What Should a School Website Include? A Checklist for Parents, Staff and Inspectors

School website checklist

The short answer

A school website has three audiences and needs to work for all of them: prospective parents deciding whether to apply, current families checking what is happening this week, and everyone who checks up on the school, from inspectors and the local authority to governors and job applicants. The statutory list covers the third group. This checklist covers the other two, then shows how the pieces fit together.

It is written for schools and academies in England. For the legal list itself, read what schools must publish online; this guide assumes that list is handled and focuses on what makes the site genuinely useful.

1. The first screen

Say what you are, where you are and what you are proud of, in one screen: “A two-form entry primary in Wilmslow, Ofsted Good, part of the X Trust.” Add a real photograph of the school, not stock, and three buttons that match what people came for: admissions, term dates and contact. Put the phone number where it can be tapped.

2. Admissions and joining

Prospective parents want to know whether they would get a place and what the school is like before they visit. Give them the admission arrangements or the local authority link, open day dates, a virtual tour or a short film, the prospectus as a web page as well as a download, and a clear route to book a visit. For a secondary school, add the sixth form entry requirements and the transition programme for year 6.

3. Term dates, calendar and the school day

The most visited page on almost every school website is term dates, followed by the calendar. Publish both as pages, not PDFs, and keep next year’s dates up as soon as they are agreed. Add the official start and end of the compulsory school day, which DfE asks schools to publish, and the times of breakfast and after-school clubs.

4. Letters, news and newsletters

Families want the latest letter in one place, on the day it goes out. A dated news feed that the office can post to from a phone does this; a PDF newsletter uploaded a week later does not. Keep the archive, because parents search it for the trip letter they lost.

5. Uniform, dinners and clubs

Three pages that answer the questions that generate the most calls to the office: the uniform policy with what is required, optional, branded and where second-hand items can be bought; the dinner menu and how to pay; and the clubs list with days, costs and how to book.

6. Absence, contact and forms

How to report an absence, who deals with queries, the SENCO’s contact details, safeguarding contacts and a general enquiry form that lands in the office inbox. Every form should work on a phone and with a keyboard, because forms are the part of a school website the accessibility regulations do not exempt. See our guide to school website accessibility.

7. Statutory information

Everything the DfE requires: contact details, admissions, Ofsted, results, curriculum, behaviour, charging and remissions, complaints, pupil premium, PE and sport premium, SEND report and accessibility plan, equality information, governance, financial information, careers for secondaries, and the academy trust extras. Give the section its own menu heading so inspectors find it, and give each item its own page with a review date.

8. Policies

A policies library sorted by name with the date approved and the review date. Keep the annual statutory items out of it and on their own pages, so the library holds the standing policies only and does not become the place things go to be forgotten.

9. SEND, safeguarding and wellbeing

The SEN information report, the safeguarding policy and named contacts, the mental health and wellbeing offer, and how to raise a concern. Parents of children with additional needs read these pages closely before they apply.

10. Curriculum for parents

The statutory curriculum information tells inspectors what is taught. Parents want to know what their child is doing this term, which reading scheme is used, how homework works and how to help at home. A page per year group or subject that speaks to parents, with the detailed documents linked underneath, does both jobs.

11. Our people and our governors

Staff by role with photographs where staff are happy to be shown, the governing body with the information DfE expects, and the trust if there is one. It reassures prospective parents and it is the page job applicants read first.

12. Vacancies

A vacancies page that describes the role honestly, links to the application pack and says who to contact. Keep it current or take it down: an old advert costs applicants and looks careless.

13. Gallery, achievements and the wider life of the school

Sports results, performances, trips, house points, charity days. This is where the school’s character comes through, and where consent and safeguarding matter: publish only images you have permission for and never pair a full name with a face.

What to leave out

• Stock photographs of children who have never been to the school
• Mission statements before any useful information
• Anything published only as a scanned PDF
• Pages that nobody owns and nobody updates
• Pop-ups that hide the term dates behind an app download

A checklist you can copy

• First screen: what, where, three buttons and a real photo
• Admissions, open days, prospectus and book a visit
• Term dates and calendar as pages
• Letters and news feed, posted the same day
• Uniform, dinners and clubs
• Absence reporting, contacts and an enquiry form
• Statutory information, one item per page with review dates
• Policies library with approval and review dates
• SEND, safeguarding and wellbeing
• Curriculum written for parents, documents underneath
• Staff, governors and trust
• Vacancies
• Gallery and achievements, with consent
• Accessibility statement and privacy notice

If you would rather not build this yourself, that is what Little Fruitcakes school website design is for: a site built around this list with every statutory item in place from day one, which the office can update from a phone or which we update for you.

Common questions

More school website guides

• What schools must publish online: the statutory checklist
• School website accessibility
• Little Fruitcakes: school website design
• Multi-academy trust websites
• Nursery website guides from Little Fruitcakes

Sources

• What maintained schools must or should publish online, Department for Education, last updated 24 October 2024
• What academies, free schools and colleges should publish online, Department for Education, last updated 24 October 2024
• Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies, Government Digital Service, last updated 30 September 2024