Every school has had budgets tightened lately and it can be hard to plan out where to spend any money left after all the essentials such as staff (pretty important that one!), building upkeep needs and all the day-to-day resources. What little is left needs to be carefully planned to ensure every penny has an impact and an outcome. We know there are lots of education technology companies telling you that their technology can prompt huge learning outcomes but we aren’t really in that line of work. We can promise, however, that your school website can have a big impact and can have an outcome on home-school communications, school branding and image, and can make your procedures more efficient in a number of ways – especially if combined with one of our bespoke school apps.

In this blog, we will look at a few of the advantages of spending a bit of your school budget on a new website or a redesign of your current site and ways you can ensure maximum output for minimum input (and the best news is we aren’t even talking megabucks!)

1)    Host the school newsletters online

A simple and effective way to save money and ensure no-one can say the newsletter was missed due to being screwed up at the bottom of a child’s book bag! Many schools are moving away from the distribution of copies to every child in favour of putting the newsletter online. Having just a few copies printed and available from the school office for those parents without internet access. Our school apps can also help you to get newsletters directly into the hands of parents using push notifications.

2)    Absence reporting

Our bespoke school apps are free for parents to download and allow schools to send push notifications and share photo galleries and diaries. Our Premium school apps go a huge step further and allow parents to report absences, both planned and unplanned, via the app and can even add their signature. At a bargain price of £595* for a classic app and £795* for the premium app it is a great, cost-effective way to use school funds to free up your office staff’s time and to keep track of your absence reports.

3)    Branding and image

A school website is your online brand and image. Whether you are a standalone school or part of a federation or trust, we can help you to get your online image right for you. Corporate feel or bright and cheerful – or even a combination of the two! – we can support you with everything from website design to logo creation, and from prospectus printing to professional school photography. Whether you just want to convey your values or want to rebrand following a name change, get in touch to see how we can offer a full service to cover all your branding needs. We even have templates ready to use for a budget option!

4)    Statutory Requirements and beyond

There are, of course, Ofsted statutory requirements which inspected schools will need to include on their websites. But beyond that we can also help you with building in special navigation to ensure all of your relevant inspection documents are ready to hand for anyone in the school community – and making it easier and quicker for staff to keep these updated using our user-friendly Content Management System. Every minute saved at those more stressful times are worth every penny, and that information will be easy to find at all times too, not just when you get “the call”!

5)    Online Prospectus

Did you know your prospectus does not have to be printed to be effective? We do offer low-cost printing too, and in batches as small as 50 copies to save costs, but we can also create a beautiful e-prospectus for your website which can save you having stacks of printed brochures around school. Our prospectus templates make it easy to find a design which suits you and our professional photographer can travel the country to ensure you get high-quality photos which really reflect your school. All this helps to ensure you get that long waiting list of eager future students!

6)    Social Media Walls

A social media wall is an additional feature we can add to your website for a small one-off cost which helps you to keep your website up to date through your school Twitter and Facebook feeds. This means that parents and prospective parents can see your social media information quickly and easily without needing a social media account of their own. A simple way to ensure good communication with home as quick messages can be added instantly.

There are lots more ways you can ensure your school website is value for money at every step, as well as being an integral part of your communication within and beyond the school walls. Have a look at our portfolio of school websites if you’d like some inspiration and get in touch to find out how we can support you with great design and innovative ideas all along the way.

*plus a £95 annual fee. All prices exclude VAT.