1. Fees, stated plainly
Fees are the question parents most want answered and the one schools most often hide. Publish your fee structure, or at least a range and what it includes: tuition, boarding, meals, transport, uniform and exam fees. Parents who can't find fees often assume they can't afford them, and move on to a school that tells them.
If fees vary by grade or curriculum (CBC, Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel), a simple table per section works better than a downloadable PDF that is hard to read on a phone.
2. How to apply, step by step
List the steps in order: enquiry, visit, assessment, offer, deposit, enrolment. Add the documents needed, key dates and who to contact. Then give parents one clear button to start.
An online enquiry or admissions form that delivers to one shared inbox saves your office hours of phone calls, and means no enquiry is lost in someone's personal WhatsApp.
3. Term dates and a calendar people trust
Current parents return to your website for dates more than for anything else. Keep one calendar page, update it as soon as dates are confirmed, and remove last year's dates. An out-of-date calendar tells parents nobody is looking after the site.
4. Proof of quality
Results, accreditation, curriculum, facilities and real photos of real students, used with parents' consent. A short message from the head teacher helps, as long as it sits below the practical information rather than in front of it.
5. A way to reach a real person
A phone or WhatsApp number, an email address and a map link in every page footer. Then reply within a working day: a fast, friendly answer wins more admissions than a beautiful homepage.
6. Speed on a phone and a modest connection
Most families browse on mobile data. Large photos, auto-playing videos and heavy page builders make pages slow. Aim for the main content to appear within about two to three seconds on a phone. You can test any page for free with Google's PageSpeed Insights.
7. A privacy notice, and forms that ask only for what you need
Under Kenya's Data Protection Act, 2019, schools handle personal data about children and families, so your website should explain how enquiry details are used. Keep forms short: name, phone, email, child's grade and a message is usually enough at the enquiry stage. Our guide to the Data Protection Act for school websites covers this in more detail.
8. A domain and hosting in the school's own name
Many schools discover, too late, that their domain is registered to a former staff member or a web designer who has moved on. Make sure the school owns the domain and hosting accounts, and that at least two people at the school can log in.
The ten-minute parent test
Hand your phone to a parent who has never seen your site. Ask them to find three things: the fees for one grade, how to apply, and next term's start date. Time each one. Anything that takes longer than a minute is where to start.
Quick checklist
- Fees visible without downloading a file
- Admissions steps and one clear "Apply" or "Enquire" button
- Current term dates
- Results, curriculum and real photos
- Phone, WhatsApp, email and map on every page
- Fast on a phone
- Privacy notice linked from every form
- Domain and hosting owned by the school
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