In the words of the judges, 'Paint Pots Pre-School and Nursery's website has excellent functionality and provides parents with a mass of information.'
The layout of the site clearly signposts parents to information about individual nurseries, their location, contact details, latest Ofsted reports and newsletters. More detail about the nursery group of eight settings is provided in a promotional video embedded on the site, managers' profiles, an 'About' section and blog from co-owner David Wright.
There is also a separate section for staff on the website that they can access with their own logins. The nursery group is currently working on developing a separate recruitment section within the site.
Paint Pots updated its website in 2012 to better reflect the group's values and ethos, and to optimise its content for mobile devices.
The website was produced with the help of students from Solent Creatives - a local further education college - which helped to keep costs down, but without compromising on quality, says the nursery group's owner.
A key requirement of the new site was that staff would be able to easily update and add content, with the flexibility to expand sections if, for instance, the group buys another setting. This was achieved by moving the website to publishing platform Wordpress.
Judges were also impressed with Paintpots' understanding of their website analytics, how the site is being used and the ways in which they use this knowledge to shape their online strategy.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Elmscot Group
Elmscot's website is built on the belief that parents need to be able to feel completely comfortable and knowledgeable about the setting they chose for their child.
With this in mind, the website features information about the group's policies and procedures and photos of every team member at each of the three nurseries in Cheshire.
Parents can also use the site to post messages, request further information and keep-up-to date with news from the group.
This year, a new addition will be added to the website - a 'Parent Portal', a password-protected section, where families will be able to view specific information about their child's nursery.
This will include being able to view daily menus, details of free parent training courses and feedback from parent surveys.
FINALISTS
Little Me Day Nurseries, Basingstoke, Hampshire
Micklands Pre-School, Reading
CRITERION
Open to early years providers (nurseries, schools, pre-schools and childminders) whose websites are informative, accessible and innovative.
