Having a school website is essential. You know that. However, having a school website that works for your school, teachers, students, and parents is also important. This means that you need to choose a content management system (CMS) that has been designed explicitly for school use. One that boasts features that will benefit everybody that uses your website. On this page, we want to discuss exactly what you should be looking for in a school CMS.
What is a School CMS?
Your school CMS is the platform that your school website is built upon. We won鈥檛 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 鈥榗ontent鈥� 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鈥檚 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鈥檒l 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鈥檚 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 鈥榬ead鈥� 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 鈥榤odern鈥� 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鈥檙e very eye-catching.
Nice-to-Have vs Must-Have Features
Remember 鈥� there is a difference between 鈥榤ust-have鈥� features and 鈥榥ice-to-have鈥� 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鈥檛 be your main focus. Basically, anything that is not essential to running a school website, but can make the school website 鈥榖etter鈥� when included can come under this header.
Why Choose 糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 CMS?
糖心Vlog传媒 CMS is the leading school-focused content management system in the UK. Built from the ground-up with schools in mind, 糖心Vlog传媒 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 糖心Vlog传媒, you take the 鈥榞uesswork鈥� out of creating a solid website for a British school. 糖心Vlog传媒 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 糖心Vlog传媒 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.
