A school website is more than just a digital brochure. It is a powerful tool for communication, marketing, and branding that can showcase the school’s vision, values, and achievements to prospective and current students, parents, staff, and the wider community. A good school website can also enhance the school’s reputation, attract more enrolments, and foster loyalty and trust.
However, creating a website for a UK school is not something just any web designer can do. UK school websites face many challenges and requirements that are specific to the education sector, such as:
- Accessibility: School websites must comply with the [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1], which ensure that web content is accessible to people with disabilities, such as visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments. This means that school websites must have features such as clear navigation, readable fonts, contrast colours, alternative text for images, captions for videos, and keyboard accessibility.
- Compliance: School websites must also comply with the [School Information (England) Regulations 2020], which specify the information that schools must publish on their websites, such as contact details, admission arrangements, curriculum, policies, performance data, pupil premium, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), governance, and values and ethos.
- Security: School websites must protect the privacy and safety of their users, especially children and young people. This means that school websites must have features such as secure hosting, encryption, backups, firewalls, anti-virus software, and consent forms for data collection and processing.
- Content management: School websites must be able to update and maintain their content regularly and easily. This means that school websites must have features such as a user-friendly content management system (CMS), responsive design, social media integration, news and events sections, newsletters, blogs, galleries, and feedback forms.
These challenges and requirements demand a specialised web design agency that understands the needs and goals of the education sector.
Comparison and Contrast with Generic Web Designers
In contrast to specialised web design agencies who have the experience, expertise, and creativity to create stunning and effective school websites, generic web designers who do not have the same level of knowledge and skill may not be able to meet the standards and expectations of UK schools. Some of the drawbacks and disadvantages of choosing generic web designers for school websites are:
- Lack of understanding: Generic web designers may not understand the specific needs and goals of UK schools, such as accessibility, compliance, security, and content management. They may not be familiar with the regulations and guidelines that school websites must follow, or the features and benefits that school websites must offer. They may also not be able to capture the unique identity and culture of each school.
- Lack of quality: Generic web designers may not be able to deliver the same level of quality and professionalism that specialised web design agencies can. They may not have the same level of experience, expertise, or creativity to create bespoke designs that suit the individual needs and goals of each school. They may also not have the same level of resources, tools, or technology to create user-friendly, mobile-responsive, full of features, easy to maintain, and consistent with the school brand identity websites.
- Lack of support: Generic web designers may not be able to provide the same level of support and service that specialised web design agencies can. They may not be able to offer ongoing maintenance, updates, training, or advice for school websites. They may also not be able to offer a dedicated account manager, a fast turnaround time, or a flexible pricing plan for school websites.
These drawbacks and disadvantages show how choosing generic web designers for school websites can result in poor outcomes, wasted resources, and missed opportunities for UK schools. They also show how choosing specialised web design agencies can save time, money, and hassle for UK schools in the long run.
If you are interested in creating a stunning and effective school website for your school, please contact 2020media.com for more information. We work with a number of design agency organisations who specialise in School websites.