How to please all parents all of the time

Many parents get information about the school that their child attends through the school’s website. Not surprisingly, therefore, the most common reason given as to why a school has put up a website is as a means to aiding communication with parents of children in the school.

But despite this clarity of aim it is also the case that when schools do surveys concerning the use of their website they find many parents report that they can’t easily find the information that they need – and so end up phoning the school instead.

In trying to work out why this is so, it becomes clear that that the second most common reason for putting up a school website is to communicate with parents who are thinking of sending their children to your school.

So more information gets added to the site, without any thought about what is important to the different people looking at the site.

And as a result of this it can become harder and harder to find what you need on the site.

Sometimes, therefore, it is a good idea to go back to the start and re-consider exactly what someone coming to your website will be looking for, and make sure that everything can be found very readily.

This often involves having separate pathways within the site for different groups of people… one for existing parents which caters for their requirements for information, one for potential parents.

At the same time you have to remember that the majority of those looking at your site will be using a mobile device. So the site needs to be compliant to the latest technology!

This is an area that we have worked in extensively, and some of the comments from teachers who have used our services are given below.

Meanwhile, if you would like to talk about how your school can respond to organising the information it carries on the website please do get in touch. You can find out more about us on http://www.inco-education.co.uk/article-what-makes-a-brilliant-school-website.php

If you prefer, email me the details of your website and your phone number (and let me know a convenient time to call) and I will come back to you with my thoughts on what changes we might suggest to your website. You can reach me on as@inco-soft.net

Here are the comments from others…

We were after a website which met the needs of our current and potential users while providing an intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing platform. At all times INCO sort to meet this need. As our website has grown and developed INCO have been very helpful in supporting this process. I would have no hesitation in recommending INCO to you as a professional company that cares about its clients.
Mr Clive Darley, Assistant Headteacher, The Billericay School

While working with INCO on our new school website, we have been nothing but impressed. INCO have been excellent and their service support has been fantastic. The team there respond promptly and go above and beyond to help. I have no hesitation in recommending INCO to other Schools. Thank you!
Tanbir Hussain, Burntwood School

Several design companies were contacted and following numerous demonstrations I felt INCO understood our needs and had both the technical knowledge and design flair to construct a site which met our very precise demands.
Dr Derek Davies – Deputy Headteacher Sir John Thursby Community College – Burnley

The after-sales advice and support we have experienced so far makes us confident that INCO have a long term commitment to work with us to further develop our website. I have no hesitation in recommending INCO to other schools and colleges.
Mike Brodrick – ICT Manager, Haydock Sports College – Merseyside