Designing your School's Website

 

1. How do I design my school's website?

There are a number of commercially available tools to design your school's website, such as:

  • Adobe Dreamweaver
  • Coffee Cup
  • Microsoft Front Page
  • Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer

but even simple tools like Microsoft Publisher can be used.

Often, using a simple tool can allow greater expression for the novice user and enables anyone editing the site in the future to carry on without having to be trained in the use of the design tool.

2. Can I get someone to create it for me?

Yes:

  • Website design is an industry, commercial website designers will do an excellent job but won't be cheap. Some schools have used commercial designers, the problem seems to arise later when staff move on and the website needs to be updated, as schools are often "tied" to return to the original design company and have to pay (again).
  • Some schools may have a parent who has the appropriate skills. Be careful here, as when the children leave, the parent may not be so interested in continuing to maintain the website.
  • There may be a nearby school that has staff with appropriate skills. Here_is_a_list of Sandwell Schools websites, browse them, then contact the school to ask where/who designed their website, and are they happy to recommend the designer?
  • The Learning Gateway includes a web portal which could be used as the school's website.
  • Broadband Sandwell has a web design team. Click here to see some examples of our work. Contact us on 0121 569 2400 for details and pricing.

The crucial thing to consider is that websites have become a communications conduit for schools and their community, and as such should be managed by the school's admin staff rather than by IT staff or  by a third party. While such methods could be used to design the website , the school should be advised that managing the information presented on it is better undertaken by the school themselves.

 

3. What about security?

  • Don't publish photographs of children doing PE.
  • It is recommended that parental consent is obtained before any photographs or even children's work is published.
  • If you need to publish photographs of children, don't identify them individually and make sure that the image is not of a high definition.
  • Don't publish information about where children will be at a particular time.
  • Feedback forms, unless easy to moderate, will attract abuse. Make sure that you have the ability to take these down if necessary.
  • Keep passwords safe.

4. What will the domain name be?

  • Each school already has its own domain name. This can be accessed by typing  http://www.<schoolname>.sandwell.sch.uk (replace the <schoolname> with your school's domain name, which will be similar to your school's email addresses).
  • Schools can obtain alternative DNS names commercially but these will cost money.

5. How do I publish the website?

  • Sandwell MBC provide initial disk space to host a school's website. This server has a Linux operating system, this means that certain Microsoft features (such as Front Page's Server Side Includes) will not be supported, and that file names are case dependent (i.e. the file Welcome.htm is a different file to welcome.htm). Follow this_link for information about uploading your website.
  • When using the Sandwell server, the "start page" should be called index.html