoing support: sites need updating, bugs fixed, etc.
• Long, restrictive contracts

Why Choose ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ for Your Schools Website

ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ has spent over 20 years building websites for over 3000 schools. Not only is ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ a school website design platform but also a CMS  and hosting service designed specifically to meet the needs of schools.

ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ includes software modules that help educators with creating school surveys, organising parents’ evenings and improving pupils’ spelling.

We also ensure that schools are fully complaint and information is easily accessible to parents and inspectors.

How To Choose a Long-Term Partner School Website

Invest the time in finding a good developer to work with. If you can find the right school website developer, you’ll be working with them for years to come. Reach out to us here at ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ to see how we can help.

The post How To Choose A School Website Design Company appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.

Why Your School Website Matters More Than Ever

Chances are the vast majority of people are discovering your school via your website. Give them the wrong impression? They’ll jump right off it. No admission application. Nothing. You’ve lost a potential student.

Current students? They’ll probably go to your website for useful information. If it isn’t there, they’ll get frustrated. Might even need to contact the school, taking up valuable administrative resources. In fact, in this day and age, it is essential that all important information should be on your website, and it should be easy to find. This is because it will be the first port of call for everybody.

Signs Your School Website is Outdated

If your school website hasn’t been updated in a while, it will often be immediately obvious it needs to be freshened up. In other cases, there will be a few key ‘red flags’ that indicate that it might just be time. Let’s look at them.

It’s Not Mobile-Friendly

Most of your site visitors will be visiting on their mobile device. If the site doesn’t look great on mobile devices, they’ll bounce off. Not to mention the fact that search engines like Google are highly reluctant to rank websites that aren’t mobile friendly anywhere near the top of their searches, meaning you’ll get fewer visitors overall.

The Design Looks Dated

Your website should look sleek and modern. Not like those older school websites that have weird images, colours, and a design that looks like it has been cobbled together on a limited budget.

Navigation is Confusing

People should easily be able to find what they want on a website in no more than a couple of clicks. If navigating around your school website is a hassle, then it needs updating.

It’s Difficult for Staff to Update

Most older school websites don’t get updated simply because it is too hard to do so. Many older websites require some serious technical knowledge to add pages, or even update a page. If it isn’t easy to add new content to your website, it needs updating.

Compliance Warning Signs

Some school websites need updating because they are missing key information that makes them compliant with the law.

Missing Statutory Information

Ofsted, and other government departments, require certain information to be included on a school website. If this information is missing, then the school would be seen as non-compliant and would be marked down on any reports. It could lead to potential sanctions.

Accessibility Issues (WCAG 2.1)

A school website should be accessible to everybody. WCAG 2.1 is a standard put in place (not a legal standard, but should be implemented anyway) that helps to ensure a website is more accessible to those who may suffer from disabilities. This ensures making content is simple to understand, navigate through, and images have alternative text so people can understand what is being displayed. The key is to ensure that your website is as accessible as possible.

Outdated Policies or Documents

School policies should be updated regularly. This especially includes admissions information, privacy policies, etc. If it isn’t, then the website needs to be updated quickly. Any outdated information on a website is putting your school in a bad light.

Performance & Technical Red Flags

It isn’t just the website’s content that could indicate your site needs to be updated. There are a few performance and technical red flags that could indicate things need to be smoothed out a bit.

Slow Loading Speeds

You’ll be surprised at how little people will hang around for a website to load up. If things take more than a couple of seconds, they are hitting the back button in their web browser. Your site needs to load quickly.

Security Concerns

Website not behind a secure server? Unsecured pages where passwords, etc. need to be updated? Getting a lot of spam through submission forms on your website? Security needs to be tightened up. Get your website updated.

Hosting or Downtime Issues

Website going down more often than you want? Throwing up regular hours? It may be time to not only move your website somewhere better, but upgrade it at the same time.

Communication & Engagement Issues

Finally, your site should be a communication point for people. Not just those currently associated with the school, but those considering it. Any warning signs here could indicate problems.

Low Parent Engagement

Parents should want to use your website to seek out information. If they aren’t engaging in the way you want, then you’ve got a problem. You might notice them calling the school more often, or being reluctant to send information through your site.

Poor Admissions Enquiries

Admission enquiries gone down? While this may not always be a problem with your website, there may be issues there. It is worth having an audit carried out on your website to see what could be changed to boost admissions.

Inconsistent MAT Branding

If your school is part of a MAT, then there should be consistent branding across the schools (and little document duplication).

When a Refresh is Enough vs When a Full Redesign is Needed

A refresh will often be enough if your website has just a couple of minor issues that can be quickly ironed out. However, if your website hasn’t been updated in a few years and has more than a few of the major red flags that we mentioned on this page, it is essential that you get your site fully redesigned to help future-proof it.

How Often Should Schools Redesign Their Website

At least once a year, minor changes should be made to the website to ensure it stays compliant. However, if it has been more than 3-5 years since a full site redesign, then it might be time to shake things up a little bit. It may also be worth getting your site updated if you have a looming Ofsted inspection.

Choosing the Right School Website Provider

School website design is a very specialist area of web design, since so many things need to be included. Not only from a legal point of view, but in a way that encourages more admission enquiries, parent support, etc. So, always use a specialist school website provider. ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ is one of the leading providers in the United Kingdom.

Don’t Wait for an Ofsted Trigger

Don’t wait for Ofsted to tell you your website needs updating. Get it updated now. A well-designed website will boost school admissions, increase parent confidence in the school, and make running the administrative side of things a whole lot easier. Reach out to ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½ today to see how they can help re-design your school site today.

The post School Website Redesign: When Is It Time? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog´«Ã½.