17 Elements of school websites
Schools have various different obstacles to face when deciding to get their institution online. Some of the challenges posed by deciding to take the virtual step are things such as the general rules that the Government and Ofsted recommend having online and the management of users and time to get the website up, running and constantly updated.
The key thing to remember with a school’s website is that it needs to be fit for its purpose, it should let stakeholders, governors, parents, students and staff find out information easily. If your school website isn’t running as fast as you’d like it to we offer a variety of web hosting options.
Government recommendations of the 16 sections of a School website
Following is the information that schools maintained by their local authority must publish on their websites.
School contact details
This includes your school’s name, postal address, telephone number, the name of the member of staff who deals with queries from parents and other members of the public and the name and contact details of your special educational needs (SEN) coordinator (SENCO) if you’re a mainstream school.
Admission arrangements
If the school’s governing body decides your admissions, you must publish your school’s admission arrangements each year and keep them up for the whole school year.
Explain how you’ll decide on applicants for each age group, what parents should do if they want to apply for their child to attend your school and your arrangements for selecting the pupils who apply and your ‘oversubscription criteria.
Ofsted reports
Publish your most recent Ofsted report or a link to the report on the Ofsted website. Remember that Ofsted checks your school's website before they carry out an inspection! This means that although your school is top of the class in most departments, your website could be holding you back from reaching that 'outstanding' status.
Exam & assessment result
Exam and assessment results from Key stage 2, KS4 and KS5 must be published in the form of average progress, average scaled scores and percentage
Performance tables
You must include a link to the school and college performance tables service.
Curriculum
You must publish the content of your school curriculum in each academic year for every subject. The names of any phonics or reading schemes you’re using in KS1, a list of the courses available at KS4 including GCSEs and how parents or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum your school is following.
Behaviour policy
Your school’s behaviour policy needs to be published in detail on your school’s website and this should be compliant with Section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.
Schools complaints procedure
You must publish details of your school’s complaints procedure, which must comply with Section 29 of the Education Act 2002
Pupil premium
You must publish a strategy for the school’s use of the pupil premium.
For the current academic year, you must include:
Your school’s pupil premium grant allocation amount
A summary of the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school, how you’ll spend the pupil premium in order to overcome those barriers described and the reasons. How this plan will be measured and the date of the next review on the pupil premium strategy.
Year 7 literacy and numeracy premium for primary schools
If your school has received year 7 literacy and numeracy catch–up premium funding you must publish: your funding for the current year, how you intend to spend your allocation, how last year’s allocation was spent and how it made a difference to those granted the funding.
PE and Sport Premium for primary schools
If your school receives PE and sport premium funding you must publish, how much you received, a full breakdown on how or how you will spend the funding. The effect of the premium on pupils PE and sport participation and attainment. How you’ll make sure these improvements are sustainable.
SEN and disability information
You must publish an SEN information report on your school’s policy for pupils with SEN and should update this annually.
Equality objectives
Public bodies, including local – authority – maintained schools, are covered by the public-sector duty in the Equality Act 2010. This means you have to publish:
Details of how your school is complying with the public sector equality duty – you should update this every year.
Your school’s equality objectives- you should update this at least once every 4 years.
Governors information and duties
You must publish details of the structure and responsibilities of the governing body and its committees, information about each governor’s business interests, financial interests and governance roles in other schools.
Charging and remissions policies
You must publish your school charging and ‘remissions’ policies (this means when you cancel fees). The policies must include details of:
The activities or cases where your school will charge pupils parents.
The circumstances where your school will make an exception on a payment you would normally expect to receive under your charging policy.
Values and ethos
Your website should include a statement of your school’s ethos and values.
Requests for paper copies
If a parent requests a paper copy of the information on your school’s website you must provide this free of charge.
Read further: What should academies, free schools and colleges should publish online.