7 simple steps to improve communication using a school website
Class teachers are the face of the school. Therefore they deal with questions from concerned parents and carers on a near daily basis. But these enquiries are posed at the busiest times of the day. When teachers would benefit from having the time to help their pupils prepare for their day. What can be done to help make a smooth process to improve communication between parents and teachers using a school website.
“I didn’t even know it WAS parents’ evening!”
“Why did nobody tell me about the school play?”
“Can someone make sure my child eats all of their lunch please?”
“How can I make sure my child gets a place in your school?”
Information is key for development
Ensuring those responsible for pupils whilst out of school have all of the information they need is vital to their safe and effective schooling. A child will have a much more positive and beneficial experience when parents are involved with their schooling. This could be helping with the work they are doing, asking about the activities they most enjoy or excel at and offering general encouragement. Consequently with their parents’ input and help, pupils will start to gain confidence and a positive attitude towards their work. This will in turn boost their overall development.
Furthermore the parents and carers of each child will know what sort of activities keep their child’s interest and which are likely to lose them quickly. They know the problems in home life that might affect the child’s learning abilities. Therefore it is vital that they can communicate with the school to let them know of any problems they can see.
Being heard within the community
On occasions throughout the year schools need to talk to the wider community around them. Often this is for fund-raising, for admissions, with linked churches or organisations. It is important to be seen and heard in the community.
7 simple steps
Whilst one-to-one communication with parents and organisations is important for some topics. It is not always the most efficient or effective way. Often simple information that is the same for multiple people is published somewhere to avoid having to state the same thing time and time again. What ways are there to keep this communication timely, easy to use, wide-ranging and efficient for all involved? Here are 7 simple ways to improve communication using a school website:
1. Use your website to celebrate the your pupils’ accomplishments
Proud parents will treasure the opportunity to see their children showing off their latest accomplishments. This could be an image gallery of pupils displaying prizes they have won in class. Possibly a chart to show the pupil ‘Star of the Week’. Or some other way of encouraging the pupils and encouraging parental interaction. It will be a way to start a conversation between child and parent which will nurture their enthusiasm.
2. Provide secure forms
Sometimes there will be sensitive information which must be transmitted between parent and school in a timely manner. Creating a secure form on the school’s website allows parents or external organisations to report very important information to the school. This is used for safeguarding concerns or for a parent to report any difficulties a child is facing in or out of school. The forms should be very easy to find on a website and should contain no extraneous detail.
3. Blogging through the school website
Although it takes time for blog entries to be composed, often it is worth finding this time because they can be so beneficial. They can provide a way for current and prospective parents to see the sort of work their children are doing. It can be used to show off achievements of not only pupils but of the school and its staff too. Articles can be written to highlight the work the school is doing in the community and to raise awareness of any campaigns they might be running. A blog doesn’t need to be external to a school website. Often it is sensible for it to be in the same place as the main website, using the same colours logos and styling.
4. Take advantage of social media
Similar to creating a blog, keeping your school’s social media accounts up to date and fun is a great way of capturing the attention of the most parents. Pupils themselves are also avid users of social media. Ofsted have found that nearly 90% of children aged between 12 and 15 used social media and an incredible 97% of 5 – 15 year olds use video sharing platforms (VSPs) such as YouTube. Recording, uploading and sharing content on VSPs is likely to appeal to children more than a lot of other activities outside school. And videos, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds can all be embedded within the school website. Therefore keeping that content within the safety of the site.
5. Encourage parents to keep their details up to date
Although not all communication is done directly with parents; it is still vitally important that all parents keep their communication details up to date with the school. This will then allow the school to be able to contact parents personally in a timely manner when they need to do so. A secure area away from the school’s website can be created to do this. Allowing important details to be updated when necessary. This could be in the form of a full parent portal or a much simplified system with more limited features.
6. Maintain transparency
Parents should have access to all of the facts and figures about the school’s organisation. Moreover Ofsted state that the following information must all be published on a school’s website:
- admission arrangements, including how to apply
- details of the curriculum
- behaviour policy
- links to Ofsted reports
- links to performance data
- the school’s latest key stage 2 and 4 attainment and progress measures
- their policies for children with special educational needs and disabilities
- the amount of money they get for taking underprivileged children (the ‘pupil premium’), what they do with it and the effect it’s had
It is worth having a section on the school website where it is really easy for parents to find all of this information. It can also have the other things that parents often ask about such as term dates. Providing this information online is likely to reduce the amount of unnecessary direct one-to-one communication with teachers.
7. Create a simple FAQs section
How often do you have to repeat the same answer to the same question over and over?! The solution is to answer these questions easily in one place.
7 simple steps to improve communication using a school website
Class teachers are the face of the school. Therefore they deal with questions from concerned parents and carers on a near daily basis. However these enquiries are posed at the busiest times of the day. When teachers would benefit from having the time to help their pupils prepare for their day. A school website creates a smooth process for communication between parents and teachers.
“I didn’t even know it WAS parents’ evening!”
“Why did nobody tell me about the school play?”
“Can someone make sure my child eats all of their lunch please?”
“How can I make sure my child gets a place in your school?”
Information is key for development
Ensuring those responsible for pupils whilst out of school have all of the information they need is vital to their safe and effective schooling. A child has a much more positive and beneficial experience when parents are involved with their schooling. This could be helping with the work they are doing, asking about the activities they most enjoy or excel at and offering general encouragement. Consequently with their parents’ input and help, pupils will start to gain confidence and a positive attitude towards their work. This will in turn boost their overall development.
Furthermore the parents and carers of each child will know what sort of activities keep their child’s interest and which are likely to lose them quickly. They know the problems in home life that might affect the child’s learning abilities. Therefore it is vital that they can communicate with the school to let them know of any problems they can see.
Being heard within the community
On occasions throughout the year schools need to talk to the wider community around them. Often this is for fund-raising, for admissions, with linked churches or organisations. It is important to be seen and heard in the community.
7 simple steps
Whilst one-to-one communication with parents and organisations is important for some topics. It is not always the most efficient or effective way. Often simple information that is the same for multiple people is published somewhere to avoid having to state the same thing time and time again. What ways are there to keep this communication timely, easy to use, wide-ranging and efficient for all involved? Here are 7 simple ways to improve communication using a school website:
1. Use your website to celebrate the your pupils’ accomplishments
Proud parents will treasure the opportunity to see their children showing off their latest accomplishments. This could be an image gallery of pupils displaying prizes they have won in class. Possibly a chart to show the pupil ‘Star of the Week’. Or some other way of encouraging the pupils and encouraging parental interaction. It will be a way to start a conversation between child and parent which will nurture their enthusiasm.
2. Provide secure forms
A parent and school sometimes need to communicate sensitive information in a timely manner. Creating a secure form on the school’s website allows parents or external organisations to report very important information to the school. This can be used for safeguarding concerns. In addition for a parent to report any difficulties a child is facing in or out of school. The forms should be very easy to find on a website and should contain no extraneous detail.
3. Blogging through the school website
Find time to compose blog entries for your school website. Blog articles provide a way for current and prospective parents to see the sort of work their children are doing. A good blog shows off achievements of not only pupils but of the school and its staff too. School articles can be written to highlight community service and to raise awareness of campaigns. A blog doesn’t need to be external to a school website. Often it is sensible for it to be in the same place as the main website, using the same colours logos and styling.
4. Take advantage of social media
Similar to creating a blog, keeping your school’s social media accounts up to date and fun is a great way of capturing the attention of the most parents. Pupils themselves are also avid users of social media. Ofsted have found that nearly 90% of children aged between 12 and 15 used social media and an incredible 97% of 5 – 15 year olds use video sharing platforms (VSPs) such as YouTube. Recording, uploading and sharing content on VSPs is likely to appeal to children more than a lot of other activities outside school. Videos, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds can all be embedded within the school website. Therefore keeping that content within the safety of the site.
5. Encourage parents to keep their details up to date
It is vitally important that all parents keep their communication details up to date with the school. This will then allow the school to be able to contact parents personally in a timely manner when they need to do so. A secure area away from the school’s website can be created to do this. Allowing important details to be updated when necessary. This could be in the form of a full parent portal or a much simplified system with more limited features.
6. Maintain transparency
Parents need access to all of the facts and figures about the school’s organisation. Furthermore, Ofsted require the following information on a school’s website:
- admission arrangements, including how to apply
- details of the curriculum
- behaviour policy
- links to Ofsted reports
- links to performance data
- the school’s latest key stage 2 and 4 attainment and progress measures
- their policies for children with special educational needs and disabilities
- the amount of money they get for taking underprivileged children (the ‘pupil premium’); what they do with it and its effect
It is worth having a section on the school website where it is really easy for parents to find all of this information. It can also have the other things that parents often ask about such as term dates. Providing this information online is likely to reduce the amount of unnecessary direct one-to-one communication with teachers.
7. Create a simple FAQs section
How often do you have to repeat the same answer to the same question over and over?! FAQ sections are the solution! Where people can find exactly what they need straight away without even needing to ask. For example this could be for questions such as “what time will school close on the last day of term?”, “when is the next parents’ evening?”, or “are there any holiday clubs available?”.
what to do next
Taking into consideration these 7 steps is a great way to start considering how to improve communication using a school website. A website is extremely versatile. Therefore it can act as an information hub, a point of contact, a portal, and so much more.
get in touch
If you would like to find out more about how we can help on how to improve a school website, please get in touch.