Evaluating your School Website

Before embarking on an audit of the style and contents of your website, one discussion that might usefully take place is why the school needs a website at all – what is its purpose? A marketing tool, a portal for your VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), a source of information for current parents, a DfE (or Ofsted) expectation to enable your school to publish key information online ?

Sir Michael Wilshaw HMCI, in a speech on 24th February 2012, said that: “The good head thinks carefully about how to prepare for an inspection by ensuring the website is up-to-date with information on school evaluation, development planning, the school timetable, etc.”

So, what should a school website include?
Download a checklist here: Audit of your school website – RAG check list 
to see how your school website stacks up …. This version of the checklist (February 2012) includes the list of statutory information for schools to publish online (with effect from September 2012)

Here are some examples of excellent school websites which seem to tick a lot of boxes in their content and style. Do you know another one which should be featured? Tell us …

• Moortown Primary
• Jack Hunt School – a Specialist Language and Sports College
• Other suggestions include:
• Friarswood Primary
• Polesden Lacey Infants

 Essential

• A domain name that makes sense to visitors (eg “stcustardsprimary.sch.uk” not “wearetheprovidersofeducationinyourvillage.com” .)
• Contact details, with a link on each page to the Contact Us section.
• Headteacher’s name with first name or initial (Mrs J Smith or Mr Richard Jones)
• A statement about the school’s vision – its aims and values (See Moortown’s Aims and Ethos statement)
• Map showing location, and additional directions if parking or access are problematic.
• Uniform list, with contact details for local suppliers (and downloadable order form if applicable)
• Term dates for the next two years
• Times of lessons, assemblies and start and end of school. (See Moortown’s School Day)
• Holidays in term time policy, with downloadable application forms (NB These may not be applicable in future if schools are not able to authorise absence during term time)
• Complaints policy
• Latest Ofsted report
• Information about the size of the school, and a link to the entry on the DfE Compare Schools site
• A link to your VLE, with instructions on how to get a password
• Events calendar
• Newsletter and copies of letters to parents
• Link to Parent View (Picture links available from Ofsted)
• The requirement to publish a printed prospectus has now been withdrawn (with effect 1st February 2012),  and from September 2012, schools will be required to publish certain key information online. This will include admissions and SEN policies, how the pupil premium has been used, your curriculum plans for each year and each subject, and reading schemes. See here for more information, or download the RAG checklist (see above).
• Twitter feed (if you have one)

Desirable

• Name of school secretary or whoever will answer the phone
• Names of staff, including teachers, teaching assistants, midday supervisors, caretaker, with responsibilities (Head of Y6, SENCO, Science Coordinator)
• After school clubs, and extra curricular activities
• Sporting fixtures
• Downloadable permission slips for school trips
• A homework timetable, with handing in dates. Spellings lists.
• List of Governors, perhaps with photographs, with a pen sketch of their experience
• Governors’ page, with information about the role of the Governing Body, how to become a Governor, forthcoming meeting dates and non-confidential minutes
• Information about the PTA or Parents Forum (See Moortown’s Join In Page)
• Gallery of children’s work
• Outline of each term’s curriculum for each year group
• Links to Local Authority Schools website, Direct.Gov Schools and the DfE home page
• This week’s lunch menu
• Snow and bad weather policy, with a link to the local radio station Snow Line
• Anti-bullying policy
• Safeguarding policy (and other policies?)
• The published information that demonstrates the school’s compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty, and the equality objectives that have been set. These are statutory requirements, with a recommendation that they be “published” on the school website.
• Information about disabled access and any specialist provision for children with SEN

Basic web design rules

• Consistent design with pleasing colour scheme and legible websafe text
• Compliance with accessibility guidelines eg. image captions for use by screen readers
• Links that work (Check for broken links)
• Pages that download in reasonable time
• Easy navigation to and from each section
• Correct grammar, spelling and appropriate language (Check readability)
• Avoid having “Under Construction” pages or items that are out of date or incorrect.
• Don’t use blue underlined text, except for hyperlinks.
• Choose a font that isn’t Comic Sans.

Other ideas to consider

• A feedback page, explaining how parents’ questions and suggestions have been acted on (“You told us there was a problem with parking near the school on parents’ evenings, so we have …..”)
• Guidance on using children’s photographs is that where these are used, names of children should not be given, and vice versa. (See Guidelines on the use of images on school websites (Hampshire) and an example Policy on Use of digital & video images .)
• A translate button, or key pages in languages that your parents use. (See Etruscan Primary and Surrey County Council’s information on school uniform and jewellery  in Polish and Urdu) You can download template school letters in different languages, and access a range of other resources to include on your site (eg an Afl Guide for Students both in English and in Polish.)
• FAQ page and / or Ask Us page
• News feeds
• Short videos on how to help your child with their reading, or showing how you teach multiplication (Moortown produce resources to help parents support their child’s learning)
• Icons for awards that the school has gained – Arts Mark, Investors in People etc. (See Moortown’s Awards page)
• House point counter (See at the bottom of the page of the Jack Hunt School website)
• Discussion page – eg memories of the school opening (See Comments at Jack Hunt School - scroll down the page) and links to social networking sites
• Links to the feeder schools websites, and advice from ex-pupils about transition
• Links to other sites, such as CBeebies, TES Resources, Mumsnet, local community sites
• Secure area for Governors, with all policies and their review cycle, SDP, committee and GB minutes, links to Modern Governor or GEL e-learning logins, the Guide to the Law , LA Governor Services, NGA, training courses and contact details for each other.
• Jargon buster glossary and list of acronyms
• What about a secure section designed for Ofsted, containing directions to the school, the SEF, SDP, school policies, governors’ contact detailsetc?  Give login details to the lead inspector when you get the phone call (or the knock on the door … )

Downloads

• Download this as a Word doc:  Audit of your school website – RAG check list (Feb 2012)
  (or the original Sept 2011 version - Audit of your school website – RAG check list)
• Guidelines on the use of images on school websites (Hampshire)
• Creating-and-managing-school-websites-Scotland 2007
• An example policy: Policy on Use of digital & video images

Guidance

• Creating a Safe School Website (Salford)
• Blog post on Great School Websites by Paul Haigh
• Using wordpress to create your own school website

And finally …

• How not to do it ….