Upgrading from Primarysite to Juniper Websites made content updates easier
Case study: Fulbourn Primary School
When you want to make an excellent first impression and stand out from the crowd, you can trust the UK’s largest provider of school websites. Juniper’s school website design offering combines the expertise of two industry leaders, Primarysite and e4education.
About the school
Fulbourn Primary School, situated in Cambridge and led by headteacher Mrs Beci McCaughran, was awarded a 'Good’ rating by Ofsted in 2022. The school's vision statement, "Making aspirations achievable," highlights its dedication to providing every student with the tools and knowledge to pursue their dreams. Central to this vision are the school’s four core values: courage, curiosity, compassion, and creativity.
Beci McCaughran Headteacher, Fulbourn Primary School
Identifying the need for change online
For years, Fulbourn Primary School had an established website created by Primarysite (now part of Juniper). As a source of information, it did the job, but the school recognised the need for an upgrade when the website no longer met the school's evolving needs and goals.
Headteacher Beci McCaughran explains:
“We hadn’t made any real changes to the website or upgrades since its first incarnation, so it was no longer fit for purpose. After looking at a few different companies, we decided to work with Juniper as our website upgrade partner. Juniper gave us an easy transition from Primarysite and delivered a new website in the timeframe we required, ready for the start of the academic year in September.”
Beci took this opportunity to rethink how Fulbourn wanted to communicate with parents and gain more control over website updates. The new and improved website from Juniper offers exactly the solution the school was looking for.
Realising the school's vision
Juniper’s team guided Beci to identify the key website features and design concepts she wanted to adopt into the new Fulbourn website, all while maintaining consistent branding throughout. Beci valued the examples and guidance shared by Juniper’s team, making it easier to select the right tools early in the process. On this, Beci said:
"Juniper’s team shared a range of existing websites to help us clarify what possibilities a Juniper website could offer and what would be most important to our community. This really allowed us to decide early on which tools we wanted to integrate. A consistent brand is so important to us, and Juniper has helped with that, too."
Creating a lasting impact through better communication
The new website has significantly improved Fulbourn’s communication with its community as well as prospective parents and staff. It provides essential information while effectively conveying the school’s ethos, going beyond factual details. The new and user-friendly system allows anyone at the school to make website edits easily and quickly, which is key in streamlining the school’s updating process – and ultimately, its parental engagement.
Beci explains:
“The school has been looking to improve communication with parents more generally, and we want to use the website as the key tool for that. The old website didn’t allow us to make content updates as well as we'd like and didn’t give us enough control. Now, we can do all of that with the new website.”
Responsive support during the project
The school says having a direct point of contact at Juniper has been helpful during the website production process. Since having an assigned project coordinator, the school has been able to meet with someone from Juniper to discuss needs and requests with a fast turnaround.
Beci commends Juniper’s service:
“The team is excellent, really responsive, and understands what we are trying to achieve. And if they can’t answer, they’ll go away and quickly find the answers.”
A seamless transition from good to great
Beci describes the transition to the new website as easy: “We have an assigned person now, and things are really easy. The ability to make small changes independently is particularly beneficial. This flexibility allows our school staff to update the website regularly, improving communication with parents and the wider community without the need for external assistance.”
Beci thought the project would require more work than it did, but was pleasantly surprised by the straightforward process.
“We didn’t need to do as much as I thought. Just moving to the new platform has meant that we can use and change all the content on the website easily, but also restructure it in ways that is more helpful to visitors and parents. And, importantly, we've been able to delete lots of content that doesn’t need to be on there anymore – making it more simple for everyone.”
Empowering other schools to make the jump
Beci advises other schools to engage with Juniper early, share their aims, and review successful examples. This approach has helped Fulbourn Primary clearly define its goals and ensure a successful website transition that achieves its goal: better parent communication.
Beci concludes:
"I am so pleased with the new website and system. The key for us has been the ability to edit the content with the user-friendly platform, which allows anyone in the school to make updates without much training. It is absolutely awesome for us."
