There’s no doubt that a well-designed school website is a powerful tool for communication. Regularly updating your site, however, to ensure that it meets current requirements is important.

If it’s been a few years since you did that, it could be time to take a closer look at how responsive your site currently is.

What is Mobile Readiness?

It’s about ten years ago that Apple issued the first iPhone and things have changed pretty quickly since then. We use our smartphones for a lot nowadays and that includes searching the web. Old style websites weren’t geared to being shown such on a small screen – the text is tiny and it’s pretty difficult to navigate.

To compensate, developers began including code that made sites mobile friendly. The benefit of this is that anyone viewing your site, on any device, will be able to use it without squinting their eyes or trying to expand the page.

If you’re school website is fairly old, the chances are that it won’t be mobile ready at all and that could mean you are missing out on a whole bunch of communication opportunities with pupils and parents as well as local stakeholders.

Poor websites can be penalised by Ofsted and that includes if you haven’t updated your pages to make them mobile ready.

How To Check If Your School Website is Mobile Friendly

It’s actually pretty easy to check whether your school site is fit for mobile users. Just pick up your smartphone and bring up the home page. If it looks like it does on a desktop and the writing is too small to see, that should signify that you have a problem.

You may also find that your website is mobile friendly but that it’s not as easy to navigate as you hoped. That could be down to the underlying coding or even the usability of the site. That may mean, therefore, you need to update the design so that it works better for parents and pupils.

What to Do Next

Mobile readiness isn’t the only thing that you need to have in place for your school website. Ofsted has a whole list of different compliance guidelines that are designed to make communication better. It can be difficult to track these so the first thing you need to do is have a full audit of your site.

At Parentapps.com, we know all there is to know about Ofsted compliance and can take an impartial look at your current school website. That includes helping you create a site that is mobile ready and responsive, whatever device it is being viewed on. We can also assist with ensuring that your site has a good level of usability and is fit for purpose.

We are even able to advise on areas such as great content creation and how to protect your site users in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. If it’s been a while since your school website was updated and you are worried that it is not mobile ready, contact our professional and friendly team today to find out more.

Parentapps Blog

Mobile Friendly School Website Design

Parentapps Team
“Choosing the right person can also be challenging.”

Exam time can be a stressful period for everyone involved. If your child needs extra help in a particular subject, of course, you may be thinking of hiring a tutor to get them through or improve their grades. This is a good idea but choosing the right person can also be challenging.

Here’s our quick guide to help you make the best choice:

 

Why Does Your Child Need a Tutor?

The first thing you really need to nail down is what your child requires and whether a tutor is likely to deliver. It’s important to discuss with their teacher where weaknesses are and how these might be overcome.

It could be that your child is simply not interested in the subject area and encouraging them more can help improve their performance. Make a list of the things you want the tutor to cover so that they understand where your child needs to improve.

 

Finding a Tutor

The good news is that you can usually find plenty of tutors online. The bad news is figuring out how to pick the right one. The best way to start off is to ask around. Word of mouth is often the most reliable way to find someone good who you can trust to deliver the goods.

The trouble is, however, the best tutors are probably going to be pretty busy, especially at exam time. The key here is to start your search as early as possible rather than waiting until near the exam date. That not only gives you a chance to broaden the teaching experience for your child but to build a relationship with the tutor at the same time.

There are agencies that you can go to in order to find tutors in particular subjects and these have their advantages and disadvantages. First off, you are more likely to find a tutor who is available. One downside, however, is that you can’t always gauge the quality. The best agencies put a lot of effort into vetting and monitoring the people on their books so look at their reviews and credibility first.

You can also get online tuition nowadays which works pretty well for some subjects but not for others. It also gives you a wider scope because the tutor doesn’t have to be local to you. Some tutors also operate small groups rather than one-to-one teaching which may be more beneficial for your child.

If they are simply preparing your child for an exam and tightening up their knowledge, this might have limited value but for more long term teaching and learning it’s important.

Discussing Your Childs Needs

It’s important that your tutor is reasonably well briefed when it comes to what your child needs extra help on, especially if time is an issue. This isn’t always an easy thing to do if you haven’t had input from your school. It’s important to have your child involved too and even part of the decision making process. The last thing you want is a tutor your child doesn’t like or can’t connect with.

You’ll also want to know how the private tutor gauges progress and whether they assess your child. If they are simply preparing your child for an exam and tightening up their knowledge, this might have limited value but for more long term teaching and learning it’s important.

Finally, it’s also important as a parent to build a relationship with the tutor so that they can keep you informed of how your child is progressing. Keeping the conversation going with your child is always going to help.