Pupil Referral Unit Websites

Two of Salford’s Pupil Referral Units contacted Hive requiring a complete rebrand. In addition to two new pupil referral unit websites for each of their Pupil Referral Centres; The Clifton Centre and The New Broadwalk.

Pupil Referral Unit Websites and Bespoke PRU requirements

A Pupil Referral Unit is a school that looks after children who require additional support. For this reason, they are not able to attend mainstream school. This could be for a variety of purposes, such as health or behaviour reasons. Or alternatively, they may need additional emotional or SEN support. Therefore the bespoke requirements for a PRU website demand more careful consideration than that of a mainstream school.

A new direction

Both PRU centres had recently been brought together under the new umbrella of ‘The Silverdale Federation’. Therefore the first step in the design process was to create the branding. The Federation required a new logo in addition to a rebranding of the two centres. We created the logo designs to form a ‘house of logos’, for cohesion across the organisation.

Dynamic inspiration

After completion of the branding process, the next step was to design the two new websites. The inspiration for the design of the websites stemmed from the new logo. The dynamic nature of the new logos was a fantastic basis for the new design. Not only are the distinctive colours for each centre a defining feature which allows unity within the Silverdale Federation logo. They also create individuality and differentiation between the two. Consequently, the chosen design was clean, and dynamic, with brightly coloured header areas to give each PRU definition. This created a bright friendly and approachable feel which was very important to both sites. Hive worked with the school to create a site map which would work for both schools. This could then be used consistently across both sites. Careful consideration was also given to providing parents with information about the help and support that they would need.

Creating brand strength

The footer area of each website also made use of the branding. A customised version of the tree in the logo was added with a large curved hill shape. This created a huge impact and strengthened the brand identity across both sites.

The build

Once the design and site map was agreed on, we began the build. On completion, a test link was supplied for approval, before each site was launched Live.

Finally a top level landing page was designed and built to create clarity for the user. The landing page displays the branding wonderfully. Moreover it functions as a simple page to direct a user to either of the two PRU centre websites.

The staff at both PRU’s were extremely impressed with our bespoke content management system. As it made making updates to the site content quick and easy for them.

If you would like to see The Clifton Centre’s new website you can view it here. Likewise The New Broadwalk’s website can be viewed here.

Get in touch about a pupil referral unit website project

If you would like to find out more about our website design, website refresh and build services please contact us.