How a good school website can improve communications

Effective communication in any business is crucial but good communication within a school community is imperative. With so many people involved in the school; from teachers, parents and students, having a first class website can be key to opening up lines of communication. 

First impressions count

What do most of us do when we want to find out more about something? We Google it right? Well, prospective parents, potential future students and teachers will no doubt search your school online and having a good, interactive, effective website is key to keeping them captivated and ensuring your school stays at the forefront of their minds.

Your school website is the first chance you get to portray the personality and culture of your school. It’s a chance to communicate your mission, goals and ambitions to stakeholders and incoming families and having an up-to-date, cohesive and attractive website will show off your school and it’s values in the best possible way. 

Keeping parents in the loop

In 1997, the Government outlined their expectations that schools would involve parents more in their whitepaper. Fast forward 22 years and communicating with parents is still one of schools’ priorities. 

Communicating with your pupils’ families can develop valuable partnerships and provides families with a deeper understanding of your school and what you’re doing to help their child. 

Having a parents section on your website can save the school letters getting lost on the way home and stops the needless printing and paper costs. Instead, you can upload the information your parents need to know on your website, in a secure, dedicated section. There, parents can access the latest information, perhaps view photos from a school trip and keep updated with any changes which may affect their child. 

Student success

Showcasing your students work and success stories can add a human touch to your school website, in turn increasing its appeal. Not only can you showcase your students work on your website but your students can be involved in the website through their IT classes and their English lessons, giving them a real life, visible outlet on which to practice their skills and learn interactively. 

Building trust

Trust is at the heart of any school environment and schools rely on trust to build the bonds they have with staff, teachers, pupils and the local community. However, with the landscape of education changing rapidly, more schools than ever are facing tougher scrutiny making bonds between the school and the outside world more difficult to form. 

Therefore, effective communication from the school is essential to building, and maintaining, that trust. An interactive, well informed website can help the local community form opinions about the school and, hopefully, build a feel-good factor around your school and everyone who is a part of it. Having a good website with stellar communication is at the heart of trust as research recently suggested that 75% of users admit to making judgements about an organization's credibility based on their website design.  

Responsive website design is key to effective communications and, having an aesthetically pleasing website packed with relevant content and up-to-date information can help propel your schools reputation and trust to the top of the class. 

To find out about how Concept4 can help you redesign your school website, please click here.