When budgets are tight, a new school website can seem like a luxury. But here are 5 ways you can use your website to save you money.

1. Upload school newsletters to the website. Not only does this save printing & paper costs, but prospective parents can also get a flavour of the fun and interesting things which go on in your school.
2. Upload letters to parents to the website. Again, this saves printing & paper costs, but also admin time when letters get lost. Parents can download or view current letters online plus access older letters. If you think letters to parents are too sensitive for general consumption, just place them on a password protected page.
3. Reduce the burden on office staff from calls, emails or questions from parents. Ask office staff what are the most common questions they deal with. Then add a quick links section on the school website home page linking to information on each ‘hot topic’. Common examples include information on: Term dates, uniform policies & admissions.
4. Put your prospectus online and save printing, postage and admin costs. This can be as simple as a pdf prospectus for download or an interactive ‘page turning prospectus‘
5. Add job vacancies to the school website. This can save admin time by having all the job details, application forms and application process all in one place. You can even save money by having a smaller add with a link to your website where you can expand on the role. And don’t forget what a great first impression your website should be to any prospective staff.

Crucial to all this of course is a website which you can quickly and easily update within the school, with no special (and expensive!) knowledge or skills.

We’re sure there’s many more ways you can use your school website to save money – let us know and we’ll compile a list.

Of course, these are just tangible benefits and it’s all too easy to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. We’re going to take a close look at all the ‘intangibles’ such as more engaged parents and more positive representation in the community in another post.