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Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2015We recently completed an exciting project for Anns Grove, a vibrant and friendly school in Sheffield's borough of Heeley. Anns Grove School (originally Anns Road School) has been at the heart of the local community since it opened in 1897 and in March 2006 the school moved to a stunning new building from where the school's reputation has continued to grow.
EdHQ worked with team at Anns Grove to update their branding, design and install new signage throughout the school. We also created a portfolio of custom photography capturing the daily life, creativity and energy within the school.
On top of that we built a welcoming, mobile-friendly website that showcases the best of the school - the pupils, the great learning environment and the busy, bustling school community.
Our easy to use content management system gives the school complete control of their site and its content. Strong emphasis was placed on highlighting information that's important to parents and carers, events and activities and letting the school's unique personality and strong values shine through.
Find out more about the Anns Grove signage project and the Anns Grove new website project.
Richard Hall is our Primary School specialist and founder of EdHQ. Over his many years of experience he has worked with schools across the region to show the best of their school, maximise their appeal and improve communication. If you're thinking of improving your brand, website or signage for your Primary School, feel free to get in touch - hello@edhq.co.uk
... (Read More)Posted on Wednesday, September 30, 2015The BBC reported yesterday that parent groups want a bigger voice in schools with low levels of satisfaction. Schools need parents to be informed, engaged and feeling like they are being heard.
A key to this is not only providing them with an great website, full of all the information that answers their questions, but sometimes giving them opportunities to comment and make suggestions. It's difficult to capture this feedback - across a busy school day and all your staff who all have conversations with parents throughout the day.
EdHQ can help. If you need to gain feedback from your parents (or indeed other stakeholders) this can easily be integrated into your EdHQ Website. Also, we have experience of helping schools gain sensible feedback, so we can advise you on how to introduce and promote an online questionnaire – and how to use the results to provide benefits for your school.
From basic contact forms through to surveys, donations and newsletter signups – our websites include an easy to use web form builder that you can use without the need for server-side coding. Simply select the fields you'd like to capture, then drag and drop to arrange their order.
Automate processes and get back to parents faster. Build multi-step workflows and get notified of new web form submissions, verify steps as they are completed, or remind and forward if needs be.
Use our flexible report generator to create easy to understand, great looking reports, helping you evaluate parent feedback. Easily export data in a variety of formats for analysis offline.
View some of our recent school website designs >>>
Ian Powell is our Secondary School and Academy specialist. Ian has great experience working with Schools and their stakeholder groups, in marketing, market research and working with school data. If you’re considering any kind of feedback process from your parents, feel free to get in touch – hello@edhq.co.uk
... (Read More)Posted on Thursday, September 03, 2015
We've got years of experience building websites and creative materials for secondary schools. Here are some of our top tips for improving your secondary school's existing website or for making your new website project a smashing success.
Don’t be worried about how you are going to achieve results, that’s a website development agency’s job. Instead, think about the challenges you have at present with your secondary school website and even the challenges you have communicating to your audience.
Write them down, and if possible place priorities next to them. Even if they are all priority #1’s this will help set the scene for your new website and experienced website developers with knowledge of secondary school websites should be able to help you from there.
Your pupils create great work every day, so use this to your advantage. Use your secondary school website to demonstrate this by using videos, school trip reports, achievements and other work from your pupils to reward them, and provide rich, regular content for your website. This ‘celebration’ of work is important, but it also communicates all kinds of positive messages to your next intake.
It’s also easy to do, if you have the right content management system and this method generates fresh content that search engines love.
Your website can actually pay for itself. To successfully communicate with your audience you don’t need a huge or expensive website, but it does have to be of a certain quality.
A simple website with a great content management system will enable you to create an efficient PR and communications tool which will pay for itself with the labour hours saved. Remember, the website plays a huge role in convincing next year’s intake that your school is right for them, so get it right and it’ll pay for itself
To get the other seven tips download our free PDF guide to ensuring a great looking, and hard working website for your secondary school.
Posted on Thursday, August 13, 2015
If you're building a new website for your primary school, or you're working with a design agency to create one, there's lots of stuff you'll need to think about. It can be a daunting task, but here are some top tips we've learned over the years.
If your primary school website has not been designed to work on mobile devices, i.e. tablets and smartphones it needs redeveloping.
A ‘responsive’ website is the best option - a technology which enables all the content to ‘respond’ to the type of web browser the visitor is using. If you have one visitor checking your site on an iPhone for example, the content on your website will automatically show in a format that works for the device. Having a responsive website means that whatever device your visitor is using (a PC, a tablet, a phablet, etc.) they will have an easy experience. It’s great for all involved if a busy parent can access a quick bit of information as they’re getting their kids ready for school.
A responsive website also has other benefits which include being found more easily in mobile searches (Google has recently decided to de-rank websites that are not mobile friendly) and there are other benefits as well which a good development agency can lead you through.
Don’t be worried about how you are going to achieve results, that’s a website development agency’s job. Instead, think about the challenges you have at present with your primary school website and even the challenges you have communicating to your audience.
Write them down, and if possible place priorities next to them. Even if they are all priority #1’s this will help set the scene for your new website and experienced website developers with knowledge of primary school websites should be able to help you from there.
Obviously, the social aspects of your school are critical. A school constantly works hard to engage face to face with parents, children and other stakeholders daily, managing relationships as they arrive in class, through to out of school events, etc.
The older children in primary schools often have some experience of ‘social media’, and to many of the parents Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are an ever increasing part of their social lives.
Therefore you need to consider a strategy for this, but it doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive or particularly time-consuming. Modern website technology can automate elements of social media and if you have the right strategic help from a website development company it can easily be integrated into both the website and therefore a regular administration routine.
We've helped lots of primary schools launch exciting new websites to engage both kids and parents. You can add these tips in anywhere in your project and you'll be able to launch a smashing website that everyone loves.
Posted on Wednesday, March 11, 2015Visitors to school websites often require quick information while on the go - checking times of events, school meals, and plans for trips out are just a few examples. While getting their kids ready for school or while they are out and about, enabling parents and guardians access to information in an easy to read format is vital. They now need this information so it can be read on their mobile device, thus reducing the calls to reception, and reducing requests for information. It’s about making the information on your website accessible and enabling it to really work for the school and all the stakeholders. The user benefits of a mobile-friendly website also contribute positively to a school's Ofsted examination.
But why has it all ‘gone mobile?’. To get a little context on why a responsive website is a vital tool for schools it’s best to look back a few years.
For the Personal Computer (PC) Market 2012 was a very unusual year. PC sales for were lower than the previous year for the first time in a decade.Consumers had been buying other devices - tablets, and smartphones at the time - all now devices of choice for the hungry internet audience out there.
I'm sure if you’re reading this you’ve been aware of the growth for some time now, but in 2015 it now looks like tablet sales will finally surpass the sales of PCs.
Steve Jobs predicted this, and according to Gartner his prediction will come true this year. Smartphones of course are also exponentially rising in popularity and sophistication, and research shows that it’s only going to increase, in the UK and globally over 1 billion people will access the internet on a mobile device. But not everyone can predict where this is going to go – the venerable Mr. Jobs also said Apple would never produce Phablets …but they do now, and they’re big sellers for them.
The shift to mobile is happening at an extraordinary speed (even Mr. Jobs couldn’t predict it). Today, 50% of some of our clients’ traffic is mobile. By the end of next year, we expect to exceed this figure considerably across the board - especially for schools.
The solution, of course, is to make a website that works equally well on every device. This is where responsive web design comes in.
In simple terms, we develop a responsive web design to be ‘intelligent’; when someone visits your website, it actually figures out the resolution on their device though identifying the type of browser it is using.
Over the past couple of years, responsive design has been adopted by some of the largest organisations, as they have realised the benefits. Time Magazine was one of the first examples, as are the Westfield School and Sandal Magna websites site developed by us and many others in our responsive website portfolio.
If you’re at a desktop PC, open the sites on your browser, and make your browser window smaller.This simulates the effect of the responsive design, flexible images and ‘fluid’ grids which size correctly to fit the ‘screen’.
The benefits are obvious - you build a website once, and it works seamlessly across thousands of different screens.
The rapid adoption of tablets and smartphones and the usage habits of stakeholders and consumers make it inevitable that responsive design will continue to be a major requirement of schools in 2015. It offers the simplest and most cost effective way to reach visitors across multiple devices and it ensures a great experience on every screen.
We were one of the first agencies to develop responsive websites on the popular open source platforms, including WordPress, MODx and Joomla for some global brands, but responsive design is not just for the big budgets…
We’ve developed a way of working and specific technologies that enable us to make responsive web designs both cost effective and easy for you to understand and implement on your website.
If you’d like to know more about responsive website design, contact Richard, Ian or Marc at EdHQ. Between us we have 60 years experience of working within education and delivering creative projects.
... (Read More)Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2015Make sure you like the company’s website. If they can’t do it for themselves how are they going to help you? Also they should have a decent portfolio ofat least ten examples of websites they’ve done to show you and should be able to easily send you additional examples of sites that are similar to yourrequirements. If you are having a hard time finding something you like, it’s time to move on.
Do they have an organised discovery process for designing and developing your new website? Did they ask you a lot of questions and do they demonstratea knowledge and experience of the education sector with questions like ‘What are your main challenges’; ‘Who are your local ‘competitors’?’, ‘Do you needhelp in articulating your message?’ And the most important question; ‘What are your goals?’.
Expect some on the spot advice. They should be experienced enough to understand your position and open enough to help – after all it’s a service basedindustry and any sense of holding back means you’ll get this later down the line.
Is the focus just on the look and feel of the site or will success be measured by other factors such as increased traffic and structuring the site correctly for your school. A pretty website is fine, but it needs to be bespoke for your school, not a cheap off the shelf template. If you are quickly given a low price point (under £2000) it’s likely it’s an off the shelf template, will not be bespoke for your school and therefore the site will not be future-proofed. You’ll have to do it again in a few years, starting the process from scratch.
You really need an agency that measures success and a relationship with you equally. That way they are demonstrably in it for the long run and can helpyou evolve the site cost effectively to increase success, rather than you redesigning it every couple of years.
You should be hiring a firm that is considered to be an expert in professional website design and development as well as inbound digital marketing andsearch engine optimisation. And in this day and age, include copywriting and content curation in there as well. You may be asked about content strategy– don’t worry if you don’t have one – it’s a good thing they ask and the right agency will be able to help you with this.
This doesn’t mean however that you necessarily need to spend thousands on creating content. A good agency will try to understand what you as an organisation can create, and use this knowledge to produce a content and website strategy that truly fits your needs AND budget.
Make sure that you’re not buying a proprietary Content Management System (CMS), or indeed any platform that has been developed in-house as this will tether you to them for life. You need a commonly used Content Management System which provides a professional foundation for your school website. This is then adapted to the needs of your primary school, secondary schoolor academy/trust website. Systems such as Wordpress, MODx or Adobe Catalyst provide this, and it’sone of the reasons why some of the largest brands and global companies use such systems.
On the other side you don’t want a CMS created by a few coders within an agency, as you’re tied to their development schedule and heaven forbid if thecompany fails things will get difficult. Choosing a CMS that is open source or like Adobe Catalyst and working with an agency like us is the way forward. We follow best practice, so anyone cantake over the site’s development at any time which provides you peace of mind and protects you and future-proofs your investment. Such systems are backedby hundreds of thousands of other users and commercial organisations who are continually developing the system to ensure that your site will grow withyou moving forward. And if you wish to part ways with the agency, you can easily move on. There is no reason why you cannot ask an agency about such asituation, and they should have a good and immediate answer.
You shouldn’t even have to ask if your site is going to be responsive or mobile friendly anymore– it should be part of the solution as soon as you start talking to them. There is no future where visits to sites from mobile devices won’t increase –so you will need a site that responsively or fluidly adapts to smartphones, tablets, phablets or even a large screen television. If that isn’t includedright at the start then you should find another agency.
Does the firm you want to engage actually provide some structure and project management skills? At least they should be talking about providing you witha proper timeline and be demonstrably geared towards managing your expectations and providing measurable results. Find out how many team members you willbe dealing with, if there’s one main contact and what happens when they go on holiday? Also, gauge if they will be proactive in contacting you and reminding you about things. If it’s all a bit woolly, move on.
Decide what your ideal firm/partner would look like in terms of size. Do you want a large corporate type of company with hundreds of employees and a halfdozen locations or are you okay with freelancers who will have other priorities - daytime jobs and other ‘bookings’ for example. Or would you prefer amid-size firm that is big enough to handle anything you will need but small enough to actually care about you and your business?
Everyone will have three references. We say ask for more. References are great, but look for the softer element in them that covers customer service. If their references are a good mix of ‘results’ and ‘your team are angels’ you’ll have both bases covered nicely and will ensure you’ll be working with an agency that truly values both results and relationships. Such testimonials are a good way of working out if the clients are happy with the amount they are spending as well as the results.
Your website will likely be one of your main communication tools - and it will often need to do all of your talking for you.For example, well before youget the chance to speak with the parent or guardian of your next intake, they will be visiting your site. You need to trust that the partner you choosewill help you to communicate the right message at the right time and deliver a site that fits who you are as a brand and who you want to be in the future.
There are ongoing costs with any website, but they don’t have to be huge costs. The agency should be interested in future relationships and actually passionateabout developing improved results with you over time so they can continually improve your website and your digital strategy. Whether it’s just monitoringand some simple guidance on placing content up, or a full maintenance contract, make sure they have a structure in place for this, and are keen on stayingaround to share in your success. The alternative means they’re in it for a fast pound!
Are they going to just do what they said they were going to do or are they going to under promise and over deliver? Given the choice, you want the latterof the two. A good way to get a sense of this is to ask them for their terms. This is the black and white of the situation and if there’s anything in theretoo grabby over copyright (i.e. the source files to the website are not legally yours) then you should move on. Also, agencies that lead on customer serviceand expelling the dark art of website design should be savvy enough to place a personal note in the email about the terms and conditions or like us, havean Open Policy.
... (Read More)Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2014Its good to receive praise - we all like to be appreciated.
We were thrilled when Teacher Town blogger Martin Hunter reviewed Ed HQ's services and gave us a massive 10/10. How's that for a thumbs up!
Of course we know how good our services are but its great to hear someone else say it.
You can read what he has to say here.
... (Read More)Posted on Wednesday, February 12, 2014We're excited to launch the brand spanking new website for Angram Bank Primary School. This colourful website injects a little of the school's own bright personality into it's web presence.
To have a look around please visit angrambank.co.uk. We definitely recommend reading the class blogs - it's always nice to see what the different classes are doing.
Posted on Wednesday, January 08, 2014
