ÌÇÐÄVlog school websites are built with integrations at their core. Our Single sign-on (SSO) capability is proof of that. In addition, our smartOptions area makes it incredibly easy to connect with key platforms like Studybugs and MyNewTerm. These platforms have seen great uptake recently.

MyNewTerm: Effortless Recruitment

Recruitment is a critical function for every school and trust. offers a powerful platform to manage school job vacancies, applications, and applicant communications.

Integrating with a school website ensures that your “Vacancies” or “Work with Us” page is always up-to-date. This seamless link allows prospective staff to view and apply for roles directly. Consequently, your recruitment drive is as efficient as possible.

With ever increasing budget pressures, schools are still faced all too regularly with spending a fortune to advertise vacancies and recruit staff. In today’s digital world, why then do we make it so difficult for candidates to apply directly? – Founder of MyNewTerm Wayne Cartmel 

To implement myNewTerm on a realsmart website all you need to do is paste two simple lines of code in place and you are ready to go!

Where this application really excels is when you use it on your multi-academy trust website, display the vacancies all across the trust in one single place, with a filterable interface you now have one port of call for all the schools in the trust.

Studybugs: Simplify Absence Reporting

is an efficient service that makes it simple for parents to report their child’s absence. This significantly reduces the administrative burden on school staff.

With on of our websites, integrating is a smooth, quick process. This means parents can navigate from your school website straight to the Studybugs portal, providing a streamlined and straightforward experience.

The advantage of schools using a service such as study bugs is that the school can analyse all of the data. This then allows early intervention.

Never miss a warning sign again. Studybugs automatically highlights and alerts you to attendance and wellbeing concerns so you can act faster. – Studybugs

There’s more

Our websites extend far beyond just these two services. Whether you need to integrate store functionality such as Shopify or a virtual learning environment (VLE) using our user roles and redirect ability, our website architecture is designed to accommodate various third-party platforms. For example, you might want to install . In any case, our aim is to make your life easier! We are a partner not a barrier.

If you need any help adding a third party service onto your school website then just drop us an email to support@realsmart.co.uk

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Here is a step by step guide and a list of crucial points to be aware of during the transition.

The Transition Process: A Step by Step Approach

1. Initial Assessment and Planning

Before engaging a new provider, thoroughly assess your current website’s performance, what you like and dislike, and what features you want to see in the new website.

• Define Your Goals: What do you want the new website to achieve? (e.g., better communication, increased enrollment inquiries, improved accessibility).
• Establish Key Stakeholders: Identify who needs to be involved in the decision making and content creation process (e.g., Headteacher, Governors, IT lead, administrative staff).
• Set a Realistic Timeline: Work backward from your desired launch date or end of current contract, allocating time for planning, content migration, design iteration, and testing.

2. Provider Selection

Research and select a provider that specializes in school websites and understands the unique requirements of the education sector. Take advantage of bespoke functionality that is aimed at schools. 

• Review Portfolios: Look at examples of other schools they have worked with.
• Request a Demo: Ensure the Content Management System (CMS) is intuitive and easy for staff to use.
• Check Support and Training: Understand what support is offered post launch and whether there are any additional costs. We have no additional costs for support or training.
• Planning for the future: Investigate how easy it is to change providers in the future, can you export your content and how easy is it to work with?

3. Design and Branding

The new website is the perfect opportunity to implement any new brand guidelines or simply give your school a visual refresh. Whether you decide to change the font you use, tweak your brand colours or even change your logo, this is the ideal stage to implement change. 

• Apply New Brand Guidelines: Ensure your new website accurately reflects your school’s ethos, colors, and logo.
• Focus on User Experience (UX): Prioritize clear navigation and mobile responsiveness. Most users will access your site on a phone or tablet.

4. Content Strategy and Creation

This is the most time consuming step but is essential for a successful launch.

• Start Fresh with Content: Resist the urge to simply copy and paste old, outdated material. Use this as a chance to audit, update, and rewrite content to be concise, engaging, and relevant.
• Identify Mandatory Content: Ensure all legally required documents and information are accounted for. We have a handy to ensure your school website is DFE compliant.

5. Development and Testing

The provider will build the site, but your input and rigorous testing are vital before launch.

• Regular Check-ins: Maintain open communication with the provider throughout the build process. Be open with them if you feel like a tweak is needed to the design. 
• Thorough Testing: Test on multiple devices (desktop, tablet, mobile) and browsers. Check all links, forms, and interactive elements.

6. Launch and Post Launch

Plan the migration of your domain name and be ready for immediate feedback.

• Domain Migration: Work with your IT team and the new provider to ensure a seamless switch, minimizing downtime.
• Staff Training: Ensure all relevant staff are trained on how to update and manage the new CMS.

Key Points to Be Aware Of

*For a full list of required content, please refer to the latest DfE guidelines available here:

Conclusion

This transition, while requiring effort, is an excellent investment in your school’s future, ensuring a modern, compliant, and effective digital platform for the entire school community. If you are interested in changing your school website provider to realsmart then just drop us an email, we look forward to partnering with you.

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Why wordpress?

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS) for a reason. It is flexible, scalable, and incredibly user friendly. It powers the majority of the wordwide web which in turn means it is vastly supported by a worldwide community and a wealth of knowledge.

The realsmart offering

While WordPress provides the engine, we at realsmart offer a tailored environment specifically designed for Schools and MATs. Integrating WordPress through a service like ourselves brings a suite of specialised advantages:

1. Enhanced Security and Compliance

We provide dedicated hosting and security features that are essential for protecting sensitive school and student data. This ensures your website meets the necessary regulatory standards and gives you peace of mind. Leveraging the power of tools such as AWS and Cloudflare we work with industry leading technology to give you the very best service.

2. Education-Specific Tools

With realsmart, the WordPress installation is often pre-configured or bundled with plugins and features crucial for schools, such as:

• MIS Integration: We can sync your users from your schools MIS into realsmart to allow users to log into your school website to manage their content. Alternatively we can generate a list of logins for cases where only a handfull of accounts with access are required.
• Calendar and Event Management: Easy publishing of term dates, school trips, and meetings. We can intergrate with feeds from multiple sources of calendar, from Google Calendar to Microsoft Outlook calendars and more.
• Bespoke Theme Options: Themes designed to meet the communication and aesthetic needs of a school environment. Easy to update main carousels, areas to add anayltics tracking and out of the box responsiveness.
• School Specific Plugins: We have developed a long list of plugins designed to make managing your school website easier. From policy management, job vacancies, carousels, popups and more we have plenty of solutions for you to take advanatge of.
• Multisite Functionality: Our multisite functionality makes it easy for you to manage content such as policies, menu links and news posts from one location such as the Trust website and then push this content across multiple other school websites.

3. Dedicated Support

When an issue arises, you won’t be navigating the generic WordPress forums alone. We offer dedicated, UK-based support that understands the specific needs of a school. If you need assistance, simply drop our support team an email, or find the support guide on our .

The best bit? We have no hidden costs, our support service is all part of the package. We’ve heard some fo the horror stories where schools have been charged for a simple colour change or some assistance formatting content.

4. Simplified Management

We handle the technical heavy lifting such as: updates, backups, and maintenance, allowing school staff to focus entirely on content creation and communication. We backup sites every night and store these backups on a 30 day rolling service giving you peace of mind.

Need more Information?

If there is anythin else you need to know about our offering for school websites with WordPress then just drop us a call or have a browse through all of our products. We try to post regular blog posts that will often include any new features we’ve developed or useful information to make your school life easier.

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Absolute Hyperlinks: The FULL Address

An absolute hyperlink is the complete, full URL to a destination. Think of it as a street address that includes the recipient’s name, street number, city, state, and post code. It contains all the information needed for a browser to locate the resource, regardless of where the current page is located. Here is an example of an absolute hyperlink – /school-websites/primary-school-websites/

Key Characteristics of an Absolute Hyperlink:

• It includes the protocol: It must start with http:// or https://.
• It includes the domain name: It specifies the website’s address (e.g., www.realsmart.co.uk).
• It works anywhere: It can be used to link to any resource on the internet, including a different website entirely. 

Attention! If you are linking to your website’s main page from an external site, you must use an absolute URL, for example: https://www.realsmart.co.uk/

When to Use Absolute Hyperlinks:

• Linking to external websites.
• Including links in emails (since you don’t know where the email will be opened).
• Referring to files that will be consumed outside of your website’s structure, such as in a PDF document.

Relative Hyperlinks: The Shortcut

A relative hyperlink provides a path to a resource relative to the current page. It’s like giving directions to a friend that start with “From where you are right now…” It only includes the parts of the URL that are different from the current page’s URL. The browser automatically assumes the current domain name. In our example, instead of applying a link using – /school-websites/primary-school-websites/ We would only use /school-websites/primary-school-websites/ 

Key Characteristics of a Relative Hyperlink:

• It does not include the domain name, it is assumed by the browser.
• It only works within the same website.

Consider the following examples of relative paths using as an example:

This link is using /school-websites/primary-school-websites/ and will take you to our primary school websites page.

This link is using /microsoft-active-directory-sync/ and will take you to our Microsoft sync page. 

When to Use Relative Hyperlinks:

• Linking between pages on the same website. This is the primary use case.
• Making your website more portable. If you move your entire site to a new domain name, all relative links will still work without modification, whereas absolute links would need to be updated. We see this more and more commonly with schools now joining trusts etc and their domain name will change. 

Comparison Chart

Choosing between absolute and relative links is usually straightforward once you know the destination. Below is a brief comparison:

Summary

As you can see there are use cases for both types of hyperlink but it is worth knowing the difference. Now that schools change domains a lot more frequently than in the past it is worth knowing about and implementing relative hyperlinks. Using these across your website will save you a lot of time and headache if your school ever changes its domain name, which in present day with schools joining trust, trusts merging etc is more common than ever.

The post Absolute vs. Relative Hyperlinks: What’s the Difference? appeared first on realsmart.

Why a Dedicated Vacancies Plugin?

In today’s competitive landscape, presenting job opportunities clearly and professionally is crucial. Our new plugin seamlessly integrates with your existing school website, providing a dedicated, user-friendly portal for listing and managing your school’s vacancies.

Key Benefits of the realsmart Vacancies Plugin:

• Seamless Integration: The plugin is designed to blend effortlessly with your current website’s look and feel, maintaining brand consistency.
• Easy to Use: Both for your website administrators and for prospective applicants, the plugin offers an intuitive experience. You don’t need to be a tech expert to set up and manage your listings.
• Centralized Management: Keep all your job postings in one place, making it simple to update, remove, and track applications.
• Professional Presentation: Showcase your school as an attractive employer with well-organized and easily accessible job listings.

How It Works: Simple and Intuitive

We’ve made sure the process of adding and managing vacancies is incredibly straightforward. From creating a new job posting to categorizing it and adding application details, every step is designed for simplicity.

To help you get started immediately and make the most of this powerful new tool, we’ve created a comprehensive help guide. This guide walks you through every aspect of the plugin, ensuring you can harness its full potential without any hassle.

Ready to revolutionize your school’s recruitment process? Check out our detailed help guides here:

We’re confident that the realsmart Vacancies Plugin will be an invaluable asset to your school, helping you find the perfect candidates for your team with ease. If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The post Introducing Our New Vacancies Plugin appeared first on realsmart.

Getting your website seen by search engines (like Google) can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. This is where a sitemap comes in – it’s a super important, though often an overlooked part of managing your website. Think of a sitemap not just as a technical detail, but as a detailed map for your website. It guides those search engine “robots” (called crawlers) and helps them understand what your website is all about and how it’s organised therefore making it easier to present in a results page.

What is a Sitemap?

Simply put, a sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website that you want search engines to find and include in their search results. Imagine it like the table of contents for a really big book, but for your entire website! There are two main types:

• XML Sitemaps: These are specifically made for search engines. They’re written in a special code (XML) and tell search engines extra details about each page, such as when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is compared to other pages on your site.
• HTML Sitemaps: These are lists of links that people can read and use. While not as crucial for search engine optimisation (SEO) as they once were, an HTML sitemap can still be helpful for visitors trying to navigate very large or complicated websites.

What are the benefits of having a sitemap?

1. Helps Search Engines Find and Understand Your Pages

This is probably the biggest reason to have a sitemap. Search engine bots explore the internet by following links from one page to another. Even though they’re incredibly smart, they can sometimes miss pages – especially on brand-new websites, sites with confusing layouts, or pages that are buried deep within your site. A sitemap clearly tells search engines: “Hey, here are all the pages I want you to know about!”

2. Gives Visibility to “Lost” Pages

“Orphan pages” are pages on your website that don’t have any links pointing to them from other pages on your site. Without these internal links, search engine crawlers would never be able to discover these pages. A sitemap gives search engines a direct way to find and index these otherwise isolated bits of content, making sure no valuable information goes unseen.

3. Improves Your Website’s Search Engine Ranking

By helping search engines find and understand your pages better, sitemaps directly boost your SEO efforts. Indexed pages mean more chances to rank for the right search terms, which leads to more people finding your website through search engines. It’s a basic but essential part of making your website technically sound for SEO.

How to Create and Submit a Sitemap?

Most modern website builders and content management systems such as WordPress (this is what we use!) have plugins (like Yoast SEO or XML Sitemap Generator for Google) that automatically create and update XML sitemaps for you. ÌÇÐÄVlog have the plugin XML Sitemap Generator available to use in your plugin library. All you need to do is activate the plugin and the settings page will present you with the URL for your sitemap, it really is simple!

Once you have your sitemap URL, you’ll need to tell search engines about it using their special tools:

• Google Search Console: This is the main place to submit your sitemap to Google. on uploading a new sitemap!
• Bing Webmaster Tools: For submitting your sitemap to Bing.

Make sure to regularly check your sitemap in these tools for any errors, ensuring that search engines can easily access and process it.

We hope this post helps you to go out there and create a sitemap for your school website!

Team realsmart

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Firstly we hope you are all well rested and refreshed after a nice summer break. Getting back into the stride of things can take more than a few coffees but we are here to help take the strain of managing any of the digital services you may use via realsmart. Don’t forget that our amazing support team are only an email away via support@realsmart.co.uk to assist if you need help.

What’s new?

Over the summer months we’ve been working to refine our existing products but we have also added a handful of new offerings that you may look to implement, these include:

• Apple Sync tool: We have developed a tool that will allow you to sync your MIS data into Apple School Manager, allowing the provision of Users, Courses and Rosters across to all of your Apple Devices. We’ve developed a user friendly interface to take you though this process step by step. Check out more information on our Apple Sync Page and keep an eye out for more features.
• Active Directory Sync: Our AD Sync tool is now out of beta and being used by a number of schools. We pull users from your MIS and then send this data to Active Directory to create users, groups and organisational units. A sleek interface and the ability to schedule when the task is run helps you save time and effort in user management.
• Microsoft Entra Sync: The final piece of the puzzle. Taking the MIS data and provisioning it to Microsoft, still in the early stages but our aim is to offer a product that mirrors what we currently provide for Google. Drop us an email if this is a service you would be interested in using.

What else do we offer?

We know there are a fair few of you that make use of our full suite of tools but there are also plenty that maybe only use a single service we offer. Why spread your solutions out via multiple providers when realsmart can offer you multiple solutions in a single package?

Here is a quick reminder of what we offer:

• School websites: We offer bespoke professional website design solutions for schools & Multi-Academy Trusts, have a look at some of our recent work. Our websites are easy to manage and come with a suite of plugins that focus on school specific actions such as displaying events, managing policies and loads more.
• MIS to Google Sync: Our google sync is the most advanced on the market. Taking all of your MIS data and provisioning it to Google. We provide a sync that provisions users, groups, timetables, classrooms and more. Our simple interface provides easy management and the ability to look into each module and customise your experience.
• Google Workspace upgrades: As a trusted Google partner and reseller we are able to provide you with upgrades to your Google Workspace for Education licenses, these are available in 3 tiers starting with Free access. Interested in the use of Google Gemini? Get in touch with us.
• Chromebook QR Code login: Sometimes passwords just don’t cut it, especially with younger users and in classroom situations. Our QR code login solution offers a simply and effective way to get your students logged in fast and efficiently.

Help and advice

As well as our friendly support, developer and design teams we have a useful library of articles that can walk you through some of the day to day issues that crop up now and again. Our is the first place to stop if you need a quick refresh on editing your website, managing a use issue or trying to implement a new solution within your school.

We are always open to suggestions on ways to improve our products and new features you would find useful. We work with you as a partnership so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Keeping it real!

Team realsmart

The post Our offer, Welcome Back! appeared first on realsmart.

No Hidden Costs

One of the most significant concerns for schools is budgeting. realsmart offers transparent pricing with no hidden costs. This means schools can plan their expenses effectively without worrying about unexpected fees for updates or support. We often hear from new schools about how they were unexpectedly charged by their old provider, sometimes for something as simple as a colour change!!

Regular Updates

Websites need regular updates to ensure security, functionality, and relevance. We take care of these updates, ensuring the school website stays current and protected. This proactive approach saves schools valuable time and prevents potential issues. Everything we change or update is thoroughly checked and tested in a like for like development environment. 

Pride in our website support

ÌÇÐÄVlog prides itself on providing exceptionally responsive support for all of our services including our school websites and Sync services. Our dedicated support team aims to address all tickets within an hour, ensuring minimal disruption to your website operations. Furthermore, we actively monitor website uptimes using our in-house heartbeat monitor, allowing us to proactively identify and resolve potential issues before they impact your users. This commitment to quick responses and continuous monitoring ensures a reliable and stable online presence for your school.

Our team monitor all support requests even out of hours and our useful allows you to browse FAQ’s and useful guides all with the aim of helping you manage your school website easily.

Easy-to-Use WordPress Backend

ÌÇÐÄVlog websites are built upon the user-friendly WordPress platform. This easy-to-use backend allows school staff to easily manage content, add updates, and make necessary changes without needing extensive technical knowledge. The intuitive interface simplifies website management, reducing the learning curve and saving time. The very latest WordPress editor is as simple as stacking lego bricks! Want a gallery? Select the gallery block, want a table? Select the table block. Drag and drop these into the order you desire and away you go.

Benefits Summary

Here is a quick summary of the benefits we provide:

• Transparent pricing with no hidden costs
• Regular website updates to ensure security and functionality
• A service we are proud of
• Easy-to-use WordPress backend for simple content management

We offer reliable, efficient, and cost-effective website support, making us an ideal partner for schools seeking to maintain a strong online presence.

The post Our Top-Notch Website Support for Schools appeared first on realsmart.

A well-designed primary school website is essential for building strong relationships between schools and parents. By providing easy access to important information, such as school events, curriculum details, and policies, schools can keep parents informed and involved in their child’s education. This open communication fosters trust and creates a more supportive learning environment for all.

Key Benefits of a Primary School Website for Parent Communication:

1. A Central Hub for Information:
   • School Calendar: Keep parents updated on important dates, events, and holidays.
   • Curriculum Information: Share details about subjects taught and assessment methods.
   • News and Announcements: Communicate important updates, achievements, and school activities.
   • Policies and Procedures: Provide clear guidelines on school policies, such as attendance, privacy, behaviour, and homework.
2. Improved Communication and Trust:
   • Open Communication: A well-maintained website demonstrates the school’s commitment to transparency and open communication with parents.
   • Trust Building: Sharing information regularly helps parents feel more connected to the school and builds trust in the educational process.
3. Improved Parent Engagement:
   • Easy Access to Information: Parents can access important information at their convenience, without having to wait for paper newsletters or phone calls. Information such as when a parents evening is happening can be quickly disseminated to parents.
   • Increased Engagement: A website can encourage parents to become more involved in their child’s education by providing resources, opportunities for feedback and social media links.
4. Efficient Communication:
   • Online Forms and Surveys: Use online forms and surveys to gather feedback, collect important information, and streamline communication processes.
   • Quick and Easy Updates: Posting updates on the website is a time-efficient way to reach a large number of parents.
5. Accessibility and Inclusivity:
   • Translation Tools: Offer translation tools or multilingual content to support parents from diverse backgrounds.
   • Accessibility Features: Ensure the website is accessible to parents with disabilities by using appropriate design principles.

By investing in a well-designed and regularly updated website, primary schools can create a more connected and supportive community for their students and their families. A digital classroom that fosters open communication and transparency is essential for building strong partnerships and ensuring the success of every child.

The post Primary School Websites: Essential communication appeared first on realsmart.

In this article we will discuss the common elements we tend to see in a great school website and how they best serve their stakeholders. 

Some of the key topics we cover include:

• The homepage
• Statutory information
• Parent/Carer information
• Alerts and announcements
• Attracting prospective families
• Adding some polish to your website

We will break each of these areas up into their own sub sections with useful links and guidance to help you understand all of the key functions surrounding your schools website.

The Homepage

Our research suggests the homepage is the landing page for over 90% of your visitors so it is key that it achieves a number of key components:

• Clear navigation
• Successful implementation of the school brand
• Celebrates your successes and value
• Is mobile responsive (works well on handheld devices)

If your school website achieves all of these, even if they are not perfect, you will have a strong base on which to build a successful school site.

Clear navigation

Some clear signposting to different areas across your website is vital to happy user experience. If your visitors cannot easily find the information they desire they will become frustrated and potentially give up their search. Your website caters for a number of stakeholders from parents/carers, staff, students, prospective families, the local community and Ofsted to name a few. Due to the large number of stakeholders it is always good practice to think about how you will structure your navigation to serve their needs. Will there be an area for each stakeholder? Or, will you hand pick some specific areas to have obvious signposting?The menu is a very important element that often becomes overcrowded when school priorities change so it’s worth checking it every year to see if what was a key element last year is still important now. 

Familiar Labels

An example of a common trend we see is an area labelled “Key Information” in the main menu, this area will include the majority of information that is required by Ofsted to ensure your website is compliant. This area will include pieces of information such as policies, financial information and pupil premium documents. With a realsmart website you can set reminders to update pages, this will send you an email reminder for example next year to update or check a policy. 

If we take the concept of anatomy and apply it to a school website, then navigation would be the skeleton, and we all know that without a skeleton a body simply couldn’t function. Our top tip for a school website with effective navigation is to ensure there are not too many top level links to your menu, stick to around five or six. An example that we love here at realsmart is the, this website makes navigating it a pleasure with no bloat to the menu.

School Branding

It may sound obvious but if your branding is not obvious then your visitors may have to use precious time checking that they are on the correct website. With over thirty two thousand schools in the UK It’s quite likely that you are not the only school of your name in the country. Therefore it needs to be obvious to your visitors that they are on the correct site when they land on the homepage. The easiest way to achieve this is to make sure that your logo is visible on the homepage, it’s common to have this appear in what we call the header of the site. The header is an area of the website that will host some common information that will be present on all pages of the website, this includes a logo, school name and navigation.

More than just a logo

Your branding does not stop at the school logo, your website should reflect the colour scheme of the school this will help to identify the website to visitors who are familiar with the colour of items such as uniform, stationary and signage. It is important that your logo is strong, we see some logos that really don’t represent the school, sing to their values or community. Branding is so important, does your website match the branded materials you have in your building? Do the papers on the wall of the Head Teacher all have the same heading? Do the signs in the corridors match the logo on the website? If the answer to any of these questions is no, what can you do to fix it?

When we hand over a new design to a school we always ask if they would like their stationary updated to match the site, we do this free of charge. It doesn’t take long to produce but we know the power of branding. Even students feel safe on resources that are clearly being produced by the school. 

Examples of good photography appearing on the homepage is another way to set some branding, it could be an image of the school or an image of students in uniform, both of these would help identify the site as belonging to the school for visitors who are familiar.

Setting the tone

What do we mean by this? Well if your homepage has some excellent photography on it, then the rest of the site should also reflect this for consistency. If you word the written content in a certain way, then continue this throughout the rest of the site.

There will be elements that appear on the homepage that will also appear throughout the site, for example the header with navigation, logo etc and the footer with contact details and menu items. Keep these consistent and you have the platform for successful user experience.

Is it mobile responsive?

A website is now, more than ever, likely to be visited by a user using a mobile device. This has to be taken into account in the design process and also when you add new content to your website. Luckily we have built a platform that supports responsiveness across the wide range of devices and screen sizes.

We design our websites with mobile responsiveness very much at the forefront of the process. The website must be as easy to use and as attractive on mobile devices as they are on large screen devices, otherwise what is the point? Care and consideration must be taken into account on some of the finer details of a mobile responsive website, where an animation, effect or graphic may look great on a larger device, it may not be necessary or beneficial on mobile.

Statutory Information, a compliant website

One of the most important and nerve wracking aspects of managing your school website is ensuring all the data is up to date and in place to ensure it is compliant with the DfE requirements. Our recent blog post goes into detail about how you can ensure that your school website is compliant and we also have a detailed checklist that you can make a copy of and use to get your website up to date. 

We touch upon the following topics in our in depth blog post that looks at keeping your website compliant:

• Navigating Ofsted Compliance: A User-Friendly Guide for Schools
• Empowerment Through Knowledge, using a guide to help keep your site compliant
• Ongoing Collaboration, working as a team to keep your content updated
• Key Features of an Ofsted-Compliant Website, the most important elements to help your site work
• Staying Current: Automated Compliance Reminders, using our reminder tool for yearly/termly emails to update content

Parent/Carer Information

Parents will use your website to gather a variety of information and this information will be visited hundreds of times, these pages will be some of the most popular on your website. 

Parents will use the website to find information such as:

• Term dates, this is a biggie, parents will want to know when term dates are to plan holidays/childcare as those dates may not be consistent across the local authority such as teacher training days.
• Contact details, parents will need to know how they can contact a member of staff or report their child absent, this information will need to be easy to reach.
• Uniform details, what is the uniform policy and where can the uniform be purchased, key information especially for new starters.
• School Meals, information on not only the schools weekly menu but also the cost of school meals if applicable.

There will be much more information that parents need to access but due to the importance of this stakeholder, we tend to advise a parents option in the main menu of a school website where all of this information can sit. have an excellent example of a parents/carers section on their website.

Alerts and announcements

Sometimes there is the piece of information that you just need to get out to anyone visiting the site, for example Osted are in today, there is an open evening coming up or even to book tickets for a school performance. Each piece of information has a differing level of importance and alternative ways of being presented. This is why we have carefully picked a number of elements that can be used on our school websites to present this information, from Smart Alerts to Upcoming Events Feeds and Popups. Here is a bit of detail about each one and the ideal use case.

What are Smart Alerts?

Smart Alerts are a simple way to get text based information out onto your website in a way that visitors cannot miss. With the option to choose between an alert bar across the top of your site or a fixed popup box you can quickly present some information to anyone who visits your site. Colour customisation means that you can set the tone of the alert to be branded and match your school colours or you can pick from some pre-set themes that range from tones of importance from warning to positive news. We’ve seen our clients use Smart Alerts for ofsted visits, school closures, travel information along with many more examples.

Event Feeds

A common practice across school websites is the ability to show some upcoming events and important dates on the website. Early in the academic year when open evenings are aplenty this is a useful method to show not only one but a range of upcoming events on your website. is just one example of a website we have built where they make full use of this functionality.

Pop Ups

Sometimes a piece of information needs to be presented to your visitors in a way that they just cannot miss, step in the popup. Fully customizable to display anything from some simple text to an image to even an embedded video. Pop Ups can be configured to appear on certain pages, on certain dates and much more. One of the more common use cases we see is when a flyer for an upcoming event needs to be prominently displayed on a website. 

Attracting prospective families

Attracting interest from families is only the first step. Without a clear call to action, that interest can quickly dissipate, leaving potential connections unfulfilled.

Here are our top tips for attracting prospective families:

• Capture Attention Instantly with Customisable Alerts
• Reach More Families with an SEO-Optimised Website Structure
• Ensure No Event Goes Unnoticed with Seamless Calendar Integration
• Convert Interest into Action with Register Interest Forms
• Keep Families Engaged with Tailored Subscription Options

Families may visit your website and like what they see, but without a way to express their interest, they could move on without ever making contact. This results in lost opportunities to nurture relationships and grow your school community.

realsmart’s register interest forms offer a simple yet effective way to convert interest into action. By allowing parents to express their interest and sign up for updates, you create a direct line of communication with prospective families. This engagement tool not only captures leads but also fosters ongoing interaction, helping to turn interest into enrollment.

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Adding some polish

Once you are happy that your content is all in place and you are happy with the look and feel of your website there are always a few extra steps you can take to add a little polish to your schools website. This is the step that can make you stand out from the rest and it’s something our design team can help you with. 

Images

One of the biggest impacts you can make on your website is the quality of your photography. A photo tells a story and sets the tone of your website, it shows current and prospective parents how happy the students are to be there as well as prospective staff what the school looks and feels like. They say a picture tells a thousand words so imagine the impact you can have with some carefully selected images to really sell the story of your school and show why you are the best around. We’ve found that really set out their stall by using some excellent photography on their homepage.

Video

Video is a great way to demonstrate what life in your school is really like. It makes it easy to show your best bits, what sets you apart from other schools in the area, you can give examples of different curriculum spaces, extra curricular activities and so much more. You don’t need to get Christopher Nolan in to create it, it only needs to be around 20 seconds of footage for your homepage and a modern

Animations

No, we don’t mean cartoons! A fine balance between making an impact and overdoing it needs to be taken seriously when introducing animations into your website. A few subtle effects here and there can really add a bit of shine to your school website and give it that professional feel. Take this example from , it’s not overpowering but the website really does feel complete when you see the carefully selected elements appearing on your screen. We liked them so much we introduced them onto our own website!

Conclusion

In conclusion, having a well-designed school website is a vital tool for modern educational institutions. It serves as a hub for information, communication, and engagement with students, parents, staff, and the wider community. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, schools can create websites that are visually appealing, user-friendly, and effective in achieving their goals.

Remember, a school website is not a static entity; it should be regularly updated and maintained to reflect the school’s evolving needs and priorities.

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