A school website is more than just an online brochure with lists of supporting doucments; it’s a vital communication hub for students, parents, staff and the wider community. Choosing the right platform is critical, and we’re here to champion WordPress and how we at realsmart leverage this platform.
Why wordpress?
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS) for a reason. It is flexible, scalable, and incredibly user friendly. It powers the majority of the wordwide web which in turn means it is vastly supported by a worldwide community and a wealth of knowledge.
| Feature | Advantage for schools |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | Staff with basic computer skills can update content without needing a web developer. This saves time for those urgent updates |
| Flexibility | Thousands of themes and plugins allow for customisation, ensuring the website reflects the school’s unique identity. |
| SEO Friendly | Helps the school website rank higher in search results, making it easier for prospective families to find. |
| No restrictions or tie-ins | WordPress allows you to export and import conent, this means you can take all of your content and easily place it in another wordpress instance. |
| Community Support | A massive global community means constant updates, security improvements, and readily available troubleshooting. The wide userbase is the best testing facility you could hope for |
| Scalability | The platform/technology can grow with the school, easily handling increased traffic and the addition of new features over time. Your website is a living thing and never stands still |
| Accessibility Focus | Many WordPress resources prioritize Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which is essential for providing an inclusive digital experience for all users. |
The realsmart offering
While WordPress provides the engine, we at realsmart offer a tailored environment specifically designed for Schools and MATs. Integrating WordPress through a service like ourselves brings a suite of specialised advantages:
1. Enhanced Security and Compliance
We provide dedicated hosting and security features that are essential for protecting sensitive school and student data. This ensures your website meets the necessary regulatory standards and gives you peace of mind. Leveraging the power of tools such as AWS and Cloudflare we work with industry leading technology to give you the very best service.
2. Education-Specific Tools
With realsmart, the WordPress installation is often pre-configured or bundled with plugins and features crucial for schools, such as:
- MIS Integration: We can sync your users from your schools MIS into realsmart to allow users to log into your school website to manage their content. Alternatively we can generate a list of logins for cases where only a handfull of accounts with access are required.
- Calendar and Event Management: Easy publishing of term dates, school trips, and meetings. We can intergrate with feeds from multiple sources of calendar, from Google Calendar to Microsoft Outlook calendars and more.
- Bespoke Theme Options: Themes designed to meet the communication and aesthetic needs of a school environment. Easy to update main carousels, areas to add anayltics tracking and out of the box responsiveness.
- School Specific Plugins: We have developed a long list of plugins designed to make managing your school website easier. From policy management, job vacancies, carousels, popups and more we have plenty of solutions for you to take advanatge of.
- Multisite Functionality: Our multisite functionality makes it easy for you to manage content such as policies, menu links and news posts from one location such as the Trust website and then push this content across multiple other school websites.
3. Dedicated Support
When an issue arises, you won’t be navigating the generic WordPress forums alone. We offer dedicated, UK-based support that understands the specific needs of a school. If you need assistance, simply drop our support team an email, or find the support guide on our knowledgebase.
The best bit? We have no hidden costs, our support service is all part of the package. We’ve heard some fo the horror stories where schools have been charged for a simple colour change or some assistance formatting content.
4. Simplified Management
We handle the technical heavy lifting such as: updates, backups, and maintenance, allowing school staff to focus entirely on content creation and communication. We backup sites every night and store these backups on a 30 day rolling service giving you peace of mind.
Need more Information?
If there is anythin else you need to know about our offering for school websites with WordPress then just drop us a call or have a browse through all of our products. We try to post regular blog posts that will often include any new features we’ve developed or useful information to make your school life easier.