Create a School Website - how to make a school website with pupils. This article is based on the knowledge of 4,000 school website webmasters at schulhomepage.de - Germany's leading community for webmasters who build school websites.

create a school website

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I. Build a School Website with Pupils

The contents of www.schulhomepage.de were only published in German but not in English until the end of 2009. However since 2010 you find here an article about "Building A School Website" based on the experience of about 4,000 school website webmasters.

  1. Contents
school-website.com - school website design, templates and ideasRead the latest articles on school-website.com:

In this article Markus Dange, webmaster of www.schulhomepage.de has tried to include the most important findings and experiences from more than 20 years of work with pupils when building a school website. Also included are many ideas of the Schulhomepage.de-Community with about 4,000 school website webmasters. Hopefully, it will help you either to start a school website right from the beginning or will provide you with some ideas on how to improve an already existing website.

Good luck and have fun! Markus Dange

Create a School Website - Educational Aspects

"School website" in this article is defined as the official presentation of a school on the internet. It is approved by the governing body of the school and shows the school as a whole as detailed as possible.

Starting Point

Having an own website is natural for most schools in 2024. Since internet accesses and dealing with contents from the Internet have become a reality also in schools by now, the school website is also a duty. It is expected from pupils, parents and at least the regional public - this particularly, since many schools offer a media concept. The school website is an excellent opportunity to prove the media competence of the pupils and teachers and at the same time to present the school easily accessibly and comprehensively in a broad public.

In the following, aims for a school website and special characteristics of a good school website are constituted in order to then explain which educational consequences arise from it for the practice.

Aims of a School Website

With the publication of the school website the school shows media competence in a broad public and can win advantages in the comparison with other schools through this. Additionally, the pupils involved identify themselves by the construction of the school website more strongly with the school.

The following aims seem particularly important to a school website:

  • provision of information about the school and the school life
  • public relations and publication of news
  • publication of pupil work and link to the lessons
  • publication of material and information for pupils
  • acquisition of media competence and representation of this media competence: safety in dealing with media
  • better positioning in the comparison with other schools
  • improvement of the "corporate identity" (identification with the school)
  • boost of communication and social competences
  • ability for the planning and execution of a great project.

Chacteristics

The following elements seem particularly important to a school website:

  1. Contents:
    legal notice of the website and contact possibilities, teachers and if necessary their special tasks in school (for example school head-ship), parent representation, pupil representation, school history, school programme/-profile, important appointments; size, topicality and quality of the texts; consideration of the target groups: parents, pupils, public and staff
  2. Design and Usability:
    attractive colour design, clear and simple navigation, clarity, design suitable for the school, design of one's own instead of templates, uniform design of all web pages, no dead links

  3. Pupils:
    offers for pupils: timetable, working groups, promoting lessons, special activities (competitions etc.), integration of the pupils in the construction of the website

  4. Interactivity and creativity:
    visitor's book, picture gallery, online learn, forum, file sharing network, link collection, creative contents

  5. Technical Realization:
    faultlessness at the use of the school website, compliance with the standards for CSS and (X)HTML as far-reaching as possible, barrier poor web design: most important points of the web accessibility initiative; load time, protection from spam

Practical Suggestions - Safety

Practical suggestions for the realization of the mentioned above aims and elements of a school website with the pupils.

Safety in dealing with media

Computers and the internet exert a magical appeal on children and teenagers but in dealing with that, still most of them are left alone. Before their media design starts, pupils should therefore learn dealing as surely as possible with the internet, mobile telephone and the computer to be able to move safely in the net.

It is aim primarily to convey a sensibility to the pupils with which dangers they have to calculate, for example:

  • spying out of data and passwords
  • data loss
  • viruses, trojans and spyware
  • abuse of the internet access of one's own by WLAN
  • deceit at online banking
  • spam e-mails
  • pornography, violence presentation, right-wing radicalism and racism
  • download and passing on of on copyright protected contents
  • confidence tricksters, "free of charge"-stitches and subscription traps
  • spying the privacy out.

In order to be able to teach this sensibility for the above dangers, you should address to the ministry of education in your country to get suitable information and printed materials.

Practical Suggestions - Contents

The pupils plan the contents areas of the school website with the central questions "who does what?" and "what makes our school special?". This planning can be carried out for example with computer and projector.

A. The pupils plan the contents areas of the school website with the central questions "who does what?" and "what makes our school special?". This planning can be carried out for example with computer and beamer. Typing the ideas later is then dropped, too. A summary of the different tasks of the persons in your school is helpful, which is mostly available with the head of school.

B. Presentation of the planned contents to the representatives of pupils, teachers and parents. As early as possible, this should happen, since a school website is an important area of the public relations and therefore these committees co-decide which contents are presented. Furthermore it can be avoided so that, in the end, webpages already produced may not be published.

C. Division of the different areas on the pupils, teachers and parents. You must think it over exactly, who can take over which tasks appropriately. In doing so try to let pupils get involved as strongly as possible.

D. Fixing an appointment for the publication of the website. This appointment shouldn't be chosen too early. A realistic date is about six months after the beginning of the work on the school website if it is worked on weekly.

E. After the school website was published on the Internet, the work isn't done however yet for a long time. It then is all about keeping the information on a current stand and developing single areas further. For this you must continue to work continuously. There is however, frequently a lack just of it. With many pupils the desire is fast lost at the further work as soon as "their" part of the website is on the Internet. The charm of the "first publication on the Internet" as well loses itself fast. To encounter this interest loss, there is primarily the possibility of assigning new and more demanding tasks to the pupils with their growing knowledge. The pupils have particularly importantly to be paid attention to that will be neither underchallenged nor overtaxed. Because both can cause easily that the pupils lose their interest completely.

Furthermore there is the possibility of maintaining the interest of the pupils in the school website by update tasks. The current school magazine on the school website, the last class journeys, projects and topical events etc. offer new tasks for "pupil reporters" constantly.

F. The construction of the school website can be connected to many subjects: The computer science or natural science lessons takes on the technical realization, in the art lessons the design can be developed, the language lessons imparts knowledge for the writing for the Internet. All other subjects also can present projects on the school website.

Practical Suggestions - Design, Usability and Pupils

Design and Usability

A userfriendly school website is particularly important: Every visitor should very easily find the way on the school website. Without a userfriendly school website design the visitors will be aware of the school badly. It must be taken of special care on that the visitor doesn't have to wonder again and again how the web page works or what hides behind a link. The fewer questions the visitor asks himself, the better he will like the school website. Through this, a userfriendly school website also creates confidence in the school. Again and again, to reach this, the school website must be tested. This is best done by noninvolved persons. The questions and problems, which these persons have must be be cleared.

Pupils

In principle, pupils should be if possible often and in as many areas as possible integrated at the design of the school website. To what extent this can be realized, on the one hand, is due to the possibilities of the collaborating pupils, on the other hand it is also due to the promotion of the pupils. A primary pupil surely can take over less tasks than an upper school pupil. But pupils of the same school form and the same age group can develop very different skills by being led up to tasks and getting to know gradually new tasks specifically.

For example, a pupil learns the picture optimization for the Internet first while another first optimizes the structure of a section and then coordinates the structuring of the complete school website after some experience. Thus gradually more and more responsibility can be transferred to the pupils. The pupils should be in every school in the centre, the school website also therefore should offer as many concrete offers as possible for pupils.

Practical Suggestions - Interactivity and Creativity

The computer is a great centre of attraction for most pupils. They write E-mails, chat, use online communities, listen to music from the Internet, play computer games and much more.

Striking is that the computer and Internet use is carried out almost exclusively in form of consuming:

  • Online chatrooms and e-mail services are used to communicate fast
  • Games are not formed themselves but played
  • Internet pages are visited and only seldom made themselves

Almost all pupils know how they can create their own user profile and how they can upload pictures. However, you cannot be speaking of a comprehensive creative design. It almost always stays with consuming.

The fact that most pupils use many possibilities of the computer and the Internet can be taken into account. Internet offers can be visited together with the pupils and then analyzed critically, for example this way:

  • Which functions offers a successful online community? How can I start an online community myself?
  • How is a computer game made? How does it have to be arranged to be fun?
  • Is it difficult to form an internet page of one's own? What does a good website consist of?
  • How do I plan an extensive web site like a school website in a team?
  • What is a content management system and how does it help me?
  • Which legal aspects have to be taken into account?
  • What is usability? What do I have to pay attention to with that?
  • Which interactive possibilities can be of use for the visitors of a school website?

Analyzing is the reason in many cases that pupils try out the functions themselves and want to form hereafter their own ideas. This way pupils can be led from consuming to creative design. They finally learn to realize ideas of their own and to publish them on the school website.

It must, however, be taken care of on this that by interaction no persons are disparaged or else legal aspects disregarded. A visitor's book should for example announce contents only after previous control. The possibility to "distort" photos should be given only with consent of the persons affected.

Practical Suggestions - Technical Realisation

It has to be taken into account that several operating computers (inclusive regular data backup} and special software are needed for the construction of a school website. Before the production of webpages of one's own pupils should learn basics of the webpage construction. Excellent instructions are for example at https://www.w3schools.com/.

The free of charge HTML-Editor Bluegriffon for making web pages and the also the free programme Paint.Net for the image processing are very helpful.

The actual technical realization of the school website can be tackled now: For the construction of the school website, in principle, use of a content management system (CMS) is sensible. With this the web pages are based on design templates. Only few design templates must therefore always be prepared and kept in good condition for the complete school website. Through this the expenditure of work is reduced drastically.

A content management system is primarily worthwhile for bigger school website with more than 50 web pages. As an alternative to a CMS "modules" also of one's own can be used to be able to use such recurring elements comfortably. Furthermore, with a content management system you can decide exactly who may make, work on or publish which contents. Teamwork gets very easy through this.

The content management system Joomla is recommendable and also the most popular one since it is completely free of charge and can be used easily. In addition, there is very good support and it offers everything which is needed for a school website.

The area "Content Management" helps as well to select the best content management system. On "CMS Test and Comparison" there are over 600 detailed assessments of altogether 50different content management systems for the suitability for a school website.

It also has to be taken care from the technical view that the complete school website remains clear and is easy to service since the expenditure of work is anyway very high: depending on size of the school website between 3 and 10 hours per week. A well thought-out system of folders as well as a uniform structuring of the different sectors is very helpful. A little more work and effort with the first construction of the school website pays off many times in the long run.

Legal Aspects

The following notes don't represent any legal advice, but shall give merely practical notes. For the creation of certainty of law the advice by a lawyer is necessary.

Some particularly important aspects are introduced here:

legal notice of the website

School websites also must have legally faultless legal notice of the website. Unfortunately, since this isn't that simple at all, an expensive warning letter of "resourceful" jurists threatens many schools. To publish a legally faultless legal notice of the school website, please contact your ministry of education. In addition, it helps to publish the publication data in a graphic. Even if a fault should be existing, it cannot be found easily by people who want to send you an expensive warning letter.

Photos of the pupils

Strictly speaking, the parents of all pupils mapped to photos must be asked permission in writing before every publication. However, in the practice it is often handled so that before the publication the photos should be with common sense sorted out. If there still should be a problem this one then should be deleted immediately.

Some schools make their parents sign a flat-rate permission at the registration to the school to be allowed to publish photos of their children on the school home page.

Teacher Photos

Teacher photos are a dispute again and again. Many teachers are afraid that their photos are used from the school website for disfigurement. As experience shows, teacher photos cause less annoyance, if either portrait photos are only published by the colleagues who have agreed or else if only a common staff photo is published. In this the colleagues are then represented too small to be disfigured.

Copyright

Pupils like to look for pictures, photos and information on the Internet. These may be published also on the school website only with permission of the originator. You can find e.g. free photos at Pixabay.

Conclusion

The construction and the operation of a school website offers an enormous potential to work with pupils in the field of education.

Very many pupils and nearly all educational aspects with regard to the media are included so that there are hardly limits at the arranging. In addition, the special thing about the school website is that every school needs one. The field of activity to communicate media competence therefore isn't produced artificially, but arises from the reality at school automatically.

These two factors – very broad ranges of application and narrow reference to the reality at school – are decisive factors which make sure that the arrangement of media competence by the school website is successful with a great probability.

The school website therefore offers an excellent possibility of realizing a communication of media competence to pupils successfully.

Precondition, however, is that the mediation of media competence walks along with a lot of time use, in several steps and with extensive knowledge mediation. The responsible teachers can create this only in the context of work relief. They need at least three week hour working time relief depending on effort for their school website to be able to cope with at least a part of the high expenditure of work. It is task of the school departments and school head-ships to realize this.