Website design for schools

Objectives
What do you want to get out of the website? Is it just for show? Is it an information and work repository? Do you want to use it to promote the school and get the name about? It could be any or all of these, but it's important to have in mind what you want the website to achieve in order to monitor its success.

Hosting
The decision for hosting will probably come down to finances. Local government in the UK do provide web space on a shared platform with which comes a free [county].sch.uk domain name. It's all hosted by RM and is great is you want free hosting and a website that doesn't change much.

If on the other hand you require something more dynamic, say with a forum, news articles or a portal, then you're going to need to look for professional web hosting. Rather than recommend anyone in particular, just ask around the local business community and parents. See what they say and who they might recommend.

Do you have time?
Setting up the website can take a lot of time if you're ding it yourself. Even if you are leaving it to someone else to build, you will still need to devote enough time to ensure the design it right, the words are correct and you're happy with the way it will be managed and updated.

Research
Get out there an talk to people. Parents, pupils, governors, staff and members of the local community. They'll all have useful information to contribute to what they think a website could or should do.

Misc
Here's an excerpt form Paul Boag's forthcoming book "Website Owner's Manual" that gives you the first chapter for free. It covers many of the above topics in more detail and when it's published I'd urge you to buy it.

- Sponge Project: my business / personal blog that gives you news, views and (sometimes) useful information on all things web.

- Boagworld: a podcast and blog dedicated top people who design, build and run websites on a daily basis.

Again another one that can come down to finances, but should also consider the time aspect. Doing it yourself will take up a lot of time probably for about 3 to 6 months as it all comes together. Also it depends on your won technology literacy. If you can type and know your way around a computer, then chances are you could probably do some of it yourself using a Content Management System.

This is where an agency could help, who will look to take all of this work and do it for you. There is still an element of time form your end to help brief them and tell them what you want, support during the project and then help with testing and launching the site once it's built. But it will costs money, so bear that in mind.

The "other way" is to engage with parents, pupils, governors or the local business community. You never know who or what you might find that will help you in your quest. I did one for my son's school, Tirlebrook Primary School out of the goodness of my heart. Drop me a line or visit Sponge Project to find out more.

Always a tricky one, but it depends upon your own technical expertise. If you can type and/or handle most modern word processing programs, than maintaining a website via a Content Management System (CMS) shouldn't be too hard.

My personal favourite is Wordpress which is mainly a blogging platform, however doubles up as a very effective CMS for any website, particularly a school's. You have the ability to write and manage a series of pages and news articles (posts), as well as extend it to include various widgets such as email newsletters, contact forms or a "what people think" quotes generator.

Every county, borough or city council tend to have a section on their website for parents and teachers, outlining the kinds of things they need to consider when looking at a new website. Such information could include privacy, data protection or who to talk to for more advice.

Gloucestershire County council offer a quick guide outlining some of the key points and there's a slightly out of date but still useful article on Teachernet.