Frequently Asked Questions

We understand you have questions.

This may be the first time you’ve hired someone to build or look after your school website, or you may have had a bad experience with a website company in the past.

Either way we know you probably want to know as much as possible about what’s involved and how much it’s going to cost.

So we’ve done our best to answer all of the questions we’re asked the most below.

If you have a question that’s not covered here, just get in touch and we’ll do our best to answer it.

Website Design Questions

Hosting & Domain Questions

How much does a school website cost?

That depends what kind of website you need.

If your budget is very low then there are many different online school website builder options which will give your school a presence on the web at a very low monthly cost.

Most of our clients have previously had these kinds of websites before and due to the limitations of these types of sites they’re looking to move to a website that’s custom designed for their school and built on an easy to update platform.

We specialise in redesigning old and out of date school websites to help your school better connect with parents and engage with the wider world – so you can grow and progress.

If you’re a primary school or a nursery school then your website will often be much simpler to create so it won’t cost as much. On the other hand, secondary schools and academies often have more pages, sections and functionality which increase the cost.

Our school website redesign projects start from £1,995 + VAT and provide everything your school needs to be successful online.

Why do you charge more than some other school website companies?

We have a process which we’ve developed over our 10+ years in the web design industry which means we’re good at what we do and we know how to deliver the perfect website for your school.

This includes getting to know your school face to face, setting goals and objectives for your school web design project and working with you throughout the project and afterwards to make sure it’s a success.

We’ll also give you a 30 day guarantee when your site goes live and your first month of WebsiteCare after your launch is always free.

Why do you charge less than some other school website companies?

We’re a very small team (although we have big ideas), so you’re not paying for our fancy offices, our 10 staff members or our foosball table.

That means we can charge less than a lot of school website companies while still giving you the same top quality service and expert advice that comes from 10+ years in the web design business.

How long does it take to build a school website?

We’re currently working on an in-depth article which covers the subject of how long it will take to build your school website.

The short answer for now though is: you could be ready to launch in 8-10 weeks, or it might take several months longer.

It will take less time if you can provide us with everything we need from you straight away. On the other hand, it will take longer if we’re waiting for you to send us text and images or give your approval at key stages of the project.

How does the process work and what do you need from us?

We have a 4 phase process which we’ve refined over the last 5 years which we use to plan and develop every new school website.

We start with discovery & planning (aka the most important phase of any project) to establish the aims and objectives of your new school website, evaluate other schools and build a plan for success.

Once you’re happy with this we’ll move on to the fun bit – designing, building & launching your new school website.

To ensure your project is a success, we’ll need a certain amount of time and commitment from you – we’ll need you to answer a lot of questions at the beginning so that we can get a clear picture of what your school needs are and how we can deliver a website that will really work for you.

We’ll also need your input along the way and your feedback and approval at key stages of the project.

How do I know what should be on our school website?

We’ll run through a discovery workshop with you as part of the first stage of the project and this will give us a good idea of who you are as a school and how you want to appeal to your users and the wider community.

We’ll also take an in depth look at the websites of other similar schools and other local schools to see what content they include, as part of the planning and discovery stage.

All of this work will help us to establish exactly what content you’ll need to include on your website to make your school stand out.

Do we need to write all of the content for our school's website?

Once we’ve established what content your website needs to include, you have two options:

Either you can write the content yourself (in our experience, this is the number one cause of delays in school website projects).

The other option is for you to provide us with a bullet point overview of the content needed for each page, then we’ll have one of our approved content writers help you by pulling together the content you already have and writing up your notes for new content into engaging, easy to read copy for your website.

This option usually adds approx. £150 + VAT per page to the cost of the website build (depending on the length and complexity of the pages).

We don’t have any images for the website. Can you help with this?

Yes! We can either arrange for one of our partner photographers to come and take the pictures we need for your website (this option starts at around £450 + VAT per half day).

Or we can co-ordinate with your photographer ahead of the shoot to make sure we’re on the same page about what shots are needed for the new site.

We want a website like X. Can you just copy this design for our new school website?

No, unfortunately not. We design and build websites which help to showcase and promote your school in the right way, and copying someone else’s website wholesale is a surefire way to lose trust and credibility! It would also be a massive missed opportunity for you to tell the world what’s so great about YOUR school.

We do always look at the websites of other similar schools and other schools in your area though and evaluate what about those sites work and what ideas could be used and improved upon, as part of the initial discovery and planning stage.

If there are parts of the design of other sites you like we can also take inspiration from these, and this will also be covered as part of the planning and discovery stage.

Do we need an ongoing maintenance plan once the website has been launched?

Yes! You’ll need to invest time, effort and money to make sure your school website is successful and part of this is making sure your site is well maintained.

Our WebsiteCare plans start at £95 /month and we’ll help you pick a plan that works for you so your school website continues to run smoothly & securely for the long term.

I think our school website just needs a few tweaks - can you do that instead of a full redesign?

Yes we can, BUT we only carry out website updates and changes for schools who have a website built on WordPress and who are subscribed to one of our regular WebsiteCare plans.

Having a care plan for your school WordPress website means you can be confident that your website is well looked after and protected, and it also means we can focus on helping you improve your website with any changes over the long term.

Who hosts our school website?

If you subscribe to one of our WebsiteCare plans, we’ll host your school website for you as part of your monthly package. This means that we’ll handle all the technical stuff for you and make sure the website is always online and available.

You own the site though, so if you’d ever like to transfer your school website to your own host and manage this yourself that’s fine.

Can you register our .sch.uk domain name?

Yes we can help you register your .sch.uk domain name and manage it for you.

If you currently use a .co.uk or a .com domain then we can also manage your existing domain name and provide help and advice if you’d like to move to a .sch.uk domain.

Whatever the case, you will always own your school domain so we’ll register it using your name & address.

Registering / managing your school domain name costs:

£25 + VAT (every 2 years) for .sch.uk domains (management only).
£60 + VAT (every 2 years) for .co.uk domains (renewal & management).
£95 + VAT (every 2 years) for .com domains (renewal & management).