Website of the Week – Great Heights Cluster

Published: November 23, 2015

It’s not really fair to call this post a “school website” of the week – instead we’re going to be looking at Great Heights Cluster, a group of eight primaries and one secondary in Bradford, from areas including Queensbury, Great Horton and Clayton Heights – the cluster name comes from the combination of the latter two. Continue reading

Website of the Week – Brunswick Primary School, Brighton

Published: October 20, 2015

One of our Primary Website Consultants always talks about the importance of being able to “read” school websites. What can you tell about the school’s location, situation and ethos just from looking at the design and layout of the frontpage of a website. When the notification came through that Brunswick had gone live, I clicked through and instantly I knew this was a school from Brighton – and proud of it. The iconic pebble beach, the sea lapping at the footer of the page, the regency promenade and buildings – it’s Brighton through and through.
This is a great example of a bespoke theme truly reflecting the uniqueness of every school out there. This is no one-size-fits-all, slightly-modified theme we’ve slapped onto a template, this is a theme where care has clearly gone into what the school wants and needs, and this is really reflected in the design.


Part of what has made this site so unique is the circumstances of its formation – Brunswick is a brand new Primary school, combining the previous Davidgor Infants and Somerhill Primary schools – both Webanywhere customers. This has meant that we’ve been able to start with a fresh slate, creating something from the ground up, with new content and ethos.
Another thing you might notice if you view the website (and not just the static image up top) is its animated portions. These subtle accents, done using HTML5 rather than animated GIFs, comprise the children in the image waving and a seagull flying overhead in another nod to the school’s maritime location.Too often animation looks tacky, but here it’s actually used to pretty good effect! Additionally, hover your mouse over the streetlights to see the menu items illuminated.
Overall, a great website and we look forward to many years working together with Brunswick!

How to add a new sitemap to your School Jotter 2 website

Published: October 1, 2015

A sitemap is a list of all the pages on your website, which is often organised into a structured hierarchy. It’s useful to have, not only for when people want to be able to find all of the pages, but it helps Google, Bing and other search engines index your site so when people search for you they can easily find it. Continue reading

Making the most of your School Jotter Website

Published: September 25, 2015

By Becky Cunliffe
There are many posts online about how to make a great website, and many similar posts on what to avoid; these tend to be fairly generic. In this blog I’ll summarise some of the key things that, in my opinion, should be considered, and what should be forgotten about, when it comes to school websites in particular.
My top tips:

  1. Remember the Purpose – It’s important to remember what the point of the website is. Is it to encourage parents to use your school? Is it a portal for parents? Is it for students to check for events?
    Remember you may have other systems or sites for these purposes, so link to them rather than try to fit it all on your website.
  2. Make it easy to find – Navigation is crucial and can lose visitors; if it is not easy to see where to go, they may give up.
  3. Planning – Rushing into the site may result in bulky pages, so always try to plan out what pages you are going to have and what should be on them. Don’t forget to use links to try and keep pages short, if they want more information they can go to the additional pages.
  4. Update it – Nothing discourages visitors more than finding an event being advertised that was over 5 years ago, as this creates the impression that the site may no longer be in use. Likewise, try to remove your old website from the web to stop parents ending up in the wrong place.
  5. Use colour – Try to not make the website a textbook. Add some relevant images or colour to the page, but do make sure your page is still readable and easy on the eyes.

I would strongly recommend avoiding the following:

  1. Sound – This can startle visitors and often they will simply mute their speaker. It also asks the question, why do you need that sound?
  2. Animation – Small gifs can be useful but try to avoid anything that changes the whole page, such as leaves falling down the page. This just causes annoyance when trying to view the page and can get in the way.
  3. Several-tiered menus – Keep your navigation to 1-2 submenus only. At a certain point the visitor may be lost, or if its a hover-over menu they may lose their place.
  4. Large files – Keep images, files, videos etc to a smaller size so visitors are not waiting on downloads.
  5. Too much info – Remember, a website is there to show information, but try not to overwhelm it with too many pages. Use the other Jotter Apps and any system or sites you may have, and try to remember what the purpose is of each to avoid duplication.

School Jotter of the Week: Elloughton Primary School

Published: February 21, 2014

Elloughton Primary School near Hull is a place ‘where children are happy and want to be’, according to the introduction on the Homepage of their school website. Everything about the website reflects this statement, both in terms of the design and the content.

Firstly, there’s the beautiful photography that’s been used on the Homepage – shots of schoolchildren enjoying learning or looking studious, and generally lots of smiles.
The website also has an Our Community section. This is a great place for the school to not just shout about how they involve pupils in the community (the School Council, consisting of representatives from each class, and Eco Warriors (a group of pupils who drive initiatives in and around the school) but to showcase staff and governors.


The Showcasing Our Work section is the school’s opportunity to display work created by pupils in picture form – a great way for the children to feel proud about their work. Finally, the Vision & Aims section shows that the school really are clear on what they’re about, and why they are a school worth considering.
To view Elloughton Primary School’s School Jotter website click here. To find out how your school website can reflect your vision, values and ethos, get in touch with us here.

School Jotter of the Week: Cullingworth Village Primary School

Published: December 13, 2013

The look and feel of the site is personalised to the school itself, encompassing the school building and local features, including the moving train and viaduct bridge.

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School Jotter of the Week: Thames Primary Academy

Published: December 6, 2013

As Thames Primary Academy is located in Blackpool, it seems fitting that their homepage reflects this. The flash based homepage has moving elements of a rollercoaster and flashing lights on the Blackpool tower. From this homepage there are four areas that you can explore depending on what you’re looking for – School, Thames CC, Nursery and Governors.

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School Jotter of the Week: Stirchley Community Primary School

Published: November 29, 2013

This modern, easy to navigate School Jotter website is kept right up to date with all the latest from Stirchley Community Primary School. This site is packed full of information and pictures showing visitors to the site what the children are getting up to.

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School Jotter of the Week: Osmotherley Primary School

Published: November 22, 2013

Located in the idyllic village of Osmotherley in North Yorkshire, Osmotherley Primary School is surrounded by beautiful countryside, which is mirrored by their School Jotter website.

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School Jotter of the Week: Holmwood School

Published: November 15, 2013

Holmwood School’s homepage is bright and welcoming, yet simple and comprehensive. The happiness and creativity of the school is reflected throughout the site, making it a great online showcase.

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