DW Tips

As a web design company, we specialise in several different sectors and styles and school websites, in particular, are one of our areas of expertise. 

A mistake that we see all too often is schools either not investing enough in their website or ignoring it completely. A website is now an essential component of a school's marketing strategy. Parents closely follow their child's class and school activities and from our experience, two of the most popular pages on a school website are the image gallery and newsletter page . And when researching their child's future schools, the first thing a parent will look for is a website. 

Once you understand why your school needs a website, you can start to focus on different factors. Here are four qualities proactive schools often demonstrate on their websites:

Professionalism

Your school's sense of professionalism should be on display from the very first time someone visits your website. 

That means everything must be working (no broken links), images and newsletters should be current and the staff lists should be up to date. The same way a business wants to establish its brand identity with its website, your school should establish its professionalism and connection to the local area.

Excellence

For most parents, however, a professional school isn't enough. Therefore it's important to show off your school's excellence. 

To do this, you can draw attention to your decile rankings, sporting and academic achievements and any positive press you've recently received. You should also make sure your Vision and Values pages are current and engaging. 

Support

Students have been known to go through periods of adversity, and parents want to know who will be there when that happens. Consider including a separate page for your guidance counsellor, if you have one, and talk about their services.

Moreover, you should also keep a list of staff on your website. Then, parents can send teachers an email whenever necessary.

Depth

The sign of a good school website is one that seemingly goes on forever. If a parent looks at your site and reads all they can in five minutes, then they may not think your school has much to offer. 

You should include everything, as long as you remain organised. Include pages for clubs, sports, enrolments, and so on. You may also consider adding a blog for each class and class resources pages for things like homework and links to external websites.

We can help your school design a professional website that shows your excellence as a place of learning.

To talk more about our school websites, web design, or anything else, please contact us.