Most school heads will say that after great teaching, effective communication is one of the key areas they are always looking to improve. It’s not only important to impress official bodies like Ofsted but is critical for creating better engagement with stakeholders such as parents.
How you get your message out there and make your school stand out from the crowd has never been more important.
One area where this can be achieved, of course, is with a really good website. Online is usually the first place people check when they want to find out something about you. Parents, of course, will use it to access important information. But there are a lot more options you can include and plenty that a carefully crafted school website can do for engagement and your local standing.
School websites are sometimes left to stagnate. They get an initial revamp and then sit online, essentially gathering the equivalent of digital dust. Extra pages are sometimes added along with more information but this is done in an ad hoc way that, after a short while, tends to make the site more difficult to navigate.
Web design technology is always evolving. It now enables schools to create stunning online ‘storefronts’ that improve engagement and accessibility for groups such as parents. Not updating your site can leave your school lagging behind the competition in your local area. A large number of school websites are still not designed to be viewed on mobile technology such as smartphones. This has happened despite the fact that many of us nowadays access all sorts of information on these devices.
School websites can begin to look outdated after just a few years and a refresh is a great way to improve usability as well stand out from the crowd. Issues such as SEO or search engine optimisation have changed in recent times and become more sophisticated – essentially, what worked a few years ago may not be working so well now.
A great website should be a central part of the school’s communication strategy. It needs to be easy to use, engaging enough to attract regular visits from parents and pupils alike, should have up to date information and should also download quickly.
Does Your Website Need a Review?
If your school website is more than three years old, then it’s probably high time for a review. At Parent Apps, we can take a look at your current website and see if it’s performing as well as it should. We’ll ask questions such as:
- Can parents use it easily?
- Does it have all the information that you need, readily available?
- Do assets like images and other larger files download quickly?
- Does your website look just as good on a smartphone as it does on a laptop or desktop pc?
- Are you making most of your website as an effective communication tool?
If you’d like to find out how the team at Parent Apps can give your school website a cutting edge refresh, or even build a whole new site, contact us today to find out more.