Mumsnet Talk

Ours is pretty good and was done by the husband of one of the governors. The school have access to update it and the weekly newsletters and other items of news are on there - there were regular updates about the snow situation and about events that are happening etc.

What schools must publish on their website - Government guidelines

Schools must put on their website:

how much money they get from taking underprivileged children (the ‘pupil premium’), what they do with it and the effect it’s had
details of the curriculum
admission criteria
behaviour policy
special educational needs policy
policy on disability
links to Ofsted reports
links to performance data
the school’s latest Key Stage 2 and 4 attainment and progress measures

Guess a little more attention should be paid to the websites after all.

Interesting discussion - I think our school ranks somewhere in the middle - the website isn't terrible, there is a diary of events, but it isn't always up to date and sometimes isn't corrected (i.e. wrong date for assembly so parents show up to be told wrong day).

Would love to have the link to these government guidelines on what should appear on the school web page because our school (probably out of shame) is definitely not openly publishing KS2/ KS4 results - and I have repeatedly been told they don't have to by the school.

For Ecolady and others who have suggested parents should volunteer - several of us parents have (either for the website or improving the VLE (they use Moodle - we wanted to set up group areas [green/ red/ blue/ etc...] with tailored homework to appropriate levels for maths, literacy and reading (phonetics worksheets, key words, etc...). We have all separately (although we compare notes) been told thank you for our offers but no, this would violate student confidentiality and apparently there was 'a problem' with a parent divulging student info in the past.

We've all given up bothering now.

I think a good website should be priority.

Don't be daft. There are much more important things for schools to spend their time on.

In my area, it's unusual for schools to have fully-functioning websites, but they are obliged to have their school handbook online, and all schools' handbooks are available on one page of the council's website.

That seems like a reasonable compromise to me.

Being able to get information should be priority then Euphemia. I may be shallow but I would be more impressed if the school had a good website with lots of info on, than one that had photos of 2009 on.

I use DS1's school website a lot-everything is on it.

I'm sure it's more important in areas where entry to school is competitive and you are comparing schools. Here, children just go to their local school so there's not the competition between schools to have a fabby website.

The handbooks are all we need, really. The council website also tells you school rolls, which in this area range from 400+ pupils to 6 pupils! Very useful info!

Our council website probably not so good Euphemia so schools are making up for it. There are 12 primary schools to choose from here, then two middles and one High School.

https://www.gov.uk/schools-admissions/choosing-schools

Take it the link doesn't work then, oh well never mind . I may be needing to see my sons schools disability and SEN policies soon (which in some instances can be tweaked by the school as some are guidelines only not something that has to be done) would it be best for me to a) be a PITA by asking the reception staff to spend their time photocopying these for me? b) sit and read through their files in the reception area while taking notes or c) get onto their well presented, informative website and print them off at home?

Pastsellbydate, my first thought was that there would be issues of confidentiality, although, when you think about it, they would be helping to make public information that the school wants and needs to share. Maybe the problem would be having to sort and select the information the volunteers could access; could be that that is more trouble than it is worth.

Sparklingbrook, it could well be that the teachers have priorities other than constantly updating the website, such as planning creative and innovative lessons, focussing on children who need extra help, putting up motivational displays, making the hundreds of cards, games, etc needed for maths and literacy, marking in depth and in detail .... Also, most teachers are not web designers and may not even be that good on the computer.