It is possible that you may think that a school website design is not very important. Your thoughts may run towards creating educational content that helps your students learn. However, this is not so and while good content is still king, it still needs top supporting players.

Those top supporting website design players are key to getting people to read your excellent content. To make it all work for you there are very good and legitimate reasons why you should create engaging and informative content for your school website

5 Reasons Why You Should

Content is king but there is more to content than web page after web age of printed text. With that kind of content you might as well say you are bringing back educational methods from the 1800s.

School website content needs to be creative, informative as well and engaging. It is a way to open up minds to learning. Here are some reasons why you do this extra work:

1. Website Ranking

No matter how hard you try, search engine ranking is very important. The higher your school’s website appears on the search engine results page, the more traffic your website will get.

It is a known fact that the higher ranking websites get the majority of the traffic. If you want to be a part of that action then you need to create engaging and informative content that is interesting.

To rank high in the search engines you need to follow their SEO rules. It is just the way it is and great content is not going to be enough to get you ranked. Make sure to include the supporting cast of characters like the right keywords, both long and short-tailed.

Also, do good formatting and avoid any strategy that will land you in search engine jail. There are a lot of black SEO practitioners out there, make sure to stay away from them if you want to be seen.

2. Hold Your Visitors Longer

That is one of the key targets when creating a website. There is what is called the bounce factor and that is when your website visitors land on one of your web pages and find it dull, hard to navigate, and so on.

Once they do that, they move on as quickly as they can. Your school website design should be user-friendly, easy to navigate, attractive, and very interesting.

You can have the best content in the UK but if you are lacking in those areas, no one is going to read it. Your school website design should be easy to use, look good, and have engaging activities or content that holds your website’s visitors’ attention.

The longer they stay on your website, the better chance you have of converting them to students or active parents. Your creative content should find ways to engage your website’s visitors and get them interested in your school and what is happening there.

3. Your Students And Parents Need To Know

When people do not know what is going on, they tend to lose interest in the school, its activities, and much more. One good reason you need to incorporate informative content on your school’s website is to tell students and parents what they need to know.

Plus, the information needs to tell them where the activities, etc., are taking place when they are taking place, and more. Providing all the key information they need to know helps both parents and students to arrange their schedules, be more involved, and think highly of the school.

If you want parental involvement and have them care about the school, you need to provide them with the information they need in a very accessible manner. Basic information is not going to be engaging and hold their interest.

You will want to write this information in such a way that piques the readers’ interest and gets them involved with the school.

4. It Is Your Public Face

This is probably one of the most important reasons that tells you why you should write engaging and informative content on your school’s website. How your school’s website looks and reads says a lot about the school and the teachers working there.

To put your best foot forward and make a great first impression, your school’s website should be engaging, and filled with informative content as well as top-quality images and videos.

The better you make your website the better you look. Plus, the more engaging and informative it is, impresses potential students and their parents. Having your school look good on your school’s website is essential.

Your school message to the public is wrapped up in that presentation and if you want to look good, the content has to look good.

5. It Will Help Enrollment

Another important reason to write engaging and informative content on your school’s website is that it can help your enrollment. Your school’s website is your first contact with many potential students and their parents.

Making the website design engaging gets their attention as well as their interest. Then when they see how informative and open the school is, they start to form a little trust in your school and teachers.

Those attitudes will help build your school. A top-quality website design attracts new students and helps get their parents involved in different school activities.

Some Additional Words

Building a top-quality school website and filling it with engaging and informative content is not always easy. But you do not have to travel this road alone.

Our company has years of experience in website design and we offer our talent, knowledge, and skills to you. The way to take advantage of this offer is to use our contact page to get more information.

Also check out our website, scholljotter.com, and see all of our products and ways we can help you build a top-notch school website. Our aim is to help you enhance your first contact so your enrollment and quality of education rise.

Around 41% of parents agree that they would like their child’s school to communicate with them more often.

School communication, both internally between teachers and students and externally with parents is one of the foundations of effective all-around learning.

School website calendars are a means for schools to organise school events as well as keep everyone from teachers, staff, students, and parents in the loop about the happenings at school.

Let us take a look at ways to optimise the functionality of your website calendar that strengthens communication between schools, students, and parents.

3 features of a school website calendar

A school website calendar is a schedule of all school events during an academic year displayed on the school website for everyone to see and use. School staff, students, and parents use this to keep up with the school events and not miss out on anything.

A regular school website calendar will include:

● Term time dates

● School holidays

● Activities and events such as Sports Day, Book Fair, etc.

● Examination dates

● Inset days & teacher training dates

Here are the 3 features that are a must-have for your school website calendar.

1. User-friendly for parents and staff

The purpose of a school calendar is to help teachers and students pre-plan activities and stay ahead in their curriculum. This is why the most important feature your calendar needs to have is user-friendliness and ease of use.

The calendar loses all its purpose if the people it is meant for are not able to use it the way it is intended. The interface should be personalised, meaning a user will only see events that pertain to them.

For example, a student who has opted for drama classes but not for music classes should be able to view all drama class-related events and no events related to music classes. This keeps the calendar from becoming too convoluted.

Secondly, not everyone is well-versed with technology. They should be able to view and use a calendar without putting in much work. Steps to set reminders and highlight events should be simplified.

2. Personalization and customization

Another important feature to have is one that facilitates personalization. Parents and staff should be able to use the calendar how they wish to. This could be in the form of highlighting events that pertain to them or hiding/silencing ones that don’t.

We have already talked about setting the calendar to your personal setting such as only seeing events related to the classes you are a part of or interested in. This helps in keeping the calendar clean and organised.

People can always access the ‘master calendar’ to view all the events at once whenever they want. Moreover, you should make sure that people with disabilities are also able to have a personalised experience with your calendar.

3. Mobile-friendly experience

Over 55% of website views come from mobile. Your school website calendar should provide a mobile-friendly experience to make it accessible to all. See if the font, images, and graphics are well-suited for a mobile layout or not.

A way to put your school calendar in the parent’s pockets is via mobile apps. Make your calendar a key feature in your school mobile app. Enable it with features such as notifications and mobile-friendly UI & UX.

This has the dual effect of not having to remind parents or teachers to check school calendars regularly. And they will receive reminders about events with ease. They will not have to go to the school calendar on the website anymore, the school calendars will come to them, so to speak.

Conclusion

School calendars are an excellent way to keep everyone associated with schools in the loop about their workings. When creating a school website calendar, your focus should be on making it user-friendly and accessible.

Everyone from the staff, parents, teachers, and students should be able to view events that pertain to them and plan for them accordingly. Making them Mobile-friendly goes a long way in integrating school calendars into the daily life of people seamlessly.

When it comes to building and maintaining a website, you must conduct thorough research before getting started. There are several features to look for, ranging from a server location to website security. Your website provider’s facility can make or break both your and your website visitors’ experience.

6 questions you should ask your school website provider 

Before you choose a website provider for your school, you must ask certain questions. This way, you can avoid problems such as frequent downtime, inadequate bandwidth, etc. Here are the six questions you should ask your school website provider before opting for their service.

1. Questions about the timeline

You wouldn’t want your web development process to be delayed. But at the same time, it is tough to determine how much time it takes for your website provider to get your site up and running. So, the first question you must ask your site provider is “How long will your new website take to develop?”

Also, make sure you clarify everything related to migration services. It might happen that over time, you decide to change your host. Ask your provider if they charge any money (if yes, how much) for migrating their clients’ websites.

Also, ask your website provider if you would be assigned a project manager to handle the everyday maintenance and management of your CMS (Content Management System).

2. Accessibility

The next thing you should ask your website provider is whether your site would be compliant with ADA and be easily accessible to people with certain disabilities. Simultaneously, ask your provider if they would prepare a mobile responsive website that works well on all types of devices.

The last thing you would want is to spend hundreds of dollars on a website that doesn’t work on mobile devices. That would be a waste of money.

Additionally, make sure that parents can access their personalised portal through your website’s CMS. This would ensure enhanced audience engagement that would put your school ahead of its competitors.

3. Website support

Now, this one is crucial. Ask your website provider about their customer service hours. Also, clarify if there are any differences in service levels. If there are different service levels, it is often possible that your provider might charge an extra fee for extensive customer support.

That’s why you should ask upfront about what happens when and if you require advanced technical assistance. It’s better to stay prepared ahead of time.

4. Vendor reputation and track record 

Obviously, you would want to hire someone who has the necessary experience and amazing reputation for handling projects like yours. Ask them how long they have been providing services in the education sector.

Ask them if they have any experience working with schools or districts similar to yours. If possible, ask them to provide some details of their previous clients in your sector whom you can talk to about their experience.

5. Data security

Encryption is one of the most important methods for keeping data safe. Your website provider should be committed to providing you with dependable, effective security measures, which they can do in part by encrypting passwords to ensure password privacy. Ask them if they offer HTTPS encryption.

Using HTTPS, businesses can assure that traffic is encrypted and hence unreadable by potential hackers when transmitted over a secure connection.

6. Flexibility, scalability, compliance

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed while trying to figure out what kind of bandwidth a web server provides. In simple terms, bandwidth refers to the speed at which data may be sent from a website to your computer.

With this in mind, always look for a provider that offers plenty of bandwidth. So make sure you ask your website provider about the infrastructure specifications they would provide you. Ask them how fast they can help scale your website.

Final word

It’s more crucial than ever for your school to find the correct website provider to compete in today’s fast-paced world fueled by the internet. Your school website serves as the foundation for your school communications. Make sure you hire a reputable website provider who can ensure that your site stays up and running, no matter the circumstances.

Efficient website planning is the key to having a successful school website in today’s internet-savvy environment.

Whether you are launching a brand new website or revamping your existing one, a little bit of planning goes a long way in ensuring stellar results.

You can plan better, organise your efforts better, test drive user experience, and simply be confident in the final product that you put in front of the world.

Let us explore the 5 most important pre-planning musts you must adhere to when planning your school website.

Consequences and opportunities 

Planning your website in advance helps you recognize the consequences and opportunities that come with running a website. You can test out various elements of user experience as 88% of users are not likely to come back to a website if they have a bad experience with it.

Similarly, with over 55% of website views coming from mobile, it is important to create a design and structure that flows on all sorts of devices. Most importantly, you want to create a website that can be easily navigated by parents and students alike. 

By identifying the consequences and opportunities, you can work toward avoiding the consequences and capitalising on the opportunities.

Pre-planning musts 

There are many elements to focus on when it comes to website pre-planning. You may look at historical data, conduct surveys of the end-users, or consult with your team to get ideas rolling. 

We have come up with the 5 most pre-planning musts to include in your school website checklist.

1. Launch date 

The first order of business is to set a realistic launch date for your website. Make sure it isn’t too early or too late, but rather gives you sufficient time to prepare and test run the website to derive desired results.

Setting a launch date gives a purpose to the project. Everyone involved knows the deadline they are up against and they start working accordingly. 

2. Stakeholder buy-in

Stakeholder buy-in refers to getting all the relevant people involved in a process. For your school website, that would mean both your internal team and people from your executive team. Everyone coming together will bring crucial viewpoints to help create a dynamic website. 

Stakeholder buy-in can have a huge impact on getting the project up and running. As was the case with the University of Auckland when it set out to revamp its digital presence in 2016.

3. Deadlines 

Upon dividing tasks among different teams, you should also set deadlines to ensure that the project stays on schedule. The deadlines should be actionable, meaning they should cover the time the tasks would realistically take to complete along with some buffer time for contingencies.

4. Communication

Another important aspect of school website pre-planning is to establish communication channels between various teams. It is important to keep every team in the know-how about what the other teams are doing. 

Sometimes, tasks are shared between teams as well. For example, the content team cannot start working on the content structure unless they have the design layout from the design team.

5. Focused

As you create your school website, remember that the most important aspect to always keep in mind is to stay focused. It’s easy to stray toad including fancier elements into the design, but it is far more important to focus on the functionality of the website.

As a rule of thumb, keep things simple and realistic. Only add something if you think it will add real value to the website. If it doesn’t, steer clear from including it.

Conclusion

School websites are often the first point of interaction between many schools and their potential students or parents. It’s important to have a functioning and attractive school website in today’s day and age.

A little bit of planning before you get started on the project goes a long way in creating a website that serves every faction of your end-users. Be realistic and stay focused to create a stellar website for your school. 

Just a few seconds into a website and people start judging. 

There are a lot of factors that you can monitor and improve overtime to get the most value from your school website. Among them are design, load time, content, navigation, and graphics..

If you are not happy with the current performance of the website, you may have already started researching ways that can improve your website. If that’s your story, you are at the right place.

Read on to know 6 key strategies that will help you get more value from your school website.

1. Go superior web design mode

Remember, the first impression does matter. 94 percent of the first website impressions are shaped by design. 

Website users make split-second judgments about your school, based purely on the appearance of its website. 

To stay up with the continuously changing expectations of modern-day website visitors and provide a seamless experience, aim to rebuild your website every three years. Stay fresh to stay young and attractive!

2.   Be mobile-friendly

While making your website visually appealing is vital, ensuring that the design shows up well on mobile devices is also important. These days, most websites receive roughly 50-60% of their overall traffic from mobile devices. It should therefore be your priority to opt for a mobile-first design.

If you are unsure whether to invest in a mobile-friendly website design, check the following data:

• A bad smartphone web browsing experience made 52 percent of users feel less likely to engage with a website.
• If a site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, consumers are 5X more likely to quit the platform.
• When visiting sites that aren’t mobile-friendly, 48% of users report feeling annoyed and disappointed.

3.   Ensure quicker load time

Today’s average web surfer expects all websites to load fast. As it stands, your site’s performance is a big factor to consider and improve if you wish to get the most value from your school website. 

As a general rule of thumb, if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 47 percent of visitors are likely to abandon it. 

The size of photos you use on your website can significantly affect the site’s load time. The way and where your website is hosted also plays an important role in website load time.

4.   Navigation should be simple

The way your school website’s pages and content are organized can have a big impact on its success. 

Websites with the right navigation structure will ensure that browsing through them makes sense for the average user. 

Here, your focus should be to provide a simple and enjoyable user experience, in order to ensure lower bounce rates and higher engagement.

5.   Make it search engine friendly

If you want your school website to show up ahead of your competitors on the search engine result pages, you better invest in SEO or search engine optimization strategies. 

While this particular strategy may not directly relate to the website experience, ensuring that your site is search engine optimized will ensure that your potential clients can locate you on the web. 

Even if you have the best school website in the world, it won’t matter if no one can discover you.

6.   Engaging and informative content

While an attractive design might entice visitors to stay on your site, it is the information and how you present it that ultimately helps you sell your message. Focus on the following two types of content on a website:

• Visual: Photos, graphic components, videos, and infographics are examples of visual content.
• Written: Calls to action, news, blogs, etc.

Remember, today’s internet visitors scan their screens rather than reading thoroughly, especially if they’re on a mobile device. Make sure you design your content appropriately.

We believe that the tips we have listed above will help you get more value from your school website and also help improve its functionality.

If you manage a school website, by now you will be aware of the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO not only helps to improve the quantity of traffic to your school website but also the quality of your website.  People however seem to have a common misconception that school websites do not require SEO and it is more relevant for other institutions and organisations. However, if you look at the search data, you would easily disapprove of this fact. 

With 3.5 billion searches made everyday, it can be safely concluded that these search trends should not be ignored. But the question is — is it possible to constantly keep up with these search trends and frequently update your website? 

The simple answer is yes, if you intend not to hurt your organic traffic.  Search trends help you understand and deliver the most effective and user-friendly content for each of your queries. A robust SEO optimisation strategy takes time to show results and when it does, you will be able to reap its benefits for years to come. 

1. Utilise location-based search strategy

Google My Business (the listing on Google search that shows your location and contact details) was created with the intention of helping customers engage on Google for free. The primary objective was to help small and medium-scale businesses connect with their potential customers across Google Searches and Maps. 

For most schools, the common statement is, “Everyone knows my school, why do I need this?”

But the fact is optimising Google My Business shows your school name up on the search even when a user doesn’t know you exist. 

For example, a parent who is new in the area where your school is situated, might simply key in the phrase, ‘best high school + location in the search engine. For that parent to find your school, you need to be on the Page 1 search results. And we very well know from historical data that very few people visit the second page. Having an up-to-date Google My Business listing can assist with this.

Another significant point to be noted here — Google detects the searchers’ location from the IP address. Even if you don’t include your region in the search, it will automatically deliver them local results including Google My Business listings… 

2. Comprehend the search intent for educational institutions 

Most search engine users these days are impatient. If they want their search to include specific results, they will use the related long-tail keywords. Now the real challenge is understanding those keywords and search terms so you can optimise your school website accordingly. 

In other words, the more content you have on your website that is related to the search term, the better are your site’s chances of ranking higher in the search results. 

3. Optimise for different regions 

It’s not just enough that your GMB account and site pages include only results for the physical location where you are situated. 

Some parents who have not entered your location in their search will not be able to find your school and they may not even be aware that you are already pulling students from their areas. This holds true for most schools that are located outside main cities and towns. 

What you need here is a regional landing page strategy. 

The most common approach to creating regional landing pages are highlighted below: 

• Define the targeted area

You need to start by defining the area that you are targeting whether it is a specific region, city, county, etc. Then mention the key landmarks or work a bit into the history of the region. 

• Geo-specific keywords 

This is in fact the most important point to consider when you are creating a location-based landing page that will specifically give you the local hits you need from your local population. The formula is quite simple — mention [type of school] in [region or location] or [location] in the content you have on your website. 

For example, 

• Primary school in North London 
• North Yorkshire secondary school 

• Consistency 

Irrespective of whether you are creating one landing page or 10, the look and feel as well the style and tone of each page should be consistent. If you are a larger institution, it’s a good idea to come up with a style guide with specific branding colours and guidelines. 

4. On-page optimisation 

This is the process of doing everything on your website that could help to instruct Google to deliver you to page one. You should take on-page quite seriously if you want the search engines to reward you with the first page visibility. 

Let’s take a look at some of the best practises you may want to follow in your quest to rank on the first page:

• URLs: Google has very clearly stated that URLs help them understand what the page is all about. In order to optimise the URLs: 
  • Include the primary keyword in the URL
  • Place the keyword to the left side of the URL
  • Keep the words that define the URL as real as possible
  • Keep the text simple and sweet
  • Use hyphens between two words 

• Meta titles and descriptions:  Page titles are one of the most important on-page SEO factors. Both the meta title and description are important for the search engines to understand the purpose of the page. 
• Header tags: These tags serve an important function for the SEO of your page. They have a direct impact on your page by:
  • Making it easier and more enjoyable for your users to read the page
  • Providing keyword-rich context to the search engines for your content
• SEO writing: This typically implies that the content is written in a way that it is loved by both humans and the search engines. 
• Keyword cannibalisation: Targeting many pages for a specific keyword can cause keyword cannibalisation and that could have potentially disastrous results for your SEO efforts. If you have multiple pages on your website ranking for the same keyword, you’re actually competing with yourself and that’s not a good on-page strategy to follow. 
• Content audit: This is a vital mistake made by most content authors and editors. They keep on creating new content, but never bother to revisit or update their existing content. It’s absolutely essential to do content audits on a regular basis. 

5. Mobile page loading speed 

In the real world, speed kills but it is not the same in the digital world. If your page doesn’t load fast on your mobile, the internet will kill your rank. 

Waiting for a page to load in its own sweet time is a frustrating experience. There are quite a few ways to reverse this experience:

• Utilise the wide range of free marketing tools available to make quick fixes to your content. There are a few tools that can compress images to a fraction of their size. 
• Limit the amount of media you include in your posts and pages. To ensure optimal page load speed, you should maintain a ratio of 75:25 for text to images. 
• Make sure you have a prominent call to action (CTA) and the size of the CTA button should be at least a bit larger than your thumb. 

Final thoughts

SEO like anything else requires the right amount of knowledge, skills, patience, and consistency to produce the desired results. The opportunities are unlimited and as the search engine volumes grow, it will become more important than ever to keep working on your SEO efforts.

School websites have become a vital communication tool during the covid-19 pandemic. Despite the inevitable disruption, the team here at School Jotter is available for new sales queries and to offer advice and support to our current schools. Contact us using all the usual channels – details here.

Many schools have been using this time to update their websites. For some, it’s been a simple case of ensuring information is up to date, while other schools have chosen to give their website a complete overhaul or even rebuilt from scratch to provide a brand new portal providing information and resources to parents, children and other visitors. 

Summer is often the time when schools open their doors to potential new students and their families, but opportunities to visit in person are going to be limited this year. A good website can showcase your school and provide insight into its culture and ethos, making it easier for parents and children to make the best choice possible. 

We’ve put together a list of some of our favourite School Jotter websites from 2020. Have a look at the sites below – perhaps they will give you some inspiration for your own website!

Some of the best primary school websites in the UK include: Lindley Junior School, All Saints Church of England Primary School, West Acton Primary School, Woodlea Primary School and many more.

Lindley Junior School – 

www.lindleyjun.org.uk/
It’s easy to see why this school’s website made the list! The animated logo is welcoming, and the amazing drone footage immediately draws you in and gives you a unique perspective of the school grounds and facilities. Seeing the children so engaged in play gives you a really good feel for the school without the need for a physical visit. The school’s identity is strongly represented through the use of colours and images, the site is easy to navigate, and the homepage has all the important information you need, including contact details and latest news updates. 

All Saints Church of England Primary School – 

https://www.all-saints.oxon.sch.uk/
This website also makes good use of colour – there are splashes of green all over the site, giving it a clear and cohesive look. Finding your way around the site is straightforward – the navigation bar is constantly visible at the top of every page, and the calendar at the bottom of the homepage is an easy way for parents to find out what’s going on at a moment’s notice. The large images on the homepage serve two purposes – they are a fun way to showcase the school, and they guide visitors to important pages.

West Acton Primary School – 

https://www.westactonprimaryschool.org/
West Acton make great use of quick links on their no-scroll homepage, showcasing easy navigation as well as great pictures of the school right on the homepage. It doesn’t stop there either – with the rest of the site jam-packed with information around the school. With videos added to many of the inner pages, West Acton Primary’s website gives a truly virtual experience to prospective parents and makes information available easily to current parents. 

Woodlea Primary School – 

https://www.woodlea.durham.sch.uk
Woodlea Primary School’s website takes quite a different approach to the first two websites on our list. Rather than scrolling down the homepage to find what you need, all the information is accessible from a single screen, with pop-ups along the bottom of the page taking you to key areas. It’s a simple yet sleek look using Lion, one of our deluxe themes – you can see this and more deluxe templates at themes.schooljotter2.com .

Bushy Hill Junior School – 

https://www.bushy-hill.surrey.sch.uk
This website uses another of our deluxe School Jotter templates yet has a completely different look and feel to all the other sites on the list. The aerial photo that greets you provides a wonderful overview of the school’s facilities, and the homepage includes a calendar, latest news, and photo links to the areas parents are most likely to visit on a regular basis. 

Rufford Park Primary School – 

https://www.ruffordparkprimary.org.uk
The final website on our list is different in that it’s bespoke – that is, rather than using an existing template, the theme was specially designed for the school. There’s no scrolling on the homepage; instead, it showcases a single large photograph, along with pop-outs for latest news and events, which is a great way to highlight a specific aspect of your school.  There’s a wealth of information tucked away under the navigation menu, yet the site looks clean and uncluttered.
We hope our list has given you some inspiration about how you can update your school website to showcase it to both current and potential families. Whether you choose a template or a custom theme, there’s a design in School Jotter to suit every school’s needs.

Social media is becoming an essential tool in education and can help with planning lessons, building the school community and staying connected with parents. Many schools want to be more engaging on social media, but struggle to find the time to post the right content around their busy school schedules. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other platform, here’s a few tips and tricks to show you how to get the most out of your school’s social media and make posts more engaging.

Automatically schedule your posts

If you’re struggling to find time to post on social media, there are a number of websites you can use to schedule your posts. Handy tools such as Postcron, Buffer and TweetDeck allow you to schedule your posts to upload automatically at a later date, meaning that your social media can stay active even if you are too busy to post.

Quality over quantity

Although it is important to post often, it is much better to focus on the content itself rather than the amount you post. Make sure your posts capture the attention of your audience and keep them engaged, and keep it consistent.

Post at the right time

You need to find the right time to post to make sure that as many people as possible see your content, as this will increase your likes, comments and overall engagement. If the majority of your followers are parents, you are probably better to schedule your posts to the evening rather than during the busy school run, for example.

Use visuals to capture attention

Try to include images or videos alongside text to get your message across more clearly. You could use stock images or design graphics for your school, or perhaps include a ‘meme’ or an inspirational image quote. Our brains are able to process visuals 60,000 times faster than text – so make sure to include them in your posts!

Ask a question

One of the best ways to engage with your followers is to ask them questions, as this keeps them engaged and keeps the conversation going. Take some time to think about the most effective questions you could ask, and mention your followers with an @ when you are asking them questions directly.

Hashtag trending topics

Have a look at which topics are trending in your area, nationally or globally. You can use Twitter or Google Trends. When relevant, tag these along with your comments and post, as this will increase engagement with your followers and spark conversation.

Your school website provides the first impression to potential pupils, and it’s also a requirement to make sure it’s complying with Ofsted standards.
Ofsted will often review a school’s website as part of their inspection, so it’s essential to ensure it’s up to date, easy to use and appealing to visitors.
To help you reach the high standards inspectors look for, here’s a handy checklist of things to do to make sure your school website is the best it can be.

Your school’s name, contact details and ethos

Communication is key, and easy contact between parents and the school is something Ofsted will look for. Make sure your website’s got:

• Your school’s name presented clearly
• The ethos, aims and values of your school
• Postal address
• Telephone number
• Name and contact details of your headteacher
• Name and address of the chair of the governing body
• Name and contact details of the member of staff who deals with queries from parents and members of the public
• Name and contact details of your special educational needs coordinator

Your school’s admission process

It sounds obvious, but you need to tell people how to apply for your school in a simple and concise way. There’s no point confusing potential parents and pupils; it’ll just turn them away from your school. Be sure to include:

• Your selection criteria
• Your school’s admissions number
• Details on arrangements for disabled students
• How parents can apply
• Details of your oversubscription criteria

Behaviour and suspension/exclusion policies

Ofsted wants to see that your school can both teach and discipline students. Include:

• Your school’s behaviour and bullying policies. Also make sure they comply with section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006
• Details of your school’s exclusion policy

Equality and accessibility objectives

A school should be an environment in which everyone should feel welcome and like they can succeed. Make sure you’re laying out a clear plan on how you’re making students of all ethnicities, sexualities, genders and backgrounds welcome.

• How your school is fighting discrimination
• Your school’s equality objectives
• How your school complies with the public sector equality duty
• How disabled students are involved and helped in the curriculum
• How your school provides physical access to disabled students

Performance tables

You have to advertise your school and tell people why they should send their children there. There’s no better way to do that than showing the quality of education parents can expect.

• Key stage 1+2 results – average standards of reading, writing and maths as well as the percentage of students who have achieved higher scores
• Key stage 4 results – percentage of students who have achieved a grade of C or above in English and Maths. Also, include the percentage of students who have gone onto higher education, training or employment
• Link to national performance tables

Content management apps such as School Jotter can be a great tool to help make sure your website is up to date and complying with Ofsted standards. School Jotter can help you create and manage your website in a streamlined way, so you’ll easily be able to make a website that’s both appealing and easy to use for parents, pupils and other members of the public, but also will get you a good score from Ofsted.
For a more extensive checklist on extra things you can do to improve your school website, have a look at this.

Schools need funding. It’s a fact which transcends politics; when you’re dealing with our children’s futures and the security of the next generation, you need to make sure they have all the resources they need to succeed.
That’s why fundraising is so essential to the quality and upkeep of schools. With inadequate government funding, it often comes down to the parents to prop up their local schools, and even a small donation can go a long way.
However, it’s not as simple as just asking people to give you money. Schools need to make sure that when raising funds, you’re being accessible and understanding.
So take a look at your website. Is it easy to navigate? Is it welcoming and easy on the eyes? Does it have all the information a visitor might need to be presented in a digestible way?
Creating relationships with your pupils’ parents is important, and in the modern age of the internet, a school website is often the first thing a mum or dad will see. Make sure you’re giving a great first impression.

Make sure your website operates cross-platform

The best websites have a design which works across multiple platforms. If parents are using their phones or tablets, they need to be able to navigate around your website just as well as if they’re on the computer. If your goal is to raise money, after all, you have to take into account that people – especially parents – are busy and always on the go, so might not have a laptop on hand.
There’s nothing worse than a website which is poorly formatted for a smaller screen. It’s instantly off putting and aggravating to visitors if they don’t have immediate access to a computer screen.

Use content management systems like School Jotter

School Jotter is an ideal app for schools trying to improve their website. Used by over 3000 schools nationwide, School Jotter can help you create a unique website customised with features that suit your needs. Have you ever seen a website that has left you impressed with its design, and makes you want to keep clicking? That should be the aim for any school website to entice students and potential donors.
School Jotter isn’t just for website creation, either. You can make school surveys, polls, quizzes and even content to help improve your pupils’ spelling.

Organise fundraising events

Fundraising isn’t just about parents sending you money through a website. To truly engage with parents you want to go above and beyond, and with applications like School Jotter you can organise events online. The app for phone can send notifications, too, so it’s a lot more convenient than sending out newsletters every month or trusting the kids to tell their parents!
Want to host a fundraising event at the school? Put it on your website and it’ll automatically update to the School Jotter app, so your pupils will never miss a beat. Some schools try to get creative with their fundraisers, and it’s something parents appreciate. Go the extra mile in your events: maybe a Britain’s Got Talent-themed talent competition, a Halloween costume contest, or even a cook-off. The more you appeal to your pupils and their parents, the more successful your fundraisers will be.
So, make sure you’re not neglecting your school’s online presence. In a world where we spend on average 24 hours a week online, schools have to adapt with and take advantage of the vast changes to how we communicate with each other. Used well, you can increase admissions and donations to better the education of the next generation.