We’ve just pushed the latest update to School Jotter live. You might have noticed these are coming more frequently now – we’re aiming for smaller, more frequent, more agile releases every two weeks, rather than a big one every few months.

Site

• A new Files Download element has been added that allows you to share files and folders to your school website.
• Pinterest has been added to the social networks list (compatible bespoke themes only.)
• Extra security has been added to blogs that have been embedded on the website.
• An issue that broke pagination of embedded blogs has been resolved.
• An issue where CSV results were exported incorrectly from Forms has been resolved.
• An issue where images could not be removed from News stories has been resolved.

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Schools should always make sure they meet Ofsted requirements when it comes to their website content and structure. It is also very important their school website design looks outstanding in order to appeal to parents, teachers and pupils.
A big majority of school websites look too colourful and it’s hard to read their content, so we thought to create an infographic with school website design tips as a guide for schools to take into consideration when they built their own website.
We hope you enjoy it!
 

 
Since 2003, School Jotter have been working with thousands of schools across the UK and worldwide to develop the best school website and e-learning software. We always make sure our school web design reflects the ethos of each individual school.
 

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!

As of this month, new Ofsted guidelines on school websites have gone into force, but it’s a bit confusing what these actually are. We’ve written this blog post to help demystify the changes a bit, and it should be helpful whether or not you’re a School Jotter user.
The main focus of the new requirements is governor disclosure. Basically, you now have to put information on who your governors are, what they do etc onto your website on a publicly accessible page – previously, this was recommended but not compulsory information. So here’s what you’ll need:

• Name: You’ll need to have the names of your governors – photos can also help, but aren’t compulsory
• Category: What type of governor are they?
• Which body appoints them: Who appointed them to their position as governor
• Their term of office: When will they be serving until? Is it a time-limited or a more permanent position?
• Committees: The names of any gubernatorial committees they serve on
• Their positions of responsibility: For example, if they’re the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary etc – what position do they hold?
• Voting rights: What things can they vote on and how this will influence the school?

Additionally, in order to make sure that any potential conflicts of interest are laid bare, the following information needs to be disclosed to the public:

• Any relevant business interests: Who they work for – are they part of a company who might benefit from school contracts?
• Details of positions at other schools: Do they govern any other schools? If not, this doesn’t need to be filled in.
• Any relationships at the school: If a governor has a relationship to another governor or member of staff at the school, you’ll need to put it down here. This includes spouses, partners and relatives.

Of course, these are just the new requirements – there’s still plenty of existing ones! Take a look at our Ofsted checklist for more information – you can print it out and tick off the areas you’re compliant in to give you a better idea of how you’re doing. Alternatively, perhaps you’d be interested in a free healthcheck by one of our website consultants – you don’t need to be with School Jotter, we’re here to help you!

With School Jotter website designs, every school can have a website design that’s completely personal and bespoke to them.
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Recently, we featured a School Jotter website that acted as a website for two schools (Mary Howard and St Andrew’s Primary Schools) and talked about how this can be a useful solution for smaller schools that want a fantastic website without the price tag.
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One of the hardest tasks for some schools is not just engaging pupils in their learning – but engaging parents in the pupil’s learning, too.
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One of the best things about writing our weekly School Jotter of the Week blog post is the number of great school websites we get to share with you. Plus, looking back over the past couple of years, we can see how the Webanywhere school website design team have gone from strength to strength!
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Bishopstone CoE Primary School’s website has one of the most interesting designs we’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. The Wiltshire school has gone for a splash page to entice visitors into their website – and you can see this above.
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This week’s website is a natural choice. Coxhoe School’s website is famous amongst primary schools across the UK, because it is home to hundreds of teaching resources.

Webanywhere is rather proud of the fact that Coxhoe School chose School Jotter as its website system – and this week, their website was relaunched with a brand new look. Webanywhere was there to document the occasion, and you can read more about this in our blog post here.
The website itself boasts a beautiful design, based around a castle background. The theme is continued through to the menus, which, when you hover over them, drop down further menu options in the style of ancient medieval scrolls.
As always, the website is full of resources, with the curriculum links section taking you through to dozens of links to resources for any subject or key stage you would need. This, along with the outstanding website design, should keep Coxhoe School at the top of the pile when it comes to school websites, for a long time to come.
To view Coxhoe School’s website click here. To find out how your school could have an outstanding website designed by Webanywhere, that’s easy to update and maintain yourself, click here.