High School Website Registration
You can create a website for your high school 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.
Create a Website Homepage
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. Place bulletins and updates in the middle of the page. Place contact and informational widgets, such as calendars, 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 step is to set up the adjoining pages. There should first be a page that tells a little bit about the high school. This page should provide the school’s founding date, its addition to the school district, and a brief history. Include a mission statement on this page to inform visitors about the school’s values and beliefs.
High School Staff directory
Next, create a staff directory page, which can be designed in multiple 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 include lists of available classes and descriptions of certain courses. 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.
Create an Athletics page
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 helps parents explore available programs when evaluating the school district for their child. 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.
High School Rules and Regulations
Create a page that outlines important rules and regulations. These rules and regulations should cover everything from tardiness policies to graduation credit requirements. 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 can also prevent visitors from getting lost on the page, especially when navigating lengthy policies.
If the high school offers advanced placement or honors courses, list them on a separate page. Include all relevant information about the advanced placement or honors programs on this page. Include information about AP (Advanced Placement) tests on this page as well. Present these items in either 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. Creating a separate page for these classes serves purely as a marketing strategy. 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.
Lunch program and cafeteria
Create separate pages for the cafeteria and lunch program as well. Place announcements in the middle of this page. A high school can display the upcoming week’s menu on either side of the page. Some high schools even have pages that show the cafeteria school schedules for the entire month.
Create library pages that provide 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.
Finally, add family access portals, a feature that not all high schools have but many are beginning to implement. These portals allow students and parents to log on with an ID and password to see students’ grades and records. Display grades for every assignment in each class and post final grades here. Additionally, make transcripts accessible through this portal.
High school websites are not the only thing being created these days, often it is important for elementary schools to create a webpage as well. Elementary websites start the process of getting parents, teachers and the administration on the same page.