Websites · 6 min read
A letter that waits three days for a developer is a letter nobody reads in time
What admissions, accessibility and a staff-run editor actually need to look like.
The short answer
A website for schools and academies needs statutory information that maps to DfE requirements, WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility as a legal obligation, and term dates parents can read in two taps on a phone. A prospectus request and open-day booking flow then turn interest into actual admissions enquiries during the season that matters.
By Raja Wahab, Co-founder, Fixby Studios · Published · 6 min read
Where school websites usually fall down
Statutory information gets buried several clicks deep, parents cannot find term dates on a phone in a hurry, and the site fails accessibility rules it is legally required to meet. None of this is really a design problem; it is a structure and maintenance problem that builds up over several academic years.
What parents and learners are searching for
- "[school name] term dates"
- "primary schools in [town] admissions"
- "[school name] Ofsted report"
- "apprenticeship provider [county]"
Developer-only updates
- — Letters wait days to publish
- — Term dates go stale
- — Office relies on outside help
Staff-run editor
- — Letters published same day
- — Term dates kept current
- — No developer needed
Building a website for schools and academies that works day to day
- A statutory information section mapped to DfE requirements, with nothing hidden behind a PDF that needs downloading on a phone.
- WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility — a public sector obligation, checked properly rather than assumed.
- Term dates, letters and news readable in two taps.
- A prospectus request and open-day booking flow for admissions season.
- Course or subject pages for training providers and colleges, since learners search the course before the institution.
“Statutory information should be published clearly, not buried in PDFs.”
Why staff need to publish without a developer
A simple editor and scheduled publishing for news and letters removes the single biggest cause of school sites going stale: every update needing to go through someone outside the school. Office staff should be able to add a letter in minutes, not wait days for a change.
Cost
Given the accessibility and content-management needs, school and academy sites are available on our monthly plans with no upfront build fee — see our monthly plans at /plans. Training providers with multiple course pages are covered similarly.
Admissions season is a short, high-stakes window
Most admissions enquiries happen in a short window each year, often while parents are comparing several schools on their phones in the evening. A prospectus request or open-day booking form that is slow or confusing during that window can lose an application the school never gets back.
Open-day capacity, dates and a simple booking confirmation matter more at this time of year than almost anything else on the site.
Keeping content fresh without extra workload
News and letters only stay useful if someone can publish them quickly. A scheduled publishing tool that lets the school office post a letter the same day it goes out on paper keeps the site genuinely current rather than a year behind.
Your questions
- Is WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility actually a legal requirement?
- Public sector bodies, including most schools and academies, are required to meet accessibility regulations. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA as standard on these sites.
- Can office staff update the site themselves?
- Yes. We set up a simple editor so letters, news and term dates can be published without contacting a developer each time.
- Do you handle admissions forms?
- Yes, including prospectus requests and open-day booking flows that route straight to the admissions team.
Raja Wahab is co-founder of Fixby Studios, a Huddersfield studio building websites, SEO, social media and business software for small, owner-managed businesses across West Yorkshire.
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