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it's woefully out of date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

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

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.

[takemehometoauntem]

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?

[takemehometoauntem]

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

[Sparklingbrook]

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.

[Sparklingbrook]

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.

[PastSellByDate]

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.

[takemehometoauntem]

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.

[Fuzzymum1]

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.

[SE13Mummy]

My DCs' school used to have a great website - it was designed in response to a questionnaire and so included things that were a priority to parents/carers, staff, pupils and the wider community e.g. photographs included examples of children's work and of the classrooms rather than 30 pictures of each child in a class doing the same thing, the PTA had a page to promote their events, class curriculum maps and termly letters were available on a year group page, there was a login page for children to access certain resources at home/school, clickable e-mail contact to the teachers (albeit with a health warning explaining that it may take a few days to receive a reply) a 'how to support your child' page with youtube clips of how to pronounce the phonics sounds, printable resources etc. and a 'coming soon' feature on the homepage (in addition to the regularly updated calendar). It was maintained by a teacher who updated it once a week when she uploaded the weekly newsletter.

However, in September this site was deleted and replaced with a horribly officious, not that useful, site to align it with the two federated schools that 'our' one is unfortunate enough to be in a partnership with. Apparently the site is aimed at prospective parents and supply teachers . It no longer has up-to-date information re: closures, doesn't have photographs of children's work, doesn't contain information about what each year group is learning, doesn't give pointers on suitable resources for supporting your child at home, doesn't promote PTA events (although most of those have been stopped anyway to be honest). It's rubbish.

[Pancakeflipper]

Our school website is great. It has something new on it weekly if not every day.

One of the Governors built it and has trained the HeadTeacher and staff on how to use it.

Its a bonus for Ofsted Inspections as they look to see if policies are on there and what the website says about the school.

It's a chore but essential and a great asset for the school if it's reliable and up to date.

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

nailak - the staff in your school are lucky to have such a forward thnking GB.

In our LEA only the larger Primary Schools (I know of 3 out of about 60) have someone whose job is to run/maintain the website. For everyone else (most schools have between 2 and 6 classes) it is just another burden on a member of the teaching staff.
You get sent on a course and then booom - it suddenly becomes your responsibility.

[TheNebulousBoojum]

'I would expect this is what most schools would do?'

From the evidence of this thread, it would appear not.

'Nebulous - Until the GB pass on the task to the most IT literate member of staff'

Exactly, pantryboy. So many initiatives happen until the novelty wears off,and then the expectation is that teaching staff will just shoulder the responsibility.

[nailak]

we also have an a secretary who if anything needed done would be in charge of it. She has a lot of responsibility in our school.

[nailak]

well I am on the governing body and we actually hired a service provider to do ours......

We considered tenders, including from some parents etc and accepted the cheapest one.

I would expect this is what most schools would do?

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

Nebulous - Until the GB pass on the task to the most IT literate member of staff

[TheNebulousBoojum]

So it's the governors' responsibility?
Good.

[TheNebulousBoojum]

'The last news letter is from 2009 and the photo of the head teacher looks 20 years younger!'

Teaching is very ageing I have found.

[nailak]

?Information to be published on a website by the governing body

10.?(1) Subject to paragraph (5), where a website is maintained for a school by or on behalf of the governing body of a maintained school, the governing body must arrange for the information specified in Schedule 4 to be published on that website.

(2) Subject to paragraph (5), where there is no website maintained for the school, the governing body must arrange for the information specified in Schedule 4 to be published on a website, the address and details of which are made known to parents.

(3) The governing body must provide a paper copy of the information published on the website without charge to parents on request.

(4) Subject to paragraph (6), the governing body must arrange for the information published on the website to be updated as soon as is reasonably practicable following a change to that information and, in any event, at least annually.

(5) In respect of the information specified in paragraph 2 of Schedule 4, the requirements in paragraphs (1) and (2) to publish this information apply to the governing body of a community and voluntary controlled school, but not to the governing bodies of other maintained schools.

(6) In respect of the information specified in paragraph 2 of Schedule 4, the governing body of a community and voluntary controlled school must arrange for this information to be updated not later than six weeks before the date up to which parents may express a preference for the school in respect of the admission year. ?

(4) In regulation 11 (supplementary provisions relating to published documents)?

(a)in paragraph (1) after ?document? insert ?or website?;

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1124/made

[Houseworkprocrastinator]

Our school have a Facebook page. It seems to work quite well, they also have a twitter account but the website looks like it hasn't been touched for years. The last news letter is from 2009 and the photo of the head teacher looks 20 years younger!

[nailak]

i thought it was a legal requirement that has to be done by this year to have a website with accessible policies etc? the governors should be dealing with it.

[Pyrrah]

DD's current primary (she's in the nursery) have a woeful website - but at least there is one and it gets updated. If I were the HT I might ensure that the person who did the updating could at least spell! Doesn't give me any confidence that she will care whether or not my child can spell.

When I was looking at schools for the Primary application form I checked out all the websites - the better the school, the better the website it appeared.

[piprabbit]

No - that the school and parents can communicate via FB without the need to bully each other or post pouty photos.

[Feenie]

What do you mean - show them how to set privacy levels? That really would encourage lying and promote Facebook use!