4 School Website Design Ideas (And Why You Should Choose One)

Your school website is one of the most important marketing materials you could ever invest in, attracting prospective parents, keeping students informed and presenting your school as a progressive institute.

When creating a great school website, many criteria need to be met in order for it to be a success. These include beautiful design, ease of user experience, a well thought out layout, professionally taken photographs, a range of additional features such as a school calendar and much more..

As school website developers, we want to share 4 school website design ideas and why you should invest in high quality design, when you come to refresh yours.

Barnton Community Primary School & Nursery

With a large amount of local competition, branding is an important factor for many schools, including primary schools and nurseries. Our team created this stunning design showcasing the vibrant personality of Barnton Community Primary School and Nursery, whilst also aligning the branding with their Trust and the other schools in their Trust. This design is modern, fresh and friendly, which is uncluttered and looks fantastic on mobile.

Haslington Primary Academy

A recent project for us was the Haslington Primary Academy, showcasing stunning pops of colour, taken from their new logo and clear layout that is easy for a user to navigate. One of our favourite parts of their new website is the message from their Head Teacher, it sets the tone of the school and it intensifies the eye catching school website design we created.

Weaver Trust

Alongside our three stunning school website design ideas above, we also wanted to include the design of a fantastic Trust website. Weaver Trust is a multi-academy trust in Cheshire, encompassing 4 schools in the North West. Maintaining the iconic red from Weaver Trust’s logo, we designed this new website to reflect the innovative and progressive ethos the Trust exhibits. Using a range of images from across the four schools, their website design is clean and fresh and the typography is modern and clean, in keeping with their brand.

Why You Should Invest In High Quality Website Design

Much like with any of the school website design ideas above, you can rest assured we can support your school from start to finish. There are many benefits to investing in high quality web design as well as a professional design agency including:

  • Responsive web design that looks great on various devices
  • Fully bespoke to your school’s specific needs.
  • Eye catching design that will create a lasting first impression on prospective parents
  • Design that allows you to stay ahead of your competition
  • Unrivalled support from a professional team, available Monday to Friday
  • Helps reduce your workload and saves you time
  • Consistent branding across online platforms, boosting brand recognition

How Do You Make A Good School Website?

There are many things that help a prospective parent determine whether a website is good or not, from the imagery, overall design, navigation and accessibility. To help you out, we’ve put together a list of 5 key elements you need to keep in mind when designing or building your school website.

#1 Eye Catching & Interesting Photography

In a sea of school websites, you want yours to stand out the most, by having eye catching photography, you can almost guarantee your audience will be captivated by your school photos. Take this photo for example, it is a real action shot that shows just what your children would experience and learn if they were going to attend Crewe Engineering and Design UTC. Shots like this really stand out and present a clear message to your audience from the get go.

#2 Well Organised Navigation

One of the most frustrating things as a website user is not being able to navigate around a website easily. Well thought out organisation and navigation is vital in ensuring your users can find the information they need, quickly and easily. Without this, you will put users off and they will most likely leave your website feeling frustrated.

#3 Design & Build A Useful Homepage

Alongside a well organised navigation, you should design and build a useful homepage. What we mean by “useful” is a homepage that gives information to users in a clear and appealing way. Your homepage needs to follow a structure allowing users to naturally find the information they need. For example, quick links are always valuable on a homepage along with a news and calendar for regular events.

#4 Responsive Design & Accessibility

Another really important thing to consider when building a fantastic school website is responsive design and accessibility. Is your current website accessible to everyone? Can your audience view your website on a wide range of devices? A school that values accessibility and responsive design is a school that is inclusive of all and ensures that its website can be viewed by everyone.

#5 The Overall Design

The most important thing is your overall design, if it isn’t laid out clearly and presented in an appealing way, how do you expect to get prospective parents interested? With every school website we design, the school’s values and ethos are at the forefront, making sure we showcase exactly why students should be excited to attend their school.

We often offer the full website package to clients too, ensuring every last detail is managed to perfection by our team, including their photography and videography, website design, optimisation and online marketing such as Google Ads and social media advertisement.

What Should I Put On My School Website?

It’s not always easy to determine what you need to put on your school website which is why we have created a top 10 checklist. If you’ve ticked all of these off, then you can rest assured your school website is informative and fully functional.

#1 Ofsted Requirements

Your school website needs to be Ofsted compliant and follow the regulations predetermined by our UK Government. If you are looking to develop a website for any of the following, there are set guidelines you need to follow:

  • Academies – This includes free schools, studio schools and UTCs.
  • Sixth Form Colleges
  • General Further Education Colleges

As a minimum, you need to ensure you are following the latest advice, which can be found here.

#2 A School Calendar

One of the most popular parts of any school website is the calendar, which is exactly why it is number 2 on our checklist. Most parents will regularly check this calendar for term dates and dates to note in their diaries so make sure you regularly update this.

#3 A Contact Form

A vital element to any website is your contact form. Your contact form is one of the best ways for your audience to communicate directly with your school, whether that be to enquire about joining in September, term dates or to report a pupil absent.

#4 Up To Date Photos

We know we have spoken about school photography already in this blog, but it is key to creating a great first impression. By keeping your photos up to date you are showing prospective parents that you are always developing and growing as a progressive school.

#5 Well Crafted Content

Well crafted content is an amazing way to attract prospective parents and really showcase your school. Partnering up with your new professional photos and videos, you can paint a picture of what your school is exactly like.

Top Tip – Having a compelling message from your head teacher is a must. Your head teacher sets the tone for your school so sharing a message from them is a great way to portray your school in a positive light.

Why Choose A WordPress Website For Your School?

There are currently 64 million websites on the WordPress platform with over 400 million people visiting WordPress websites every month, which really speaks for itself. Every school website we build is built in WordPress, simply because it is the best platform out there.

It’s a robust content management system that is ideal for creating and managing your website. We really love engaging WordPress as our chosen CMS because it is so reliable. At present, WP controls 60% of the CMS market, powering 34% of websites across the world so you know you’re in good hands.

Plus, it is a flexible platform making it easy for us to help enhance your website security and optimise it for search engines.

How Do I Create A School Website?

If you’re looking to build a new school website, you’ve come to the right place! We offer bespoke school websites to schools, colleges, and universities across the UK, with in person appointments being regularly booked by clients across Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire.

The long and short of the process is – let us manage it for you. We have a whole design, web and marketing team to coordinate the whole process from start to finish. To help you understand some of the key tasks we support schools with include:

  • Searching and purchasing a suitable domain name
  • Creating contemporary and bespoke website visuals styled appropriately to a school’s branding and core values
  • Building and coding new, modern websites that are fully functional, accessible and mobile friendly

As WordPress experts and professional designers, we wouldn’t recommend opting to create your own website with alternative web builders or without the influence of a designer. Everything we do has creativity centred at the core, so we more than most, appreciate the value design can bring to a school, college or university. A professional, engaging and user friendly website can work wonders for your school and can attract your target audience within seconds.

We offer bespoke school websites for educational institutes across the UK, to book a free consultation with our team, please call us on 01270 252 106 or fill in our contact form below.