WebSite Story: Blue Coat Primary School
'Paperhorse have sculpted a website which is both creative and highly personalised to Blue Coat School, and reflects our vision, character and ethos. They have a real 'can-do' attitude and an attention to detail which sets their work apart.'
Jo Woolley, Headteacher
Mark Ryan, Acting Headteacher
Blue Coat Primary is a well-established Church of England school in Gloucestershire, of around 320 pupils. The school approached Paperhorse with a brief for a new site that would have a strong 'hands-on' aspect for its children and would add value to their learning.
Our solution was to build a site which marks out Blue Coat as a school which integrates technology very naturally into the curriculum. A central part of the site is the class blogs - these allow children to upload work, news and and pictures in a way that is safely managed by teachers, and which allows commenting by peers, staff and site visitors.
Keeping a school website fresh is always a challenge, but Paperhorse have designed a suite of simple but innovative tools to help that process. One of these is the Head's Tweet, a pastoral tool which allows the Headteacher to post a live comment, flagging up the children's work as it happens. Acting Head Mark Ryan uses this several times a day: 'it's great for celebrating pupil achievements', he says, 'and also for staying in touch with parents. Like the Blogs, it gives a personal aspect to the site and demonstrates that staff at Blue Coat are abreast of what is going on around the school.'
Recognising and responding to pupils' culture
The blogging process is as simple as posting on a social media site, and video reporting is due over the next few months, to further develop the way children report on and post their work.
'Many schools are understandably nervous of sites like Facebook and Twitter,' adds Peter Clements, Technical Director at Paperhorse, 'but it's important not to forget that the sharing, social media approach to information is now embedded in youth culture, and here to stay. Blue Coat understands that schools must be prepared to work with this culture, and not be afraid of it - and also to take a clear lead in teaching children how to use it responsibly.'
Google and Blue Coat: love at first sight
This tool, plus rapidly changing news on the front page and within the blogs, maintains interest but also keeps the site on Google's radar. As content is posted, links and new pages are automatically created, changing the site from a search engine's perspective, and enabling content to be found - within hours of going live, Google had cached the entire site, and Blue Coat Primary had risen up the ranking against other schools and organisations with the same name, closely followed by this case study!
One of the hallmarks of the project - and a key reason for its success - was that it was led from the outset by teachers who not only wanted to think outside the box, but had a strong commitment to building a site that was first and foremost for the pupils, not merely a shop-window to attract prospective parents. It was clear from the first meeting that our objectives were very similar,' said Michael Phillips, Creative Director. 'This laid a foundation for innovation - and produced a result which impresses parents all the more!'
