www.campsmount.com/
Sadly, school websites are often a contradiction of what normally goes on within them. I regularly see sites that haven’t been updated in months and can only be described as dull, boring, static and lifeless. And yet for me, school websites should actually be a celebration of the learning and achievements that goes on within them.
They should advertise the fact that students enjoy being at your school due to the exciting learning experiences that your teachers work so hard to facilitate. Parents should be reassured that their children are fully taking advantage of the broad, balanced and dynamic curriculum offer that your school provides – ultimately resulting with the local community feeling proud about what you do and how you do it. And by this I mean on a weekly basis (in the very least!)
We regularly post information to parents and use a variety of interactive web2.0 apps to showcase and celebrate students’ learning and whole school events. We do not pay anything for these – they are all free! The following have all been created by teachers and probably represents about 3% of its content:
A selection Y11 Students’ leaving comments
A preview of our Eurovision Dance Contest
Live coverage of Alternative Curriculum Day 7
Perhaps one of the reasons that explains why some school websites are so poor could be because they are sometimes complicated to use, expensive to set up and too much emphasis on making it look flashy – not focusing on our core purpose: learning.
Nowadays, websites do not have to be flashy or complicated to use. WordPress, the same blog provider as what I’m using now, powers our school website and it is ridiculously easy to use. Our Headteacher regularly posts his own messages and can embed videos and other web2.0 apps into them. As a school trust partner, the brilliant guys at Smartassess set up our site around their ‘RealSmart cloud’. I won’t go into the further details of how it also integrates ‘Google Apps’ or links to ‘Frog VLE’ but instead leave you to check it out for yourself here
Overall, a school website must be based around the mantra of substance over style. The web 2.0 apps brings the audience into the content by allowing them to interact with it and for me, they do what the best teachers do week in, week out – and that’s engage people!
So why am I so proud of our school website? Because it celebrates what goes on within it. That’s it.
What’s next? Classblogs: a website for every tutor group managed by the students themselves? I love this one from @Janeh271
Couldn’t agree more!
We’ve modeled ourselves on you somewhat and are using the same excellent RealSmartCloud environment to power our online activities.
Last few days have been particularly special with some great CoverItLives.
http://stretfordhigh.com
We’re aiming for a living breathing website and 4 months in I’m pretty chuffed with how we’ve done so far. Next challenge for me is getting more staff and students sticking material up themselves rather than it coming through me or the Media Manager.
Dan
Thanks for the comment Dan
I really like your approach to http://stretfordhigh.com. Your website clearly exhibits and celebrates students’ learning/core purpose. Your use of CoverItLive is great too.
I’m glad you’ve got some ideas from our own but their are things that I would like to mirror from you. Eg: Departmental showcase, Google Calendar for students etc.
I really like the Head’s message too – very motivating!
Looking forward to learning from each other in the future.
Jamie
Hi Jaime,
Really like your school website especdially the teacher learning blogs and the integration of learning technology.I suppose the fact it has a staff section at all is cool.Well laid out also and is content focused which is what a school site needs to be.Im always looking for tips and etc so if you would have a look at ours,i would love any outside advice.
Thanks
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Great post in highlighting what is wrong with today’s educational websites. Not only is it important to update your website, but also try to get people involved and active, perhaps by using social media, posting photos etc.
Thanks for this!
Jamie,
Sorry to leave an unrelated comment, but I couldn’t find any other way to contact you through the blog, and I wanted to ask about a possible guest post. Please drop me an e-mail!
Cheers,
Lindsey
You have to love wordpress for school websites, for some reason not allot use it and dont understand why its so simple to use and easy to update. works with allot of other plug-ins/programs as well to expand it further.
Just for information your campsmount link at top of the post takes you to a 404 page you may just want to change that