This case study illustrates the partnership between Lingfield College and Juniper Education, highlighting the collaborative effort in meeting the challenges of a comprehensive education website overhaul.
Lingfield College is a vibrant and successful independent day school for children aged 0–18 years, located in the beautiful Surrey countryside on the Kent and Sussex borders, just 40 minutes from London. Rated ‘Excellent’ in every ISI category, this thriving co-educational school blends academic excellence, supportive pastoral care and a rich programme of co-curricular opportunities to inspire, motivate and nurture every pupil.
Lingfield College aimed to elevate its online presence by revamping its website to reflect its diverse educational offerings across multiple levels: Nursery, Prep, Senior, and Sixth Form. The challenge lay in creating bespoke landing pages, integrating various features like bus routes, house points, interactive maps, and an Instagram feed while ensuring seamless navigation and a high-quality user experience.
Clare Whitlock, Marketing Manager at Lingfield College said: “Our main aim was to update and modernise our school website, which had been developed in the early 2010s and had become a source of some issues. The outdated design, slow technical performance, content-heavy structure, and navigational issues were hindering user experience. Additionally, the CMS system was proving to be time-consuming to maintain. To better align with our recruitment strategy and enhance our online presence and brand, a new website became imperative so I began researching for a company that could help us with these issues and found Juniper."
Lingfield College and Juniper Education embarked on a website project that commenced in December 2020. Lingfield College opted for a comprehensive package that included cloned and bespoke landing pages, functional add-ons like calendar sync, paginated forms, and more.
Clare testifies to the collaborative effort between herself, the website designer, and team at Juniper Education. She emphasises the meticulous development process that fine-tuned the site to achieve the institution's desired high-quality standards. The challenge of integrating fresh content prolonged the content stage, yet it was a testament to their commitment to presenting updated and relevant information.
Lingfield College's online presence underwent a significant transformation through this collaboration, aligning with its commitment to delivering quality education across different levels.
On discussing the partnership with Juniper Education, Clare said: “From the beginning, Juniper demonstrated their developer expertise. Their friendly and collaborative approach from start to finish ensured a thorough understanding of our unique challenges and needs. During the ‘Discovery Phase’ with the designer, we talked in depth about our goals, exchanging ideas, examples, and concepts. I was particularly interested in incorporating cinematography, videography and other visual elements that would keep the user engaged."
The process thrived on seamless communication through Basecamp, a project management platform, and phone interactions, ensuring a creative exchange of ideas and consistent progress updates throughout the 12-month project. Clare underscores the close collaboration with the designer and project manager, pivotal in shaping the website’s vision.
The website overhaul aimed not just for aesthetic enhancement but to address the diverse needs of Lingfield College's community. The college’s unique demographics and varied educational offerings were considered during the website development to ensure inclusivity and accessibility.
On the successful completion of the website, Clare said: "The resulting website has exceeded our expectations. The modern visual design is immediately impactful and aligns with our branding to really reflect our identity as a school. Beyond its aesthetics, the metrics have been really positive. We have witnessed increased page visits, extended dwell times and increased conversion actions. We now receive more enquiries and form completions on the website than we ever have, directly impacting event admissions, tours, and applications."