Another great website of the week. This week we are looking at the website created by the Colebrook Junior School based in Swindon, Wiltshire.

The website design looks professional and the colourful logos make it look child-friendly. The homepage features a slideshow with nice pictures of students. What makes this website unique is that there is very little information on the homepage. I guess we are used to seeing schools trying to add all the information related to school on the homepage. It’s nice to see that this school is trying something different.

I like how the school made their website really easy to navigate and easy to find all the relevant information. There are five links to the main pages, including ‘School Information’, ‘Curriculum’, ‘Gallery’, ‘Parents’ and ‘Class Information’. I believe that’s all the information that students, school staff and parents need. Main contact details can be found at the top right corner. Again, very easy to find for anyone who requires more information about the school.

Overall, a unique and great looking website created by the Colebrook Junior School. Well done!

What a great looking website! Bright colours, beautiful images and the overall theme that definitely goes well with the school name “Guardian Angels”. That’s why this school website has been selected as the website of the week. Guardian Angels Catholic Primary School is based in Birmingham, West Midlands and it seems to be really focused on striving for educational excellence through high expectations, quality teaching and stimulating environment.

Yellow colour seems to be dominating throughout the website which makes sense because this colour represents the school uniforms. The layout of the website is clear and it is easy to navigate. The homepage features some nice pictures of children alongside the links to the main pages. The menu bar includes links to other pages where you can find all the information regarding students, learning materials and the school life in general.

I really like how the school website includes links to useful websites and other online learning materials for pupils. They can be found under ‘Pupil Page’. It’s great to see that the school is using our Spellings app! ‘School events’ page  features pictures from previous school events and trips. This is a great way for engaging with pupils, parents and the wider community.

I’m very impressed with this website of the week that has been created by Guardian Angels Catholic Primary School. Well done!

This week’s website of the week comes to us from the North Featherstone Junior and Infant School based in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. This school believes in “excellence through enjoyment” and it seems to be really focused on making sure that all children feel safe, valued and included in the school life.

I really like the slideshow with some nice pictures of students on the homepage. These pictures go very well with the overall style and the colours of the website. I wish the school added more pictures as it is a great way to learn more about school life without having to search for image gallery. What is more, having images of students on the homepage can help to create the feeling that the website is personalised for children which is a great way of encouraging them to use the website more.

The website layout makes finding everything you need very easy. The main contact details can be found at the top right corner. One of the things that the school did really well was highlighting some of the main pages and putting them in the middle of the homepage with some nice icons. ‘Calendar’ page is very useful in terms of helping students, parents and teachers to stay up to date with school events and other important dates. What is more, the ‘Classes’ page is useful for finding all information relevant for each class.

I think this school website is an example of keeping a website very simple but still making it look good. Well done to North Featherstone Junior and Infant School!

We’ve got another great website of the week that has been created by Pinehurst Primary School based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Great design, a lot of good content and relevant information are some of the main features that a good school website needs, and this school did a really good job!

I think this school website has a very unique design. It seems that the homepage includes quite a lot of different features while still looking organised and easy to navigate. You can notice the school values as soon as you open the website. They are followed by the photo gallery with some nice pictures of students and the information about school.

There is a useful navigation bar for finding information and a language bar which translates website into any language you need. I really like how the school included ‘latest news’ and ‘upcoming events’ on the homepage. It’s nice to see that the school is regularly updating these two sections with latest news and events. This information can help engage with students, parents and the wider community. What is more, the school has included a link to their Twitter page and a live Twitter feed which is another great way for engaging with everyone.

Overall, a really well-designed primary school website with great content. Well done to Pinehurst Primary!

Another great website of the week! This week we are looking at the website created by Brockholes C of E Junior and Infant School based in the village of Brockholes, West Yorkshire. It is a Church School that has been recognised by Ofsted as being an outstanding school in terms of the quality of teaching and the exemplary attitudes that children have towards their learning.
The site is designed with colourful illustrations of trees, play areas and children. A great way to add some colours to the website and to make it appealing to children! The homepage also features some images of the school life with links to other pages.
School website is very easy to navigate and there is a navigation bar which makes finding the information you need even easier. The main contact details can be easily found at the top of the homepage and more contact details can be found in the ‘About Us’ page.

I always say that it’s great when schools add their social media links on the website because it helps to engage with students and parents more. Brockholes School has included links to their Twitter and Facebook accounts on the homepage; you can also see the Twitter feed on the homepage which is great for gaining more followers. Another nice feature on the school website, is the school vision video that can be found on the homepage.
Well done to the Brockholes School for demonstrating the flexibility of School Jotter’s school web designs and for creating this good-looking and informative website.

This week’s Website of the Week comes to us from an extraordinary school based in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Highbury is a community primary school providing for children from two to eleven years who have a range of special educational needs that could not be met in regular schools.
My first thought when I saw this website was that it looks really good. Warm colours, animal illustrations and images of children make this website look very child-friendly which is what we would expect from a primary school website. Highbury school did a really good job making the website look child-friendly and still very professional at the same time.

Website is really easy to navigate. You can find the main contact details at the top of the page which is very useful. Another great thing about this website is the navigation bar which makes finding information even easier. The ‘About Us’ page includes information about school, its values and other useful information. The main information concerning students and parents can be found under ‘General Information’ and ‘Parents and Carers’ pages.
All children are divided into classes that are named after different animals which is a very nice way to engage with students. Illustrations of all animals can be found on the homepage and those illustrations direct you to the blogs of each class. Each blog features information regarding latest events and news about classes.
Another extraordinary school and another great looking primary school website. Congratulations to Highbury School!

We have another website of the week! This week we’ve chosen a website created by St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Keighley, West Yorkshire.
What makes a website stand out, is that images of students dominate on the homepage and there is almost no additional written information regarding school on the homepage. Alongside the school name and a welcoming message on the homepage, you can find the latest school tweets at the bottom of the page and the link to follow the school on Twitter. I believe it’s a great way to engage with students and parents on social media.
Although there are no obvious links for more information about the school on the homepage, everything that parents, students and community need can be found at the top right corner of the website. This makes a homepage look very simple and professional.

Another great feature, that the school offers on the website, is a blog for students. This is a great way to get students involved in the creative writing and to share any topics of interest with their peers, teachers and parents. Moreover, the school website includes information about e-safety and some links for more information on how to stay safe online. Very thoughtful!
Overall, a great looking and informative website created by St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School. Well done!

This week we’ve chosen the Aston All Saints Church of England Primary School website which has been as our Website of the Week.
The first thing that catches my eye when I look at it, is the main image of students. This image appears on all pages of the website and it seems to represent the main values of the school – Caring, Sharing, Laughing, Learning. These four values of the school are listed on the homepage; a great way of reminding students and parents what the school cares about.
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This week we’ll be taking a look at a school who have clearly picked a theme for their website and then threaded everything through it. Woodbank Primary School in Bury are clearly rather fond of their leafy green visuals, something that shows up in the school’s logo, its iconography and even its photos.

I like how, rather than letting the design or even the teachers speak to the parents, the school has very clear opinions from its students, signaling a high degree of respect. The Head Boy and Head Girl are given their own paragraphs next to glossy photos, right on the homepage – certainly something enticing for any prospective parent. It’s clear from the additional imagery on the page as well that the school takes learning seriously, with smartly-dressed students in a variety of situations.
Design-wise, this is one of our first sites to feature parallax scrolling, where images behind the text appear to move at a different speed to the body of the page, producing a more dynamic web-page and allowing for greater use of imagery. I also like the tile-based buttons at the bottom of the page, but if I were to offer a tip it’d be to put them higher up – parents want to see your important information, and while it may be in the menu bar, not everyone’s going to check this!
Overall, a great, green website, so congratulations to Woodbank School!

I think uber themes really are the future of school web design. All of our newer websites are great, but it’s the uber themes that really stand out as bold, modern and vibrant designs, while still being subtle and working on any device size. This week we’ll be looking at Halifax’s Bowling Green Primary School, as the last Website of the Week of 2015.
With Jotter 2 being three years old now we’re getting an increasing number of schools requesting upgrades to newer themes, as we saw last week with Alfreton. When you’re happy with the School Jotter software but want something a bit more modern for your front-facing website, a redesign can be an ideal, cost-effective way of getting what you need while maintaining your content in a hassle-free manner.

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