school website is crap ..is yours?

[ggirl]

I know they have better things to worry about and it's more important they are teaching and they may not have time to keep it up to date
but
there isn't even a school calendar on it
it's woefully out of date
and basically shit

sorry having a gripe

[Sparklingbrook]

DSs are actually quite good. But I have seen some really woeful ones. They are never updated are they and there's a calendar but it's blank. Not great for prospective parents trying to get info.

I love DS2's. His class has a page and a blog with pictures, they update every week.

[ggirl]

there is however a recent photo of the head

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Ours is like that too.

[tribpot]

Ours is very poor too - it looks like something designed about ten years ago (and inevitably crashed on Monday when people were trying to get to it for snow updates).

I can fully understand why it's not a priority for them, but they'd be better off really with a single, well-designed page of basic info and perhaps a Facebook page which would be easier to keep up-to-date. (My suspicion is they don't actually know how to maintain the website themselves - again, understandable).

After the snow-pocalypse (the SMS service crashed as well) I am going to suggest they think about moving to something with a better infrastructure and embrace Web 2.0. I predict this will go down like a lead balloon :)

[HumphreyCobbler]

ours is ok - all the newsletters there and we could look at see if the school was open or closed during the snow

[mrz]

we've just had a new web site designed unfortunately no one has been given access to update items yet. The idea is staff will update their own class eventually.

[EcoLady]

Well done to all you willing volunteers for contacting your schools to generously offer to update their website for them.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I think you are right tribpot, most teacher don't have the knowledge to maintain it themselves. I also agree about Facebook page, I also use that all the time.

There are so many things need doing, as a class teacher you are NEVER on top of it. In my last school the head gave someone paid time to update it which worked well, but not every head will do this.

[tribpot]

Eco - actually that is what I intend to do. I think we've all acknowledged it's unlikely to be a priority for the school but as a lost opportunity to communicate with parents and prospective parents it's probably better to say something than nothing. My practice has similar problems with keeping the information current for their patients. So we have a staff-patient group that looks at online services for this very reason.

[ggirl]

am quite sure that I would be no help whatsoever in helping with a website ecolady.
They've never asked for help as far as I am aware. Maybe they should.

[piprabbit]

Our is pretty good. Lots of information, very up-to-date etc.
It is maintained by a parent volunteer - although individual teacher's can upload information about their class activities (photos etc.) as and when they like.

[Sparklingbrook]

The school should put out a request for any parents that can sort the website for them.

[mrz]

I actually created and updated our previous website (when I was the ICT coordinator) tribpot but it became a little neglected when I changed roles which is why we have a sparkling new if fairly empty new site

[Sparklingbrook]

I think a good website should be priority. It would put me off a potential school if their website was out of date TBH.

[PeachActiviaMinge]

We don't have one Last week the school was closed on Monday due to the snow we had to figure this out by looking out DD's window to the school to see closed gates trying to call 3x and no-one answering and then no-one walking past to go to school. It wasn't even on the local news/bbc or council websites.

[Haberdashery]

Ours is pretty rubbish. And yes, I have contacted them and offered help, walked the ICT Coordinator (!) through the CMS, been in to school to help, told them they can contact me any time at all for help, spent hours creating graphics for them to use on the site etc etc etc. Not sure what more I could do, tbh.

[ipadquietly]

Our chair of govs updates ours, along with the secretary who updates a google calendar. It's pretty and new!

We used to have q website that we could update ourselves. Some of us updated photos and curriculum information regularly. However, a number of teachers couldn't be arsed to do anything, and as soon as that happened, it started to look sloppy and pointed fingers at the lazier members of staff.

[heggiehog]

As a teacher I don't have time to update the website and don't have access to do it either...

Planning and paperwork takes priority over these things.

[Sparklingbrook]

The children update the blog on their class page on the website. I think it's great.

[DoItToJulia]

Ours is pants. It's really disappointing.

The head has scrapped the weekly newsletter as parents have complained about information overload to be replaced by regular updates on the web page.

No of weeks without a newsletter? 6
No of times the web page has been updated? 0

[Sparklingbrook]

How can schools not have a web page? It's 2013. Everyone should be on email for newsletters and letters home too. And the school should be able to send a text alert to everyone.

DS2's school to say the newsletter/school report is in bookbags.

[mrz]

Whispers ...Do you know some people still don't have computers or the internet

[Sparklingbrook]

Well they need to get with the times mrz.