Uses 
School Websites - CONTENT & OWNERSHIP
1. Content
What do you want to say on your site ?
The content of your site will say a lot about you and your school, about its ethos and it will also convey an image of school just like your printed prospectus and the building & grounds do.
The content of your site will say a lot about you and your school, about its ethos and it will also convey an image of school just like your printed prospectus and the building & grounds do.
Like any good press release you should cover – the Who, What, When, Where and Whys of your school. It can answer basic questions about the school for both prospective and current parents.
As a basic communication tool we suggest the following areas:
As a basic communication tool we suggest the following areas:
The Home page can set out the school logo or badge, a brief statement about the type of school and the age group you cater for. Use any awards the school has e.g. Healthy School, Eco- School or Investors in People etc. It should include the links to the navigation structure for the site , the contact details and a link to a map showing the location of the school ( Google maps for instance )
A School Calendar is essential: including Term dates / school events / staff training days / PTA activity and meetings , parent evenings and Governing Body meetings. Its possible to use a calendar application such as Google Calendar .
A Prospectus and other school documents in pdf format for download - It is sensible and time saving to provide various school policies on the website.
e.g. school uniform, home school agreement, complaints procedure, home to school transport plan etc.
Contact Details
for the school office and Head teacher, the PTA , the Governing Body and various specialist staff e.g SEN Co-ordinator. Its good practice to use full postal address and telephone number(s) Don't publish the email unless you check it regularly and wish to use this as a communication medium !
Links to external sites with relevant information you do not need to reproduce. ( a third party linking policy here is a good idea so you do not take responsiblity for errors on someone else's site ) e.g. School’s latest Ofsted report on the Ofsted website, the DCSF Primary and DFE Secondary - Dept Children, Schools & Families standards site for school attainment ( performance ) tables for your school. Kent Local authority schools pages
Features agreed by different parts of the school might figure too ,or seasonal activities depending on the resources you have available for publishing regularly.
Features agreed by different parts of the school might figure too ,or seasonal activities depending on the resources you have available for publishing regularly.
Clearly a school web site can be much more and that moves us more towards a different type of site and the extra programming and investment you will need. See Kent Learning Zone and Learning Platforms
2. Ownership ?
The people technical enough to manage a web site are not always the best at writing the content. Which is why we suggest you have a team and regular editorial meetings scheduled so the content does not get stale and the pages are seen to change regularly.
Authority & agreed guidelines: What is said on the site needs to be agreed and approved of by senior staff and if it is delegated to others then some guidelines and principles need to be agreed to ensure responsibility, consistency & quality. Like every letter leaving the School office a web page should have the authority, the appropriate headings, the contact details and be seen as a formal "publication" from school. Which it is ! as it is published to the world wide web and has potentially a far greater audience than local students and their parents.
The Style and content of the site needs to be a consistent "voice" but not rest with single member of staff or one parent. This becomes an issue - when member of staff, the parent or those responsible for the web site move on.
Lifecycle and maintenance : What is uploaded should have a designated lifetime and the maintenance of pages be seen as a lifecycle. Taking out of date pages down is as crucial as putting them up in the first place.
See our other pages
AUDIENCE Who is it aimed at ?
RESOURCES Where you can find the materials to help you plan and execute a web site ?
Here is our schoolwebsites.pdf to begin a discussion in school.
The CFE communication Team can give initial advice to schools wanting to set up a site.