When new students start school it's a bit of a daunting time for parents (we're going through it right now!) It's also a precious time that's to be cherished and made the most of. As the manager of your school website, you have the privilege of reassuring parents and being their source of much valued information at, what can be, quite a significant milestone. There are just a few little things you can do that will make all the difference to as seek to welcome new families to your school. Here's our top tips to use your school website design as a powerful tool!

Give new families their own section on your school website

One of the easiest ways to make someone feel part of your school community quickly is to provide them with their very own section. At least create a specific page for them. Add content that is relevant to new families. That's going to include:

• Key contacts in school for new starters and their parents.
• Reminders of how to access information and support if they have any worries or concerns. If you have an open door policy, shout about it!
• Add useful links to other sections on your website about ways they can get involved; PTA, Governors, Events sections are all worth pointing to.

Encourage new families to engage with you socially as soon as possible

One of the quickest ways for you to put important information in front of your community is to share it socially. Encourage new parents to follow / like your social accounts and get into the habit of checking your Twitter or Facebook accounts regularly.

Provide new families with the means to reach out to you online

Following on from my last point, make sure new families know that they can get in touch with you and point them to the best place to reach you. They'll be grateful for the reassurance that you're available to them if they need to reach out to you.

Keep new families updated

Your school website software should be easy to use. It should make it incredibly easy for you to post news articles, upcoming events and blog posts. You should be in the habit of telling the brilliant stories of what's going on in school as regularly as possible. That will have a direct impact on the future engagement of your new families.

The key point here is to make the relevant content available to your new families on your website in a way they can access easily. They don't want to go searching for content. They don't want to have to struggle to get in touch. Keeping them up to date is the single most important thing you can do for new families.

Let us know how you get on! We'd love to hear from you on how you reach your new families through your school website. Otherwise, drop me a line if you'd like to chat through how I can help you achieve more through your school website.