Marvels Lane Primary School

case study

Marvels Lane Primary School needed to replace a website that had become difficult for parents and visitors to navigate and cumbersome for staff to maintain. Synergise Media redesigned the experience around clearer information, easier navigation and a more manageable publishing structure, creating a school website designed to work for both its community and the team responsible for keeping it current.

The school's existing website needed a complete overhaul. Parents and other visitors were finding it difficult to navigate, while managing and updating information had also become unnecessarily complicated for the school.

The brief was to create a clearer, more welcoming website that made important information easier to find while giving staff a more practical way to maintain changing content such as notices, policies, events and school information.

A school website serves several audiences at once. Existing parents may be looking for notices, dates or policies, prospective families may be evaluating the school for the first time, and staff need to keep information accurate without turning routine updates into a technical task.

The challenge was therefore to simplify a substantial amount of information without making the website feel institutional or difficult to explore. The structure needed to support formal school communications while remaining approachable and easy to use.

THE APPROACH

We started with the way information was organised and accessed rather than simply redesigning the appearance of the existing website.

Content was structured into clearer pathways so parents and visitors could reach commonly needed information with fewer barriers. Page layouts were then designed around readability, straightforward navigation and consistent presentation across the site.

Behind the scenes, the website was structured so school staff could manage regular updates more easily, reducing dependence on technical support for everyday content changes.

The visual treatment brought these functional improvements together within a friendly, school-appropriate experience that could communicate clearly without losing the character of Marvels Lane.

• Website planning and information architecture
• User journey and navigation structure
• Responsive website design
• WordPress development
• School information and content structure
• Policies and document organisation
• Events and notices
• Contact and enquiry pathways
• Staff-manageable content system
• Accessibility-informed design

DESIGNED AROUND THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY

The redesigned website places everyday school information within a clearer and more predictable structure. Parents can move between key information, policies, events and contact routes without having to understand how the school itself organises that information internally.

The same principle extends to prospective families and other visitors, giving them a clearer introduction to the school while keeping practical information within easy reach.

Responsive layouts ensure those journeys remain usable across desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

EASIER TO MANAGE BEHIND THE SCENES

Improving the visitor experience was only half of the project. The website also needed to work better for the people responsible for maintaining it.

The WordPress structure was designed so routine information could be added and updated without unnecessarily complex administration. This gave the school greater control over keeping its website current while providing a more sustainable foundation for ongoing communication.

Marvels Lane moved from a website described by the school as complicated for parents and visitors to use and difficult to manage, to one the Deputy Head Teacher described as attractive, user-friendly and easy to maintain.

Important information became easier to locate, while the new structure made publishing updates quicker for the school team.

The result is a website that works as an ongoing communication tool for the school community, balancing the needs of parents and visitors with the practical requirements of the staff responsible for keeping it accurate and current.