The State of School Websites

The national benchmark for school websites. We analysed the live websites of 693 schools, scored them across the things that matter to families, and matched them to the DfE's official pupil data - so any school or trust can see where the good stuff, the gaps and the opportunities are, and how to improve.

Who is behind this: Schudio builds and hosts websites for schools and trusts across the UK, so this benchmark is drawn from real, live school sites on our platform - fully anonymised, with no individual school named, and refreshed every month.

693 school websites371 matched to DfE data9 regionsAugust 2026Updates monthlyAnonymised

The benchmark

The Schudio Website Score

One transparent score out of 100, built from what families actually rely on: how findable the key pages are and how well the school communicates. Switch the segment to benchmark primary, secondary, academies, maintained schools and trusts.

79
/ 100
Findability83
Communication70
89%admissions info findable
76%SEND page findable
62%newsletter on homepage
39%under 90% capacity
Based on 693 schools
Score = 70% findability + 30% communication, from publicly observable signals only. It deliberately does not use any school's private compliance audit.

Findability Mostly strong

The pages to prioritise for parents

Parents come to a school website for a small, predictable set of things: admissions, term dates, uniform, how to get in touch, the latest news, and for some families the SEND information and the most recent Ofsted report. These are the journeys to keep one or two clicks from the homepage. Each bar shows the share of the 693 schools where that page is currently easy to find. Higher is better; SEND, the Ofsted report and newsletters are the ones most often buried.

% of schools where the page is easy to find

Contact details97%
Admissions89%
Term dates87%
Uniform82%
SEND76%
Ofsted report74%
Newsletters62%

Policies and staff vacancies must be published (see the compliance section below), but they are not parent journeys, so they do not need a place in your main menu.

💡
How to improve: keep these journeys one or two clicks from the homepage. If SEND, the Ofsted report or your newsletter sit three levels deep, pull them into your main menu or a clear "Key information" area. Leave statutory policies in a Policies or Key information section, not the top-level parent menu.
Read: The 5 most important pages on a school website  and  what actually helps parents decide

Admissions and pupil numbers Big opportunity

Four in ten schools have places to fill

Using the DfE's official capacity and pupil numbers for the schools we could match, here is how full they are. Pupil numbers drive budgets, so the website's job differs depending on where a school sits. Primary schools are markedly more likely to have places to fill (42%) than secondaries (35%).

39%
of schools are under 90% full - places to fill, so the website is a recruitment tool
37%
of schools sit 90 to 100% full - healthy, worth protecting
24%
of schools are over capacity - oversubscribed, a different job to do
💡
How to act: if you have places to fill, treat the website as your shop window - a warm admissions page, an easy "book a visit", a current prospectus, and pages that are findable when a local parent searches. If you are oversubscribed, make catchment and oversubscription criteria crystal clear to cut repetitive enquiries. Median school is 94% full.
Read: The pages that actually help parents decide

SEND and inclusion Room to improve

Nearly one in four sites has no easy-to-find SEND page

76%
of schools have a SEND page reachable from the homepage

The SEND (or SEN information report) page is both a legal requirement and, for many families, the single most important page on the site. It is also one of the hardest to write well, which is why so many are thin or buried.

💡
How to improve: give SEND a clear home in your main navigation, keep the SEN information report current, and write it for worried parents, not auditors - what support looks like day to day, who to talk to, and how to get help.
Read: SEND page guidance: building trust with your content  and  how to create the best SEN page

Compliance and inspection readiness Solid, keep it current

The statutory basics are mostly in place

94%
of schools have a policies area reachable from the homepage
74%
of schools link their latest Ofsted report

Most schools have the statutory pages, but "having a page" is not the same as it being current and complete. The gaps that catch schools out are usually stale documents and a handful of missing items, not a missing section.

💡
How to stay ready: review statutory content on a schedule, not the week before an inspection, and keep dated documents fresh. A short annual audit catches the small misses.
Read: How to complete a website compliance audit,  the pre-inspection checklist  and  always ready, not Ofsted-panicked

Communication and engagement Room to grow

News and newsletters are the biggest missed opportunity

62%
of schools surface a newsletter from the homepage
79%
of schools link to their social media

A living website - regular news, a current newsletter, active social links - keeps current families engaged and reassures prospective ones. More than a third are not making the most of it.

💡
How to improve: publish little and often. A short weekly or fortnightly news post and a homepage link to your latest newsletter do more for engagement than a big redesign. The hardest part is starting, so keep a simple rhythm.
Read: Why starting from a blank page makes content harder than it needs to be

Regional benchmark

How the regions compare

Average Schudio Website Score by region, for regions with enough schools in the sample to compare. A taste of the regional reports this dataset makes possible.

North West84146 schools
West Midlands8339 schools
London7939 schools
Yorkshire and the Humber7836 schools
South East8526 schools
South West9025 schools
North East8220 schools
East of England8519 schools
East Midlands8418 schools

The programme

A family of benchmarks, from one dataset

Because the score is computed the same way for every school, the same engine produces the whole family of reports - national, regional, by phase, and for individual trusts.

Live
State of School Websites
The annual national picture, refreshed monthly - this report.
Live
Primary and secondary
Phase benchmarks, switchable in the score panel above.
Data ready
Regional reports
Nine regions already have enough schools to benchmark; more as coverage grows.
Planned
Quarterly pulse
A lighter quarterly update to track how the sector moves over time.
For trusts
MAT and trust benchmarking
A trust sees its schools against the national and regional picture, privately.
In the dashboard
Your school vs the sector
Every school sees its own score against the benchmark, inside its Schudio insights.
Where does your school stand?
See how your own website measures up against this benchmark, or benchmark an entire trust against the national and regional picture.
See your school's website score Trust & MAT benchmarking

Method. The Schudio Website Score is 70% findability + 30% communication, built only from publicly visible signals on each school's homepage (the pages linked for families and how actively the school publishes news and updates). It deliberately excludes any school's private compliance audit. Pupil numbers and capacity come from the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools open data, matched to schools by unique reference number or name where we could do so confidently. Based on 693 live UK school websites analysed in August 2026; the sample is drawn from schools we work with and is indicative of the wider sector. No individual school is identified - only sector and segment averages are shown. Updates monthly.   Schudio builds websites and tools for schools and trusts.