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it's woefully out of date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

[LineRunner]

My DS's secondary school's website is shite.

They don't list the school governors; there's no information about school trips (which I was trying to find); and they don't list the inset days.

[Sparklingbrook]

Secondary schools don't really have an excuse do they Line? That's terrible.

[mrz]

We use e books and literacy and maths programmes that pupils can access at home but a number of parents have complained they haven't got access because they can't afford to buy computers or pay for the internet ...

[Sparklingbrook]

mrz. DS2 (year 6) gets some of his his maths homework through MyMaths and I don't know how DS1 (year 9) would manage without a computer for all the ELPs he has to do.

Down to the library, I suppose.

[ipadquietly]

From Sept '12, there have been new Ofsted requirements for school websites. If you follow the ' handy checklist' link on this website, it provides all the details:
<a class="break-all" href="//info:blog.e4education.co.uk/?p=951" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//info:blog.e4education.co.uk/?p=951

[piprabbit]

All our Y6's get loaned a laptop/netbook for their final year.

[Sparklingbrook]

That's good pip.

[piprabbit]

It evens out the playing field a little .

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

I'm technically responsible for ours.
The LEA insist we use a platform that is unweildy and not user friendly at all - for example, to add a single document or photograph takes me 5 or 6 steps whereas on something like WordpressI could upload it with one click or use an app.

Indivdual staff are meant to update their class pages - they haven't been done for over a year - despte the fact that I have repeatedly run training sessions.

My class pages and class blog are updated at least weekly, I try to keep the front page updated with school news but I don't have any extra time (or money) given to me for this and I sometimes I just don't have the time.
The school website (and technically inept staff) are the bigggest bane of my working life.

[DoItToJulia]

I don't think anyone would blame you PantryBoy, but there should be resource enough for you to do that part of your job properly. That's the issue.

Our school has a dedicated ICT coordinator and the school has 35 iPads for the kids to use as well as an ICT suite, so I can't work out the problem for our school.

[MumVsKids]

Ours is great, any letters sent home are uploaded by year group, there is also a timetable for each year group.
The latest newsletter is uploaded straight away and all term dates, calendar dates, year assemblies etc are added as soon as they are decided along with inset days and important announcements.
Each member of staff has written a short "about me" piece, as have the governors (I am vice chair) and then the class representatives.

The only thing not currently on there are photographs, mainly because the staff are very security conscious and as yet have not got a fool proof way of stopping photos being copied and reproduced - which I think is fine. Once it is sorted and photos cannot be lifted from the website, then I think they will go for it.

One of the office ladies built the website for the school (in her own time) and she maintains it too and does a fantastic job. At the last governors meeting we agreed to make an ex-gratis payment to her for her time, and upped her salary by a level on the agreement that she will continue to maintain as she does currently.

It took off quicker than we hoped it would, and has actually cut costs of paper quite a lot as school no longer print off everything, every letter etc. they use the website in conjunction with the SMS service and text parents when there is a new newsletter etc.

If anyone wants a look, it's at //www.astonontrentprimary.org.uk

[MrsWeasley]

Could it be that they are currently updating the website and once it is ready for it parents it will be fab?

[DoItToJulia]

By the way ipad, I can't get that link to work.

[MrsWeasley]

the parents not it

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

Julia - I have said this repeatedly, mind you I would hate to think how much time I spend on ICT issues each week (Primary School)

They range from the plaintive cry 'the sound doesn't work on my desktop anymore' - yes because you removed the speakers because they were in your way
to 'my laptop has stopped working' - yes, it is plugged in but you haven't turned the socket on so it has run out of battery'

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

What heggiehog said.

[PoppyWearer]

Ours is frigging awful and the site is unusable on an iPad. In this day and age (and we live in a very affluent area!) to not have something better is a bit .

Agree the time/money is best spent elsewhere but so many of my fellow parents are clearly very tech-savvy, a few of us could probably lick it into shape quite quickly, but then it wouldn't be maintained.

[DeafLeopard]

Ours is quite informative....but it is all in Comic Sans which for some reason provokes the rage in me

[ipadquietly]

Try this - sorry.
blog.e4education.co.uk/?p=951

[jewelledsky]

Mmm. Let's see. Planning, teaching, marking, assessing, sorting out pupils' problems, meetings with parents, staff meetings, team meetings, Government target driven paper work - to be competed in triplicate, planning... am afraid website very low on priority list.

If you need information, please feel free to phone the school office and ask.

[educator123]

The dcs school website is not great. It hasn't been updated in ages and annoys me as some other local schools websites are so informative - class planning, newsletters, pics/videos etc.

We do have parentmail and sms alerts though so i try to tell myself it shouldnt matter too much if the website is basic, to say the least. As long as the school itself is performing well. But i can't help wishing the website was better and provide a perfect area for reacher/parent communication!

[Feenie]

Ours is quite good -one of our TAs has a dedicated half day each week to update.

A Facebook page isn't appropriate for primary schools - it is a constant battle to stop Y5, Y5 and even Y4 from having accounts, and much bullying arises from its use. It would send totally the wrong message to have a school page, imo.

[TheNebulousBoojum]

Our website is up, running and current. Newsletters, snow warnings, photos for this year, upcoming events. Run by the DH, the office staff and a select number of very IT literate people.
Minimum expectation for teachers and the VLE is that weekly homework is on there, plus any upcoming class events, useful weblinks for current topics and that it's checked every day in case parents have messaged.
Yes, it's a bugger to do. But we do it.