When someone visits your Trust website, can they quickly understand who you are, which schools belong to your Trust and what you offer?
It sounds straightforward, but with so much to share, MAT websites can easily become crowded or difficult to navigate. Parents, potential staff and schools considering joining your Trust all need different information.
Good multi academy trust website design starts with making those journeys simple. Here are the areas we’d recommend getting right.
A clear introduction to your Trust
Your homepage should give visitors a feel for your Trust straight away. A short introduction, strong school photography and a clear explanation of your values will do more than several paragraphs of formal wording.
Think about what makes your Trust distinctive. What connects your schools? What matters to you? And what does that mean for the children and families you support?
Keep it clear and specific. Visitors should be able to understand your approach without having to download a strategic plan.
An easy way to find your schools
Your academies should be easy to find, with a dedicated section showing each school, its location and a link to its website.
Depending on the size of your Trust, a map or filters for primary and secondary schools can help visitors find the right academy.
This is also an opportunity to show the character of each school. Consitant branding helps connect them to the Trust, while individual photographs and introductions give each academy its own space.
Information for schools thinking of joining
If you’re looking to grow your Trust, give interested school leaders a clear place to start.
Explain how you support your academies, what joining involves and how you work with school leadership teams. Practical examples are useful here — whether that’s sharing expertise, supporting staff development or helping schools with day-to-day operations.
A few words from leaders already within your Trust can make this section more personal. Finish with a named contact and a straightforward invitation to talk.
A useful recruitment section
Your website is often one of the first places a potential employee will look before applying.
Alongside current vacancies, show what it’s like to work within your Trust. Staff stories, development opportunities and photographs of your teams can help candidates get a better feel for you.
Make vacancies easy to browse, with clear information about the role, location, closing date and how to apply.
Well-organised governance and documents
Governance information, reports and policies need a clear home on your website.
Use sensible headings and descriptive document names so visitors know what they’re opening. Review this section regularly to remove outdated versions and make sure information is easy to find.
It’s worth giving someone responsibility for keeping it organised — otherwise, it can quickly become a collection of PDFs nobody is quite sure about.
Update shared information in one place
Keeping the same policies and Trust information up to date across several school websites can take a lot of time.
When FSE Design builds your Trust website and academy websites, we can include Trust propagation. This lets you manage agreed shared content on the Trust website and automatically display it on the relevant school websites.
If a Trust-wide policy or key piece of information changes, you update it once, rather than making the same amendment on every academy website. It saves your team time and helps keep shared information consistent across your Trust, while schools can still manage their own individual content.
News that shows your Trust in action
News can help visitors see what’s happening across your academies, from shared projects and pupil achievements to staff development and community events.
You don’t need to publish something every day. A manageable flow of relevant stories is more useful than a news section that starts enthusiastically and then gets forgotten.
Choose stories that show your values in practice and celebrate the work happening in your schools.
A website that’s easy to use and update
The best MAT websites work well on phones, have clear navigation and make information accessible to different visitors.
Behind the scenes, your team also needs a content management system that makes updates straightforward. Adding an academy, publishing a vacancy or changing a contact should be something staff feel comfortable doing.
When planning a new website, think about who will manage each section and what support they’ll need.
Bringing it all together
A Trust website has several jobs to do, but visitors shouldn’t have to work hard to find what they need. Clear content, thoughtful design and simple navigation can make a real difference.
At FSE Design, we specialise in school website design and multi academy trust website design, helping Trusts create websites that reflect who they are and work for the people using them.
Thinking about a new website for your Trust? Get in touch — we’d love to hear what you have in mind.