Engaging and functional school website designs
The significance of engaging school website designs extend beyond how the school’s perceived by the community and prospective parents. It promotes parental engagement, a critical factor highlighted in a recent University of Plymouth study. The study recognises the role of parental engagement in a child’s academic success. The partnership between home and school is important, especially when schools personalise communications regarding a child’s progress.
A recent review of best practices in parental engagement from the Department for Education (DfE) found that technology can contribute to improved parental engagement by enabling parents to access up-to-date information about their child’s learning. This is achievable through secure parent portals, online announcements and promoting further learning opportunities.
Moreover, a school website can act as a functional and informative tool. Utilise it to update parents and students of term dates, school events, Ofsted reports and school curriculum. Whether you’re part of a primary school, secondary school, elementary school or an independent school, your website acts as an extension of your educational establishment. It promotes your facilities, mission and values.
Website design and development for Riverbank Primary School
Benefits of professional school web design
A bespoke web design tailored specifically to your school offers a number of advantages. It will extend your outreach and improve your online presence.
- First impressions: Your website reflects your school’s credibility. A professional school website can leave a positive impression.
- User experience: A well designed website will be easy to navigate. This will improve engagement, while effectively conveying your school’s mission and values.
- Visual appeal: We create aesthetically pleasing designs that captivate your audience, from prospective students to current students. Whether we’re designing a website for public schools, primary schools or private schools, we create a professional appearance suited to all educational institutions.
- Responsive design: Our websites are optimised for all devices. This allows users to access important information anytime, via laptop, mobile or desktop.
- Advanced functionality: Our websites can incorporate advanced features tailored to your educational institution.
- Search engine optimisation: We use SEO best practices and clean code to optimise your website’s structure. This ensures that your website has a solid foundation to improve search engine rankings.
- Brand consistency: We ensure that your website aligns your school’s identity. We ensure that your design is consistent across all channels. This helps to reinforce credibility and reputation.
- Scalability: Our websites are designed to evolve with your school. Your bespoke school website can accommodate new features and expanding content.
- Technical support: We can provide ongoing maintenance. This ensures the application of new updates for optimal performance.
Features of an effective educational website
Our creative web design team collaborates with schools and educational institutions to fully understand what an effective website looks like within the education sector. We can incorporate a wide range of key features, intricately designed to enhance your school’s ethos and school branding to the community.
School announcements: Keeping parents, students and staff informed
Your custom school website should feature an area to display important school announcements. This will help to ensure that parents, students, and school staff are informed about the latest school news. This can include upcoming teacher training days or school closures due to adverse weather.
Academic programs: Curriculum details & learning opportunities
Your website can act as an informative hub. It can be used to promote learning opportunities, provide curriculum details and learning objectives. This helps to not only inform students of the key learning outcomes, but also engage parents in their child’s education. It encourages accountability across the whole educational network; the school, pupils and parents. By promoting participation in the educational process, this contributes to the academic success of every student.
Staff directory: A directory of teachers, administrators & support staff
Staff directories provide detailed profiles and contact information of teachers, administrators and support staff. They promote transparency among the school community, while enabling parents and pupils to familiarise themselves with key staff.
Event calendars: Integrated scheduling features for school events
An integrated school calendar can feature a schedule of upcoming events from important exam dates to parent-teacher meetings. This ensures that the school community’s kept up-to-date with important dates, promoting connection and participation across the entire network.
Student resources: Access resources, assignments & study guides
A student resources area of the website enables students to access a range of educational materials, assignments and study guides. Student resource portals can help empower pupils, enhancing learning and equipping them with the tools that they need to succeed. We can incorporate a range of resources such as quizzes, educational videos and online textbooks.
Parent portal: Informing parents about their child’s academic progress
Parent portals, with secure login areas, allow parents to stay actively involved in their child’s academic journey. Parent portals can provide access to grades, attendance records and personalised notifications. This promotes parent engagement with their child’s educational success.
Essential Features For A Dynamic School Website – Infographic
Other notable features:
- Online enrolment, using online admission forms, to streamline the enrolment management process
- Third party software integration
- Multilingual support ensuring your website is accessible
- Virtual tour of your school, including images and 360 view.
- Alumni network to allow for networking
- Interactive learning features to aid learning via an interactive website experience
- School newsletter or news posts for regular updates
- Chat feature for questions and enquiries
Our design process
Our comprehensive design process helps us to collaborate with educational services and educational institutions. Our process ensures that we can create an accessible, informative and user-friendly design for schools, which engage the whole schooling community and enhance users online experience.
- Research and discovery – Following a discovery call, we send you an in-depth survey, allowing you to share your vision, mission and objectives. We ask a range of questions relating to design preference and style.
- High fidelity designs – Our school web designers create bespoke designs crafted to your requirements. We proudly offer unlimited revisions, guaranteeing a result you’ll love.
- Front-end development – Our development team convert your designs into responsive HTML, transforming it into a prototype for you to demo.
- Backend/CMS development – Login areas, event calendars, resource downloads and advanced functions are implemented to become a fully functioning website. We use one of the world’s most popular content management systems to ensure easy website management.
- Quality assurance – We ensure that your website is fully functional and responsive across all devices. We test your website to ensure it is bug free and operating efficiently.
- Website launch – This is the exciting part, your website is launched! We install Google Analytics We provide 30 days free support and provide maintenance packages to ensure your website is always up-to-date and running smoothly.
Collaborate with us to design your school website
Webpop Design has over a decade of experience in creating exceptional websites. We have worked with hundreds of businesses across the globe. Start your school’s digital journey here and create a professional educational platform. Let’s create an online presence for your school that strengthens your message to the community.
School website design FAQ
How long does it take to build a school website design?
The time required to build a school website design depends on the complexity of the site and the features you want to include. On average, a school website will take about 10-12 weeks to design and develop. This timeline allows for initial planning, design iterations, content integration, and testing. If your website includes features like student portals, online admissions, or event calendars, the timeline may be adjusted to accommodate these additional functions.
Can the website include a parent portal with secure login and progress updates?
Yes. We build parent portals with secure access. Each parent logs in with a personal account and sees only their child’s data. You can display attendance records, test scores, comments, timetables, or homework. We can connect the portal to your school’s existing system if needed. The goal is simple: help parents stay involved without relying on paper updates or office calls. The layout will be clear, mobile-friendly, and easy to use—even for those unfamiliar with digital tools.
How do you make school websites easy for staff to update?
We use WordPress and simplify the dashboard. Every section is clearly labelled. You can add a news post, upload a photo, update term dates, or change contact details without any training. If a teacher needs to post homework or update a calendar, they can do it without support. We remove anything unnecessary to keep the system clean. Most schools manage the site day-to-day on their own. If something breaks or needs changing behind the scenes, we step in.
Will our school be able to manage events, term dates and announcements?
Yes. We include an events calendar where you can add term dates, parent meetings, exam schedules, or closures. Each item can include the time, location, description, and any related files. Announcements appear on the homepage or news page, depending on your layout. These can include alerts, newsletters, or reminders. You update everything from one place—no need to copy and paste across multiple systems. Visitors can filter dates, view by month, or subscribe to updates.
Can the website support online admissions and enrolment forms?
Yes. We add digital forms to collect student details, parent contact info, medical notes, and anything else you need. The forms are easy to complete on both phone and desktop. You’ll receive each submission instantly. We can also add file uploads for documents like ID or proof of address. If you already use an admissions system, we can integrate it. This replaces paper forms and reduces the time spent chasing missing information.
How do you make the site work well for mobile users and multilingual families?
We build for mobile first. Menus, forms, calendars, and portals are tested on real devices—not just resized. Fonts are large enough to read without zooming, and buttons are spaced for thumbs. Pages load quickly, even on weak connections. For multilingual users, we add translation tools or build in multiple language versions if you provide the content. This ensures families who don’t speak English fluently can still access everything they need.
How much does school web design cost?
The cost of school web design can vary greatly depending on your school’s needs. A basic website with standard features such as general information, event calendars, and a contact form may be more affordable. However, if your website requires more advanced functionalities like student portals, e-learning integration, or donation systems, the cost will increase accordingly. We offer custom quotes tailored to your specific needs and budget, ensuring that your school’s online presence reflects its values and mission.
