Introduction – Our Favorite Website Designs for Schools
School websites are often the first impression of all stakeholders, especially prospective parents, has of an institution. Beyond being a statutory information repository, a great school website acts as a vibrant digital presence, reflecting the school’s values, mission, and unique culture. Our favorite website designs for schools combine great design, informative content, a strong brand and unique features.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at some of our favorite. We’ll explore designs, content, brand appeal, and functional features. It’s not easy to design a school website so it is always worth shouting about some of our favorites!
The realsmart teams favorite designs
Below are a small selection of some of the favorite website designs for schools that our team have picked out. In no particular order here are the choices with a short comment on why they are chosen:
- Heartlands High School – This site has a strong modern looking brand, the colours are quite unique and the overall design feels very clean.
- Edward Peake Middle School – I like how there isn’t too much wording on the homepage, the images and social feed do all of the heavy lifting. It is really easy to navigate.
- Carrhill Primary School – I like the focus on information we see on the carrhill website. There is the latest news, a weekly highlight and also some attendance info, a real community focus.
- Whickham School – This site has a clean and professional look about it, the imagery is some of the best and it sets the tone of young professional adults, some subtle animations are a nice addition too!
- Astrea St Ivo – The Astrea sites lead the way in having a strong consistent brand for a Trust. The St Ivo site is a good example with some subtle tweaks to the sixth form area for differentiation.
- St Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Multi-Academy Trust – This site has not only a strong brand, there is good photography, I like how the elements overlap and the stats are a live feed into their MIS which is a pretty cool feature!
Key components to our favorite school website designs
A strong brand composition
A strong brand makes the design work easier, the colours will have been well thought out, the logo will be sharp and the brand will be in place across multiple medium. Here we take a look at the two main components of a schools brand, the logo and colour palette.
School Logos
We’ve seen a move in recent years away from the classic shield or circle shaped school logo, some abstract shapes, clever typography and mimialist design are all features we are now seeing emerge. That does not mean that the classic shield or circle shape is out of fashion. We see St Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Multi-Academy Trust use a modern twist on a shield shaped logo.
The Laurus Trust’s in house design team create some of the logos, we have to say there are some awesome desgins! Take a look at some of their school websites via the Trust site.
Colour palette
A website can perform well without a great logo if it has a strong colour palette. By strong we mean colours that are complimentary, colours that are not too intense and colours that work in a number of situations. If your brand colours work with white or black text your are already winning half of the battle, add in a secondary colour that assists or pops then you have a strong platform.
This screenshot from some brand guidelines really shows how much thought goes into colour theory:
Easy to navigate menu structure
If your users cannot easily find what they are looking for on your school website then the chances are they will give up and leave with a negative experience. One common theme around strong performing websites is that they all have a clear and easy to use menu strucutre. The key peice of advice we give is to ensure you target some of the stakeholders who will be visiting the site and to think about what their main target information may be. For example parents will be looking for information around term dates, uniform and contact details.
The Astrea Trust used a set template for all of their school menu strucutres, this added consistency and allowed the trust staff familiarity in knowing where to look for content. This improves the time it takes to find and edit content.
Impressive photography
Photography is a major influence on how first impressions are made on a website. The images used on your website sell the school to the prospective parent. Images set the tone and also give key snippets of information. From the photography parents can see the facilities on offer, what the uniform looks like and also activities on offer via the curriculum.
If your photography is great then your website design will benefit, there will be no blurred images with bad composition, instead your website will tell a story. The best website designs for schools always have good quality photography it’s a step than cannot be skipped. Having a good bank of images can also be used for prospectuses, promotional material, wall art etc.
In a recent blog post we cover how important photography is, we’ve also partnered with Andy Catterall to offer you the very best service in school photography! Here is a selection of his work:
Additional features
Additional features act like the icing on the cake, these leave a subtle but lasting impression on your website visitors. It could be anything from some subtle animations, interactive data or a nice and simple contact form. There are lots of little decisions that can be implemented into a site that just make the experience more pleasant.
Recently we created a plugin that allows data to be sent from an MIS into a trusts homepage. This data shows the amount of staff and students currently in the trust.
Some subtle animations can ensure a page is not overpowering but offers a little bit of visual flare that can really polish off a design, for example – https://www.whickhamschool.org/
Conclusion to our favorite school website designs
It’s no fluke that our favourite website designs for schools all contain more than one of these key features. Consider your school website a recipe, if you add all of the key ingredients then you will have the best possible outcome.
If you are planning a redesign then focus on these core principles and remember that your site can evolve over time. Refreshed imagery and brand tweaks are subtle changes that can refresh your look quickly. The best website designs for schools will hold their own over multiple years saving you time in the long run.