Schools Website Service

About the Service

This service provides schools with an easy to use option for creating and hosting their school website. The inclusive content management system (CMS) enables you to edit information, ensuring you can quickly publish information to parents, carers and pupils.

It also ensures that external agencies, such as Ofsted, can access essential information on your school, enabling you to easily meet your statutory obligations under The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 which require schools to publish information online about their school.

Our chosen provider for the School Websites service is PrimarySite Limited. They are the leading supplier of school websites across the UK, currently working with over 4,800 nurseries, schools & trusts, and have a background rooted in education. They have continually invested in design innovation and their bespoke website updating system. Their content management system is considered to be the most intuitive and easy to use system available.

The new service brings a new modern, fully featured and easy to use Content Management System (CMS) developed specifically for schools. It has cloud hosting in UK data centres. It is a modern and secure service, making it quick and easy to make updates to your website.

We have commissioned a number of design templates that schools can choose from, which are then customised for each school to reflect your identity and values. In addition, if these templates do not meet your needs, then a bespoke designed website can be purchased at additional cost.

Schools can also additionally purchase the services of a photographer to take high quality photographs for the website. If your school logo needs a redesign or upgrading to a higher quality for the website, this can also be requested as an option.

What are the benefits?

Helps ensure your school meets the Ofsted requirements for publishing specific information in the public domain. Further guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/what-maintained-schools-must-publish-online.
Easily keep your own website up to date, without paying extra charges for updating information.
Simple to use content management system which provides a range of easy to use editing tools.
Easy to use - no web design skills required.
Offers schools a cost effective solution.
Our website service is supported by our Domain Name Registration and DNS Management Service, and ensures your ".sch.uk" domain name can be used for your website as well as your other online services.

What's Included?

Service Features

Feature	Description
Content Management System (CMS)	The service includes: Access to a choice of template layouts designed especially for schools using the service. Administrator access so your school can manage its own website, via an inclusive Content Management System. Easy to use features and editor, with colour pickers and formatting tools which make website production as easy as word processing. Ability to upload school logos, change colours to suit your school brand and personalize content. Allows the uploading of documents and images, including photo gallery. Responsive designs can be viewable on a variety of platforms e.g. tablets and computers.
Migration Support	The cost effective installation fees provide support from PrimarySite to: Setup your template and the required pages. Help with migrating content to your new website (includes all essential content and any material up to 12 months old). Setup of your website in PrimarySite's cloud hosted service. Initial telephone support/training to get you started.
Bespoke Design Options (chargeable)	Additional options are available for schools seeking a bespoke design, professional photography package or their logo to be redrawn.
Hosting	Secure website hosting for your website is included as part of the service. PrimarySite servers are hosted at UK data centres, primarily at Google in London, but with backups and microservices hosted at Bytemark and Digital Ocean, also in the UK. AWS currently hosts static files in Dublin which is a GDPR approved service.

Support Features

Feature	Description
Administration and Service Management	Your website can be administered by you via the Content Management System, with support from PrimarySite.
Support from PrimarySite	Operational from 8am to 5:30pm (Monday – Friday excluding Bank Holidays).
Support from our ICT Service Centre	Operational from 8am to 6pm (Monday – Friday excluding Bank Holidays and statutory leave days), with escalation routes ensuring that, if your school does experience problems with the service, our staff are focused on solving your issues.