Every school head knows that their website is important. Not only does it allow easy communication with parents, staff and pupils, it also offers an opportunity to tell the world about their achievements and successes.
School websites are routinely checked by Ofsted before a visit. Making sure, for example, that important documents are easy to access and contact details are available is vital. Regularly reviewing what you have on your website should be built into your school processes and you should be looking to update as soon as possible if needed.
Here’s a quick checklist for what should be included on your website:
Essential Information
- School contact details: These aren’t just the name and address of the school but contact details of individuals that parents can call if they need to.
- The school vision: All schools have an ethos or vision of what they want to achieve or what they are about. This needs to be clearly stated on your site.
- Admissions Information: You should have easy to follow details on how parents can apply to the school and what the selection criteria are.
- School policies: There may be a number of documents that outline areas such as pupil exclusion, dress code, behaviour code as well as child protection policies which should be placed on your site and are easy to access.
- Ofsted reports: There should be a section on the website where parents are able to access your reports.
- Performance tables: Exam and key stage results are an indication of how well the school is performing and should be clearly ordered and presented in a way that parents can understand.
- Curriculums: The website should also include details of what is being taught at the school in each year and across subjects.
- Pupil premium: There should be a section dedicated to pupil premium and year 7 catch up including how the funding is spent and the results.
- Equality and accessibility: There will be a number of different documents and information that need to be provided concerning special educational needs and disabilities including accessibility plans.
Other information that is essential on a school website:
- Equality objectives.
- Complaints procedures.
- Information about governors.
- Annual reports and accounts.
Highly Desirable
Schools also need to add value with their website and while the following list isn’t considered ‘essential’, they are very desirable in the eyes of Ofsted. These include:
- A map showing parking and location.
- News feeds for social media such as Twitter.
- Additional information such as uniform lists and lunch menu details.
- Links to educational and support resources for students and parents.
- An events calendar.
- Information about the Parent Teachers Association and parent forums.
- Details of after-school clubs.
It can be difficult to maintain any school website and ensure that it remains up to date all the time. The trouble is that information can quickly become outdated so schools need a strong process in place to make sure that everything is current.
The good news is that Parentapps now offer a full school website review. That means you can quickly discover whether you are Ofsted compliant and what improvements you can make to deliver a better site for parents and pupils.
Contact us today to find out more.