What to include on a school website to keep it useful and up to date
A question we’re often asked by schools is: what should we include on our website?
Schools are under constant pressure to communicate more. More updates, more messages, more documents, more platforms. It is easy for that pressure to spill over into the website, with the best of intentions. Over time, pages get added, sections grow, and suddenly the website is trying to be everything at once.
In practice, that usually makes it harder to manage and less useful for the people it is meant to serve.
Focus on what the website is really for
A school website has two main jobs. The first is to present the school to prospective parents. It should explain what makes the school special, what values it holds, and what families can expect. This is about reassurance and clarity, not volume. Parents deciding where to send their child are unlikely to read dozens of pages, but they will notice whether the site feels confident, welcoming and well cared for.
The second job is to provide essential information for existing families. This includes statutory information, policies, term dates, contact details and key documents. These are things parents need to be able to find easily, without wading through outdated content or half-updated sections.
When a website tries to go beyond this and mirror every message, update or classroom activity, it quickly becomes difficult to keep up.
Too much content creates more work, not less
The more content a site contains, the more maintenance it requires. Pages need updating, links need checking, documents need replacing and dates need reviewing. When this does not happen consistently, the website starts to feel neglected. Out of date information is worse than no information at all, as it undermines trust and creates confusion.
Over-complication also makes the site harder to navigate. Important information can end up buried beneath layers of pages that are rarely updated or rarely visited.
One clear owner works better than many
Since creating our first school website in 2013, we’ve learned that websites tend to work best when they’re looked after by one clear point of contact within the school. That person does not need to create all the content themselves, but they do take responsibility for keeping the site updated and maintaining an overview of what is on it.
When lots of people dip in and out of updating the website, often only occasionally, it becomes easier for things to slip. Small changes are forgotten, processes are less familiar, and updates can take longer than they need to. When one person works on the site more regularly, they tend to stay more confident using it and are quicker to spot when something needs updating.
Not everything belongs on the website
Many schools already use apps such as ParentMail, Teachers2Parents or Schoop for timely communication. These are the right tools for day to day messages, reminders and urgent updates. Duplicating that content on the website increases admin and places parent-focused messages alongside information intended for the general public.
A better approach is to update the website in a simpler, more sustainable way. Adding a termly newsletter, sharing key announcements, or displaying a social media feed keeps the site feeling current without creating unnecessary workload. A school website does not need to do everything. It just needs to do the right things, and do them well!
Support makes the difference
A streamlined website is easier to maintain, but support still matters. With the school websites we create, schools know they can get in touch for fast, responsive email or phone support. That’s in addition to the comprehensive user guide that we provide with every site. This helps keep websites accurate, up to date and genuinely useful.
Our school websites are built on WordPress (the most popular content management system on the web!) which gives schools a solid, familiar and well supported platform to work with. The site is straightforward to keep updated, and supported by a platform that is not going anywhere.
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