Creating a Website for your High School can be summed up in three easy steps:
- Register a domain, aka URL, for your high school here:
- Purchase website hosting too upload files and pictures here:
- Follow the instructions detailed below:
Websites are becoming the easiest way for people to find information, and they are more trafficked than phone books and directories combined. To help certain individuals find items they want, small businesses, large corporations, and schools should all have websites. High schools, especially, need to create a high school website to disseminate information and post resources for students and faculty alike.
The website’s homepage should be the very first page that any visitor sees. On this page, there should be several items. The first item that the visitor should see is the school or school district’s name and that school district’s mascot or icon. Along either the right or left side of the page should be a menu listing all of the adjoining pages. In the middle of the page should be a place where bulletins and updates can be placed. Contact and informational widgets, such as calendars, can be placed on the opposite side of the link menu. The Beaver Dam High School, the home page, located at http://www.beaverdam.k12.wi.us/schools/high/, is an excellent example of this layout. Having these things help visitors find the information they want fast.
The next item that should be taken care of is the adjoining pages. There should first be a page that tells a little bit about the high school. This page should indicate when the school was founded or added to the school district and give a brief history. A mission statement can be created on this same page, telling visitors about the school’s values and beliefs.
The next page that needs to be created is a staff directory page. This page can be made in several different ways. Like the Jacksonville High School, many schools, whose staff directory is at http://jhs.jsd117.org/?PageName=%27Teachers%27, choose to create this in a list format. The teachers’ names and departments are the most critical pieces of information to include. In smaller districts, where teachers stay in the same rooms, it can also post the teacher’s room number and phone number.
Some schools also create department pages. These department pages provide parents, students, or other parties with information about specific departments, such as science, math, social sciences, geography, and many others. These pages generally include a list of teachers located in that department and contact information for the head of the department if one exists. These department pages also have lists of classes that are offered in that department, as well as certain course descriptions. For high schools with course catalogs, separate department pages may not be necessary, as long as the school posts the course catalog to its webpage.
The next order of business is to create a page about the school’s athletics. Athletic programs in high school are usually what the community cares about most, right after academics. For this reason alone, many schools should create a separate page on their website that caters to athletics. This page should have information about the specific sports played and team rosters and schedules for games and matches.
Organizations and certain groups and clubs should also have their own page on the website. This will help parents identify what is offered for their child if they are checking out the school district. It will also let prospective students know what activities they can take part in once they arrive. These pages should also have meeting schedules and general member information for current members to stay informed.
Another page that should be created is one that outlines certain rules and regulations. These rules and regulations can encompass anything from tardiness policies to policies regarding how many credits need to be taken to graduate. A list of links and a different page for each set of policies is generally the best way to go about this type of thing. This format enables people to go from page to page without having to scroll more than is necessary. It also helps visitors get lost on the page, as some policies can be several pages long.
If the high school that a page is being made for has advanced placement or honors courses, those courses should be listed on a page by themselves. Also, any information regarding the advanced placement or honors programs should be outlined here. Information about AP (advanced placement) tests should also be placed here. These items can be identified in paragraph or list format. Generally, a paragraph regarding the honors programs and a list showing the course listings are easiest to read, as the Beaver Dam High School did http://www.beaverdam.k12.wi.us/schools/high/advancedplacement.cfm. A separate page for these classes is done purely for marketing. When parents visit the school page to see if they want their son or daughter to attend, they will see that there are honors classes only by looking at the home page. This can be a selling point for parents.
Separate pages should be made about the cafeteria or lunch program also. On this page, announcements should be placed in the middle of the page. To either side, a high school can elect to place what will be served each day for the next week. Some high schools even have pages that show the cafeteria school schedules for the entire month.
Library pages should also be created, telling information about the library. Some schools even have pages that allow students to see if books are currently available and give students access to certain databases for research.
The last thing that should be added is something that not all high schools have, but many are starting to create. These are known as family access portals. These portals allow students and parents to log on with an ID and password to see students’ grades and records. Grades can be shown for every assignment in each class, and final grades are often posted here. Transcripts can also be made available here.