Secondary school website design as ambitious as your school.
Prospective parents, students, sixth form applicants and future staff all judge your school by its website. Our secondary school website design is bespoke and premium from the first sketch, with a CMS your whole team can keep right.
A school website for eleven to eighteen year olds has more audiences, more editors and more to publish than any other. It should still feel like one school community, speaking with one confident voice.
How we approach school website design
Premium school website designs for secondary schools.
Three examples of the school website designs we create for secondary schools, and a showcase of what bespoke looks like. Hover over each one to scroll the whole page.
Bespoke school website design, built from your brand outwards.
A secondary school has a character of its own: its history, its faith or its specialism, its crest, its colours and the way its students carry themselves. Our design services start there. We work with your brand guidelines, or help you create them, and our school website designs are modern, engaging and could only belong to your school, with every feature your staff need built in behind them.
For example, for St George’s in Blackpool that meant a bespoke website, a full brand kit with logo files and guidelines, document templates so policies match the new website, and a photography and video visit, all designed together so the school tells its local community one consistent story.
- Bespoke design around your crest, colours and school branding
- Every page designed, not just the first screen
- Responsive on every device, accessible to WCAG 2.1 AA as standard
- A team that stays with you, ready for a fresh design when your school is
Case study Distinctly St George’s: bringing a school’s identity to life online How a genuine partnership brought bespoke design, a fresh brand kit and the school’s refreshed narrative together. Read the full story“The team at Schudio worked in genuine partnership with us to unite our website design with a fresh brand kit and refreshed narrative.”
St George’s School, Blackpool
Secondary school website design for every audience you serve.
A primary school website talks mostly to parents. Yours talks to six very different groups of users, often on the same day. The best school websites give each of them a clear route in and a seamless experience, without cluttering the site for everyone else in your school community.
For Year 6 families
Year 6 families deciding where to apply
Prospective parents of primary school children are comparing three or four secondary schools, usually on a phone, usually in the evening. They want a feel for the place before the open evening.
- Your ethos and values, told through real students and real photography
- Open evening dates and how to apply, never more than a tap away
- Transition support that answers what happens after primary school
For current parents
Parents looking for one thing, fast
Most parents rarely browse. They want the term dates, the uniform list, the letter that went home yesterday or the way to report an absence, and they want it in seconds.
- Quick links to the tasks parents do every week
- News, letters and school events published by the staff who wrote them
- Everything pulled through to the ParentHub app automatically
For students
Students who need their timetable, not a brochure
Students use your school website more than most schools realise: homework, revision, clubs, careers, options evenings. It should feel like part of their school community, not like it was written for an inspector.
- Curriculum and options information by year group
- Careers education and the next steps after Year 11
- Clubs, trips, sport and the school’s achievements worth celebrating
For sixth form applicants
Sixth form applicants you are competing to keep
If you have a sixth form, you are recruiting your own Year 11s and students from across the area at the same time. Your post-16 offer needs its own clear, confident space on the site.
- Courses, entry requirements and destinations in one place
- Open evening and application details that are easy to act on
- Bursary and support information published and current
For job applicants
Teachers deciding whether they want to work for you
Recruitment is hard, and good candidates look at your website before they apply. A school website that looks cared for tells them the school is too.
- Vacancies with the job pack and documents grouped together
- Your values and professional development offer, made visible
- A careers page staff are proud to share
For governors and inspectors
Governors, trustees and inspectors who check the detail
Ofsted, governors and trust leaders will look for what you are required to publish. It needs to be complete, current and easy to find, without taking over the pages families use.
- Statutory information in one clearly signposted section
- Policies with review dates, so nothing quietly expires
- Governance and multi academy trust information kept up to date
Year 7 applications are won online, long before open evening.
The dip in pupil numbers that primary schools have already felt is now reaching secondary schools. The Department for Education’s own projections show secondary pupil numbers in England falling year on year for the rest of the decade.
When there are fewer families in your community to go round, the choice is made earlier and it is made online. Parents shortlist schools in the summer of Year 5 and the autumn of Year 6, visit two or three open evenings, and apply by 31 October. Your website is the first visit every one of them makes, and prospective students look too, so it has to be engaging for children as well as their parents.
What Year 6 families ask, and what most school websites lead with.
Everything in the right hand column has to be published, and on a Schudio website it is. We design the pages around the left hand column.
More to publish on your school website, and a system that keeps it current.
Secondary schools have the longest list of statutory information of any school website. Across the sector, school websites are close but rarely finished. In the 2,500+ compliance audits we’ve carried out, most sites are nearly there and very few are completely right. We built our compliance tools to close that gap.
Publish a document once. It updates everywhere.
Document Groups keep a set of documents in one named place. Upload this year’s results or policy and it appears on every page that shows it; retire last year’s and it disappears from all of them at once. Our policy manager reminds you when a policy is due for review, so an out of date safeguarding policy never sits on your website.
Every website we build is audited by our in-house team before launch, and our built-in compliance software lets you check your site against the current requirements whenever you like. We send weekly compliance updates to every client, and our support team is on hand whenever the requirements change.
A school website CMS for the whole staff, not one overworked webmaster.
On a secondary school website the news comes from the PE department, the letters from the head of year, the results from the exams officer and the vacancies from HR. Our content management system, and every feature in it, has been built in-house since 2012, so that all of them can update their own content without breaking the design, and without a developer. These are the key features staff use every day.
Ready-designed page layouts that staff edit in place.
Upload a document once. Every page that shows it updates.
Review dates and reminders, so no policy quietly expires.
Check a letter home before it goes out, free with every site.
Write with Schudio drafts new pages in your school’s own tone. The AI-Chatbot answers questions from parents and students directly on your website, drawing only on your own published content. AI-powered compliance audits check the whole site and flag what is missing, thin or quietly out of date. None of them publish anything without you.
What the best school websites have in common.
We have looked at a lot of school websites since 2011, and the best school websites share five things. Every one of our school website designs is built around them, and you can see each one in a real website we have created.
A first impression worthy of your school
The best school websites look as considered as the school itself. Modern design, premium photography and your school branding carried through every page showcase your school and tell a prospective family, before they read a word, that this is a school that takes care over the detail.
Kirkham Grammar School
Navigation built for every user
Your school website serves more users than any other kind of school website. Clear navigation, sensible menus and calls to action for each audience mean visitors, whether a parent, a student or a job applicant, find what they came for without having to learn your structure first.
Alderman White School
Real students, real photography
Stock photography is spotted instantly by teenagers and their parents. Real imagery of your students, your facilities and your school life does more for trust than any strapline, and we can help arrange professional photography and video when you need it.
Churchmead School
Accessible, responsive and fast
Most visitors arrive on a phone. Every site we build is responsive, quick to load and built to WCAG 2.1 AA, because school websites fall under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations and users with disabilities deserve the same experience.
Alsop High School
Compliant, and kept that way
Secondary schools publish more than primary schools: key stage 4 results, careers information, the provider access policy statement and, with a sixth form, the 16 to 19 bursary. The best school websites keep all of it current without it swamping the pages families actually read.
Cockermouth School
Everything included in your high school website design.
Premium design is where it starts. Our school website services do not stop at launch: every site we deliver comes with the same features, the same support and the same friendly team behind it for as long as you are with us.
School news, events and celebrations
Results days, sports fixtures, trips and performances. Staff publish news and school events in moments and share them to school social media from the same place, so parents and the wider community see what is happening.
Pages that are easy to update
Content Templates give staff ready-designed page layouts to edit in place, so a head of department can build a good-looking page without waiting for anyone.
Included on every site
A parent app, included
The MIS-linked ParentHub app pulls the most important information from your website through to parents automatically, with secure forms and absence reporting built in. Better parental engagement, without another system to buy.
A named contact, and unlimited support
One named contact who knows your school, not a ticket queue, and support from the people who built the software for as long as you are a client.
Training for every member of staff
Unlimited training for everyone who edits the site, plus CPD-accredited workshops, live events and our online training platform.
“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, Accrington“We’re asked to trial new features, and Schudio really listens to our feedback and suggestions.”
A school web design company that is still owner-run.
We have been building school websites in Lancashire since 2011, and we have worked with more than 250 secondary schools across the UK. We built the CMS, the compliance tools and the AI Suite ourselves, and the same team provides every one of our services. When the DfE requirements change, we update the platform and tell you what it means for your school. You do not have to ask.
“It’s reassuring to know there is always a team at Schudio on hand to help with our queries.”
Mount Carmel RC High SchoolOur secondary school website design process.
One team, from the first conversation about your new school website design to launch day and beyond, working to a date agreed with you at the start and planned around your school calendar.
Discovery
We learn your school: your audiences, your values, your admissions story and what your current website is not doing for you.
Bespoke design
We create your homepage and key pages around your identity. You review them in preview and shape them with us before anything is built.
Content transfer
Our content team moves your pages, documents and images across and flags anything out of date, so you launch full rather than empty.
Audit, training and launch
We audit the site for compliance, train every member of staff who will edit it, and launch on the agreed date.
Always improving
New features arrive through the year at no extra cost, and when your school is ready for a fresh look, we’ll be ready to design it with you.
Questions secondary schools ask us.
Something else on your mind? Call us on 0333 577 0753 or talk to us about your school’s website.
What do the best school websites have in common?
The best school websites are easy for every user to navigate, use real photography of real students, work beautifully on a phone and keep their statutory information current. Good school website designs also give each audience its own route in, so a prospective parent, a student and a job applicant all find what they came for. Behind the design, the features that matter most are the ones that let staff keep the site up to date without help.
How much does secondary school website design cost?
Every website we design for a secondary school is bespoke, so we quote for your school rather than publish a price list. After a short conversation about your brand, your audiences and what you need from the site, we give you a clear written quote covering design, content transfer, training, hosting and support services. Prices are plus VAT.
How long does a new high school website take?
We agree the launch date with you at the start and plan the project backwards from it. Most secondary schools want to launch before open evening season or at the start of a term, and we build the timeline around your calendar rather than ours.
We are part of a multi academy trust. Can you design for the trust as well?
Yes. Our design services cover multi academy trusts and their schools, so a secondary school can keep its own identity while sitting comfortably alongside the trust website and its sister schools, with the same features and support across all of them. We have built over 1,000 school and trust websites since 2011.
What happens to the content on our current website?
We move it. Our content team transfers your existing pages, documents and images into your new site, and flags anything that is out of date or broken along the way, so you launch with a full site rather than an empty one.
How do you train a whole staff team?
Everyone who will update the website gets unlimited training for as long as you are a client, from the people who built the software. That includes our online training platform, live workshops, one-to-one support and every new feature as it arrives, so heads of department can look after their own pages with confidence.
We are still in contract with another provider. Can we move?
Yes. With The Confident Move we can start designing your new website now and begin your annual platform fee when your existing agreement finishes. No double paying, and no rushed rebuild in the last few weeks of your old contract.
A secondary school website that looks as good as your school, and that your whole staff can keep right.
Tell us about your school, your audiences and your timeline. We will show you what a new school website design could look like, and we will not hand you to a salesperson.
