In the second post of this series, following on from ‘What is my site for?‘ we’ll be looking at who your school website is for, what they specifically want from your site and how to meet that want.

So who are the users of your site – and is there anything they specifically want?

Parents

Requirement Priority:
High

Requirement:
Parents are very important when considering requirements for your school website. Parents of prospective pupils often make the decision which school their child will attend, and your website can be a good indicator of what your school is like, and what activities go on in the life of your school. For parents of existing students your school website should be a key area of information, it should tell them what they need to know and that information should be easy to find. Parents are interested in the work of their children, displaying that work appropriately should help with increased levels of engagement between parents and school.

Tips:
Make sure your website navigation is clear and logical, and your content is up to date. For a primary school displaying classwork on a blog is a great way of regularly sharing with parents what their children are doing. For a secondary school a more appropriate way to share this might be through twitter, with the feed displayed on your website. Tweeting about activities going on in the life of school, particularly while on school trips.

 

OFSTED

Requirement Priority:
High

Requirement:
OFSTED are mainly looking for your statutory content. We recently posted about what statutory content they might be looking for here. It’s a legal requirement to meet the OFSTED requirements, and failing to do so can lead to negative consequences in your report and overall grading. The role of OFSTED is to inspect and regulate schools to achieve excellence in education, the requirements they set out for your website are designed to improve your website and the information offered.

Tips:
Remember that the OFSTED requirements are a legal requirement and should be followed, but that their requirements in most cases will also be requirements of other users of your site. So when fulfilling these requirements it’s not just a box ticking exercise, you are improving the quality of your website and the information displayed on it, and this will benefit parents, children and others.

Students

Requirement Priority:
Medium

Requirement:
Students will probably see your website everyday, it could be the homepage on your school computers, it could have links for regularly used tools on it. However their requirements are less likely to be based on your website, and more about the other online tools you can offer, like your Learning Walls.
Potential students will probably view your website as part of their decision making or moving process. If they like the look of your website, and your school is presented as a desirable place to be, then they are more likely to choose your school/college.

Tips:
Make sure your website is readable. Try to break text up with relevant media where possible. Make sure the media is of a high quality and is interesting. Fun activities, and smiling faces are good.

 

Staff

Requirement Priority:
Medium

Requirement:
As a member of staff, most of the time the school website is just there. Information needs to be easily found on it (but you probably have all that information somewhere else anyway). Links to access online tools for learning and email are probably a high priority for staff. However the requirements for potential staff are very different. The school website will give them a taste of what school is like, and can be a big factor when candidates think about applying for a job at your school. The information has to be there and easy to find, but it needs to look good, and show of how great your school is.

Tips:
Make sure the links to external tools are accessible from the website, in an obvious place – this can help promote their use also. A staff Learning Wall might be a better way to display all of those tools rather than overcrowding your main site.
For potential staff ensure your site is easy to navigate, and that images are good quality and show off your school.

Others

Requirement Priority:
Medium

Requirement:
There are also people who may visit your website but don’t necessarily fit into any one group. They could be relatives of a student, staff from another school, home movers wanting to see what the local area is like. They will probably be looking for content to read. There is not usually specific requirements for this group – as it’s not a specific group of people. But if they visit your website they need to be able to find content interesting to them quickly, and that content needs to be easy to read and up to date. By meeting the requirements for the groups above, you should be able to meet the other visitor’s requirements.

Tips:
Follow the 3 R’s for your website’s content. Readable, Relevant, and Regular.

 

Governors

Requirement Priority:
Low

Requirement:
The governors work hard and care about school, they will want to present it as the best it can be. Sometimes they will be the decision makers for projects like a new website. They should also want to meet the requirements of all of the groups mentioned above. Any additional requirements can be reviewed, but the priority of them should not be as high. Functionality on the school website for governors purposes should be a nice extra not a point of key importance.

Tips:
Good governors will be concerned with meeting the most important requirements for the website, usually their requirements will line up with all the groups above. If they don’t, think about who the website is for, and who’s requirements are more important.

Lastly… you!

Requirement Priority:
Low

Requirement:
As someone who wants to keep up to date with technology, and is probably quite likely that you are in charge of the school website, marketing the school via the website, or managing content updates. It’s sometimes hard to accept, but your website requirements are often the low priority. Your requirements are the most important to us – your website CMS provider. We want it to be as easy and quick as possible for you to manage and update your site. However if your requirements cross-over with another group of users then they can become more so.

Tips:
Try not to put your own opinions as the most important things, you might be in charge of the website, but your responsibility in that role is to make the site fulfil it’s purpose. Is it primarily a marketing tool, you’ll be wanting to meet the requirements of prospective parents and students. If the purpose is to better engage with your school community, consider the requirements of the parents and others from your community who might visit your site.