St Mark’s School Bath: Website Design, Hosting and Ongoing Support

Client: St Mark’s School, Bath

Services: School Website Design and Development, Managed Hosting, Website Maintenance, Front-End Content Support, Statutory Website Information, Third-Party Integration and Emergency Communications

St Mark’s School is a Church of England secondary school serving students and families in Bath and the surrounding area. Xelium has worked with St Mark’s since 2009, providing a fully managed website service that has developed alongside changes in the school’s leadership, branding, organisation and digital systems.

Our work continued with the partnership between St. Mark’s, St Gregory’s and the New Sixth. Xelium led the school’s transition from a council-hosted website under bathnes.gov.uk to an independent website at st-marks.org.uk. Since then, we have designed and developed several iterations of the site while continuing to provide hosting, maintenance, technical support and front-end content updates.

The result is a comprehensive school website that supports prospective families, current students, parents, staff and the wider school community.

Moving to an Independent School Website

When we first started supporting St Mark’s School back in 2009, we were coding by hand, with Front Page and later Dreamweaver. St Mark’s School was represented through a website hosted within the Bath and North East Somerset Council domain.

While this provided the school with a basic online presence, it limited the control the school had over its identity, content structure and future development. Xelium supported the move to a dedicated domain and an independently managed website. This gave St Mark’s greater control over:

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The move also established a permanent digital address that could remain consistent as the school developed and its management arrangements changed. Rather than depending on the structure and limitations of a wider council website, St Mark’s gained a platform designed specifically around the needs of a secondary school and its community.

A Long-Term Digital Partnership

School websites are never finished. Leadership teams change. Branding develops. Policies are reviewed. Admissions information must be updated. New digital services are introduced, and the information required by governors, parents, students, government bodies and inspectors continues to evolve.

For this reason, Xelium’s work with St Mark’s has never been limited to delivering an initial website. Over the course of the partnership, we have worked with headteachers, senior leaders and administrative staff to develop several iterations of the site. Each version has responded to the school’s changing identity, priorities and management structure while preserving the content and services its users depend upon.

Our continuing role includes:

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This ongoing relationship allows the website to develop incrementally instead of becoming outdated and requiring a complete replacement every few years.

Designing for Several Audiences

A school website must serve several very different audiences.

Prospective parents may be researching the school for the first time. Current parents may need a term date, policy, newsletter or urgent announcement. Students may be looking for email access, homework information, curriculum materials or examination guidance. Inspectors and public bodies may need to locate statutory information quickly.

The St Mark’s website has therefore been structured around clear user journeys.

Prospective Parents and Students

For families considering St Mark’s, the website introduces the school’s ethos, values, curriculum, facilities and community. The current homepage provides direct routes to the latest Ofsted report, school tours, the school’s vision and values, subjects offered and other key information. It also presents the school’s latest news, location, facilities and feedback from parents. Prospective families can explore:

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The digital prospectus is incorporated into this journey, giving families access to the school’s current publication without requiring a printed copy.

Current Parents and Carers

Parents often visit a school website because they need a specific piece of information quickly. The site provides access to:

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This information is grouped into recognisable sections, reducing the number of steps needed to reach frequently used resources.

Students

Students can use the site to find information about academic life, homework, reading, examinations, careers, extracurricular activities, school trips and pastoral support.

The homepage also provides direct access to frequently used external systems, including student email, online payments and careers information.

Staff, Governors, Inspectors and Public Bodies

The website also serves an administrative and accountability function. Key information relating to governance, curriculum, admissions, examination performance, SEND, pupil premium, equalities, complaints, safeguarding and other school responsibilities can be reached through the main navigation and the dedicated statutory information page.

Emergency Communications and School Closures

A school website becomes especially important when normal operations are disrupted.

Severe weather warnings, snow, extreme heat, unexpected closures or last-minute changes can cause a large number of parents and students to visit the site within a short period.

Xelium provides responsive support during these events, helping St Mark’s publish urgent notices and ensure that important information is visible from the homepage.

The website has been used to communicate school closures caused by extreme weather, including the prominent publication of closure notices during periods of extreme heat.

This support involves more than adding a news article. The message may need to appear:

• At the top of the homepage
• Within the latest news area
• Across several key pages
• In a form that works clearly on mobile devices
• Alongside links to further instructions

Xelium’s managed hosting also provides the technical foundation needed when traffic increases sharply.

Supporting High-Traffic Periods

School websites experience predictable peaks in demand. Open evenings can bring a sudden increase in prospective-parent traffic. Examination periods increase demand for results and guidance. The publication of inspection reports attracts wider interest. School reopening after the summer creates increased use of term dates, uniform information, calendars and parent services.

Xelium supports the site through these periods with:

• Managed hosting
• Performance monitoring
• Technical maintenance
• Content preparation
• Homepage updates
• Troubleshooting
• Responsive support

Because Xelium manages both the platform and the hosting environment, technical and content issues can be addressed as part of one service.

Maintaining Continuity Through Change

One of the most significant benefits of the long-term partnership is continuity.

Since 2013, the website has remained a stable point of contact while the school has experienced broader branding, leadership and management changes.

The domain remains familiar to families. Historical content can be retained where appropriate. New systems can be introduced without rebuilding the entire digital presence. Each iteration benefits from an understanding of the school, its users and the way its information has developed.

This institutional knowledge enables Xelium to respond more effectively than a supplier approaching each change as an isolated task.

The Result

St Mark’s now has a comprehensive and independently managed school website that supports communication, recruitment, accountability and day-to-day school life.

The platform provides:

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The website has developed over more than a decade, reflecting changes within the school while maintaining a reliable digital service for its community.

Xelium Delivered

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Website Support for Schools and Academy Trusts

A school website must communicate the character of the school while also providing accurate, accessible and frequently updated information.

Xelium works with schools, academies, trusts and educational organisations to design, host, maintain and develop websites that support both public communication and daily operations.

Our managed school website services can include:

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Contact Xelium to discuss a new school website, the redevelopment of an existing site or continuing website management and support.