School website design
If you are a head, business manager or governor looking at a new school website, the rules come first: the Department for Education sets out what schools must publish online, and the public sector accessibility regulations apply to some of it. This page summarises both, explains how schools usually buy websites, and is honest about when a specialist school provider is the better choice than us.
hosting and edits included
- No long-term contract
- You own your domain
- Edits included
Maintained schools and academies in England must publish set information online, from admissions and behaviour policies to pupil premium, SEND and results, and should give a free paper copy to a parent who asks. Schools are partially exempt from the public sector accessibility regulations, but content people need to use school services must meet WCAG 2.2 AA, and an accessibility statement is still needed. Many schools buy through their trust, local authority or a framework, and specialist school website providers exist. We build for £949 setup and £59 a month (Grow), best suited to independent schools, nurseries and smaller settings that want a well-run site rather than a school platform.
What schools must publish online
A summary of the DfE guidance, not legal advice. Maintained schools follow "What maintained schools must publish online". Academies, free schools and colleges follow a separate page, where each item is marked as something they must or should publish under their funding agreement. Headings in the maintained schools guidance include:
- Admission arrangements (for foundation and voluntary-aided schools)
- Behaviour policy, charging and remissions policies, and complaints policy
- Contact details and governance information
- Curriculum, and careers programme information for secondary schools
- Financial information, and pay gap reporting for schools with 250 or more employees
- Ofsted reports, and test, exam and assessment results
- Pupil premium, and PE and sport premium
- Public sector equality duty, and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
The guidance also says a school without its own website must publish this information on another website, and should give a free paper copy to any parent or carer who asks. These pages cover England. Schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own requirements.
School website accessibility rules
The public sector accessibility regulations list primary and secondary schools and nurseries as partially exempt. GOV.UK's guidance says they are exempt except for the content people need in order to use their services, giving the example of a form for school meal preferences. That content should meet the WCAG 2.2 AA standard, and partially exempt organisations still need to publish an accessibility statement.
In practice that rules out the most common school website habit: putting every policy and form in a PDF. The DfE guidance itself says that where a school publishes the downloaded PE and sport premium template, it must convert it to HTML to meet accessibility requirements. Pages built as proper web pages are easier to read on a phone, easier for screen readers, and easier to keep current.
How schools usually buy websites
Schools rarely buy a website the way a shop does. Many go through their multi-academy trust, their local authority, or a procurement framework, and the DfE's Get help buying for schools service is the place to check what is available and what your procurement rules require. Your own finance policy may also ask for more than one quote.
There are also specialist school website providers. They typically offer templates with the statutory sections already laid out, school calendars, newsletters and links to parent communication apps and school management systems. If you need those, a specialist is likely the better fit, and we would say so.
Where we fit
We suit independent schools, nurseries, pre-schools and smaller settings that want a fast, accessible site with the required information laid out as proper web pages, looked after for a fixed monthly fee. We build it, set out the statutory pages from the information you supply, add an accessibility statement, and keep it current as edits. Responsibility for what the school publishes stays with the school.
- We do not integrate with school management systems or parent apps.
- Our edit allowances suit a site that changes weekly at most. A school publishing daily news, galleries and letters home will want a platform staff can edit themselves.
See our tiers in full, and what a website costs in the UK for the wider market.
Example: a small independent prep school or nursery
- 10+ pages: admissions, curriculum, policies, term dates, staff and governors, contact
- Policies laid out as accessible web pages rather than PDFs where possible
- An accessibility statement, and a paper copy request route for parents
- Google Business Profile and local search groundwork for prospective parents
- Next-working-day edits for term dates, policy updates and news
Fixed price. The school supplies its policies and statutory information and stays responsible for what is published. No long-term contract.
Prices checked 18 October 2026. Sources: DfE: what maintained schools must publish online; DfE: what academies, free schools and colleges should publish online; GOV.UK: accessibility requirements for public sector websites and apps; DfE: Get help buying for schools. Platforms change prices and run offers, so check before you buy. Some prices exclude VAT.
Questions people ask
What must a school website include?
For maintained schools in England, the DfE lists headings including admissions, behaviour, charging, complaints, contact details, curriculum, financial information, governance, Ofsted reports, pupil premium, PE and sport premium, the equality duty, SEND and results. Academies have a separate list linked to their funding agreement. This is a summary; the DfE pages are the authority.
Do the accessibility regulations apply to schools?
Partly. Schools and nurseries are partially exempt, except for the content people need to use their services, which should meet WCAG 2.2 AA. They still need an accessibility statement.
How much does a school website cost?
Ours is £949 setup and £59 a month, including hosting and edits. Specialist school providers price differently and often include features we do not, such as calendars and parent app links, so compare what is included.
Do you build primary school websites?
We can, but be clear about the fit. A state primary that needs staff to post news daily, or links to parent apps, is usually better served by a specialist school platform, often bought through its trust, local authority or a framework.
Keep reading
Want a fixed price instead of a range?
Tell us what your business does and what the site needs to do. We'll come back with the tier that fits and the exact price, including when the answer is the cheapest one.
- Fixed price, published
- No long-term contract
- You own your domain
- Edits included