Case study
Mount Carmel and Schudio: a partnership built to last
How a long-standing relationship gives a Catholic high school in Accrington specialist software, expert guidance and a team that listens, while keeping the school’s own voice at the centre of its website.
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A school website has to do two jobs at once. It must reflect the character of the school and keep families well informed, and it must stay accurate as information, priorities and people change.
For Mount Carmel Roman Catholic High School in Accrington, a long-standing Schudio client, the website is also an expression of the school’s own creativity. Its team produces much of its communications material in house and uses the website to share the life of the school with its community.
The partnership is built around that. The school leads its communications, and Schudio provides a system designed for education, specialist guidance and a team to turn to as the website develops.
The school describes the value in terms of expertise, reassurance and involvement: knowing it is supported by people who understand school websites, and that its feedback is heard.
In the school’s words
“Working with a team of experts who understand school websites makes a real difference. The system is designed specifically for education, and every detail has been carefully considered.”
Mount Carmel RC High School
Starting with the school’s character
Mount Carmel describes itself as a family of faith and learning, and its homepage makes that identity visible from the first screen. Pupils are pictured alongside words such as prayer, reflection, worship, journey and celebration, placing the school’s Catholic life at the heart of its introduction.
Beneath that opening, the headteacher’s welcome invites visitors to discover the warmth, ambition and community spirit that make the school special. Latest news follows, keeping the homepage connected to what is happening in school now.
Much of this presentation is the school’s own work. Its team creates graphics and communications material and develops its pages directly, so the website carries a voice and visual style that are recognisably Mount Carmel.
That shaped the role of the partnership. The priority was never to replace the school’s approach with a standard template, but to give a confident, creative team the tools and support to keep building on it.
Software and support designed for schools
Mount Carmel’s website runs on Schudio’s content management system, built specifically for school and trust websites. The structures a school needs, from news and document groups to key information pages, are part of the system rather than adaptations of general-purpose software.
The system is backed by a team that specialises in school and trust websites. When the school has a question, it speaks to people who understand how school websites are used and what they need to contain.
“It’s reassuring to know there is always a team at Schudio on hand to help with our queries.”
Mount Carmel RC High School
That reassurance matters for a school that manages so much of its own content. Its team can move ahead with confidence, knowing expert help is available when it is needed.
Supporting the school through change
A long-term website relationship has to accommodate change, including changes of leadership. As Mount Carmel prepared to welcome a new headteacher in 2026, it needed fresh photography that would work with its established homepage design.
Schudio coordinated a photography session to the school’s brief: portraits on a white background, suitable for the cut-out imagery used across the homepage, alongside photographs with their natural backgrounds retained. The school then selected the images it wanted to use.
The result was new material that fitted the existing visual identity, rather than a reason to redesign. The school’s character stayed constant while its website kept pace with the change in leadership.
Compliance as a continuing responsibility
Schools must publish a range of statutory information online, and keeping it complete and current is an ongoing responsibility rather than a one-off check.
Mount Carmel regards Schudio’s statutory requirement audits and in-person compliance events as invaluable. The audits review the website against the published requirements, while the events give staff the opportunity to work through those requirements in detail with specialists.
That guidance sits alongside the practical routes families use every day. The homepage gives prominent access to admissions, term dates, safeguarding, the curriculum and an A to Z of essential information, together with the school’s contact details.
A partnership that works both ways
The relationship is not one-directional. Mount Carmel is invited to trial new features, and its feedback and suggestions are welcomed by the Schudio team.
Schools that manage their websites every day are among the best sources of insight into how the software should develop. For Mount Carmel, it means the school’s experience is part of the conversation about the tools it relies on.
“We’re asked to trial new features, and Schudio really listens to our feedback and suggestions.”
Mount Carmel RC High School
Learning that keeps the website moving forward
A website stays useful when the people managing it keep developing their skills and ideas. Mount Carmel’s team makes use of Schudio’s training courses, weekly online sessions and regular blogs, which focus on particular features and sections of a school website as well as relevant updates.
“The training courses and weekly online sessions are fabulous, and the regular blogs keep us up to date with features, ideas and relevant changes.”
Mount Carmel RC High School
The homepage reflects a school that keeps its website current. A feature on the National Year of Reading 2026 sets out the school’s plans for the year, including a literacy festival in January, alongside its latest news.
Mount Carmel also values the wider tools available through Schudio for promoting the school, including social media scheduling and email marketing software, which extend the partnership beyond the website itself.
A partnership built to last
Mount Carmel’s experience shows what a long-term website partnership can offer a school with a clear sense of its own identity: software designed for education, expert guidance on what must be published, continuing training and a team that listens.
The school remains the author of its own story. Schudio’s role is to provide the platform, the expertise and the support to help it keep telling that story well, year after year.
It is the kind of partnership we aim to offer every school, at whatever level of involvement suits its team.
Working together
A website team you can build a relationship with.
Whether you want occasional advice or a closer working partnership, we’d love to hear what your school has in mind.
