FAQs
Below are some of our most frequently asked questions. If you have a question that is not answered here please use our feedback form.
Why does my school need a website?
Why use 'Websites for Schools'?
Can you redesign my school's existing website?
What is the process to set up my website?
How long will it take to set up my website?
How much will my website cost?
Can you supply my school with a domain name?
What support is offered once my website is live?
How much web space do I receive with the hosting?
Can we use our own hosting space?
Can you supply me with email address accounts?
Can I set different administration levels for pupils, teachers and administrators?
What would be the technical specification of my website?
Under what terms am I able to cancel my agreement?
Why does my school need a website?
Schools require websites for different reasons. This may be to aid communication between parents, pupils and teachers. It may be to market the school against other competing schools in the area. It may also be as an ITC educational tool for pupils.
Why use 'Websites for Schools'?
There are other web design companies out there that offer their services to schools. However, we believe that the software that we developed (which allows schools to manage their own websites) is the most user friendly and best engineered available. The 'content management system' which sits behind all our websites was carefully designed with schools for schools to ensure it included the right features.
The two founders of Websites for Schools Ltd have combined experience of over 20 years in web design. This is testament to the quality of service that we can offer you - and security that we will be here to support your website for the foreseeable future.
We are currently offering our websites for schools with no setup costs so we are also the best value provider on the market.
Can you redesign my school's existing website?
Yes. We can redesign your website using your school's colours and logos. We can then help you migrate the data from your existing website to your new one. Please note, the cost is the same whether you require a redesign or a new website from scratch.
What is the process to set up my website?
Our process is simple:
1. You complete our website briefing questionnaire
This provides us with useful background information including your school's identity (colours, logos etc) and the various sections and web pages that your website will require. This document, which you complete, sign and send back to us, also acts as your agreement with us. We also ask that you send payment for your first month's licence and maintainance fee as a deposit.
2. We assign you a dedicated project manager
This person, who will be technically skilled and familiar with school's online requirements, will be your point of contact throughout the project.
3. We agree your design with you
Our skilled designers will create a look and feel that is appropriate for your school. We will send these designs over as screenshots that we ask you to approve.
4. We build your website
Your website is created with the sections and web pages that you specified. You can then add the content to the pages yourself.
5. We train you how to use your website
You will also be provided with access to a comprehensive user guide and a laminated "quick guide" to get you started . Your project manager will be available to answer any questions that you might have.
6. Final documentation
Once you are happy with the website we post out to you the invoice for any setup fees for the website, as well as the standing order mandate for your monthly fee.
How long will it take to set up my website?
The website will usually take around 1 month to set up.
How much will my website cost?
There are 2 costs: The initial setup fee and the ongoing monthly fee. Currently there is no setup fee for our standard package however a small fee is charged if you require additional features such as News and events, or Galleries. The monthly fee for the standard package is £99. This covers your hosting (the online space on which your website sits), license (which includes product upgrades) and customer support. There is an also monthly fee for any additional features. All our costs are shown below:
| Setup fee | Monthly fee | |
| Standard website | £0 | £99 |
| Workflow | £99 | £19.99 |
| News and events | £99 | £9.99 |
| Galleries | £99 | £19.99 |
| Interactive school map | £POA | £0 |
Can you supply my school with a domain name?
Yes. If your school does not currently own a domain name (ie www.[yourschool].co.uk) we can supply you with a .co.uk domain name for £19.99 for 2 years or a .com domain name for £29.99 for 2 years.. We can help you choose this name before registering it for you.
What support is offered once my website is live?
You can access the customer area at www.websites-for-schools.com/myschool. Here we have an online help form which you can use to submit your queries to us. We will answer these queries within 8 hours. Our user guide, and other useful documents and papers, are also available to download from the customer area. We can also arrange additional training for your school should you need it.
How much web space do I receive with the hosting?
The monthly fee includes 50MB of hosting space. This is plenty of space for you upload hundreds of photographs and downloadable files onto your website should you wish to.
Can we use our own hosting space?
The Websites for Schools content management system needs certain system requirements. This is why we provide hosting as part of the service. However, we are able to use your hosting space if it will support your website. In such instances the terms of our support may differ.
Can you supply me with email address accounts?
For an extra £9.99 per month we can provide you with an unlimited number of email address accounts. Each teacher, for example, would be given an email address which they can use to receive emails both from Microsoft Outlook or using our online mail service.
Can I set different administration levels for pupils, teachers and administrators?
Yes. Providing you purchase the Workflow tools the person at your school who you choose to be the administrator can set up new accounts so other people at the school can access the website. The administrator can assign certain edit rights to these accounts - so, for example, teachers are able to add new pages but pupils are only able to edit the content within them.
Websites for Schools can act as your administrator if you wish. If this is the case we can set up the user accounts for you.
What would be the technical specification of my website?
Our websites are built using the latest web technologies and programming languages to ensure that your site is both efficient and future-proof.
All our websites are coded using ASP.NET with CSS style sheets to define the layout of the pages within both the Public and Administration websites. The Public website is that which external visitors will see and the Administration website is that which is used by internal contacts at your school to control the content of the Public website.
An easy to use 'content management system' sits behind all our websites for schools. This is based on predefined layout templates. Pages are given a filename, title, and other information such as the Dublin Core meta data.
Pages can be assigned to a new or existing directory to allow the URL to give an indication of what the page contains. This whole process follows a simple step by step wizard.
The core page template of the Public website will include pre-built sections such as primary navigation, secondary navigation, a breadcrumb trail, footer and all the main template graphical elements designed and created by Websites for Schools when a website is initially setup.
Content on web pages can be edited using a wysiwyg HTML editor with predefined styles, and HTML mark up to give each page a consistent and professional look if required.
Please contact us if you require further technical information. Our developers are happy to talk to you in detail.
Under what terms am I able to cancel my agreement?
After the first 12 months you can cancel your agreement by providing us with 1 month's notice.