Is My School Website Ofsted and DfE Compliant?

We all understand how important it is to have an accessible and informative school website that is easy for parents, carers and the public to find out more about your school. A school website is the first port of call for many wishing to explore your setting, such as prospective parents, therefore it's wise to keep it up to date with the lastest information about what's happening in your school. Keeping it current ensures visitors get an accurate, welcoming snapshot of your setting.

In addition to this are the requirements set out by the Department for Education (DfE) in relation to what maintained schools and academies must publish on their website to be compliant. 

It can feel like another full-time job keeping your website up to date, particularly with changes in safeguarding, policies and what actually needs to be published online. With the guidance for what any educational setting must or should publish on their website having been updated in October 2024, now is the perfect time to check you have everything that is required by the DfE visible and in place on your website.

What do I need to publish on the school website?

The DfE has set out what maintained schools and academies must and should publish on their school website. Failing to do so can result in scrutiny during inspections.

 Your website should include information on:

• School contact details and trust information
• Admissions arrangements
• Equality information
• Policies, including behaviour, safeguarding and uniform
• Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) information and report
• Curriculum information
• Careers information
• Pupil premium
• PE and sport premium
• Governance and financial information, including pay gap reporting
• Previous Ofsted reports
• Test, exam and assessment results and data

This School Website Compliance Bundle is broken down into sections with guidance on what to upload to your website. The guidance and accompanying checklist will support you to ensure your website is compliant and help you to delegate tasks and required updates among your team.

Remember, you should provide a paper copy of the information on your website if a parent or carer requests it.

Some tips for website accessibility include:

• Use readable fonts and high-contrast colours.
• Include alternative text (alt text) for images.
• Ensure keyboard navigation works on the website.
• Test website functionality with accessibility tools like screen readers.

How can I ensure I keep my policies up to date?

Here are some of our top tips to ensure you keep your school policies up to date and available on your website:

1. Schedule regular reviews for each policy to ensure they stay aligned with current legislation and the needs of your school. You may find having a review calendar or checklist helpful so you can be sure you've worked through all of them at appropriate times.
2. Designate specific team members to be responsible for each policy, keeping them accountable for monitoring, updating and ensuring compliance. This will make the job of policy reviewing more manageable, and ensure that those who know the area best are responsible for the related policy, which will save everyone time.
3. Announcements and changes in legislation happen periodically across the school year. It's wise to keep an eye on education news and any updates that may impact your policies and make amendments as required to ensure you stay compliant.
4. Consider adding updates or revisions to each policy document in a dated, "versioned" format for easier tracking.
5. When policies are updated, communicate changes clearly with your school community, including staff, parents and pupils.
6. Schedule policy reviews as part of the governing body or trust board agenda. Once reviewed and ratified, ensure this is documented, dated on the policy and this version added to the website. 

The policies that are required to be published on your website are available in our School Website Compliance Bundle. 

What does Ofsted want to see on the school website?

Although Ofsted doesn't stipulate what you should publish on your website, inspectors will review your school or trust's publicly available information, such as the website, as part of their information gathering processes about a setting prior to inspection.

Ofsted will look to check you have all of the statutory information, such as policies available to view, so ensure these are in an accessible place on your site.

Our full Ofsted Inspection Preparation Pack includes a policy checklist and website compliance information, alongside a wealth of guidance, resources and editable templates to help you to effectively prepare for an upcoming phone call and inspection.

We hope this helps to clear up some of the myths around what does and doesn't need to be included on your website. Remember, you can include anything in addition to the statutory requirements to showcase your unique setting - you deserve to celebrate your team, pupils and school community!