15 Best School Website Designs [And How They Did It!]
First impressions of your school no longer happen at the front door. Instead, they happen on your website. Just like any organization, schools are expected to have a website that accurately communicates their vision. The best school websites serve as dynamic gateways, offering a window into the institution's achievements and community spirit.
To inspire your web design, we’ve gathered exceptional school websites from higher education and K-12 schools that exemplify excellent educational web design.
Let's learn from how these leading schools designed standout websites and digest the best practices.
As you explore these examples, know that designing a beautiful school website starts with the right content management system (CMS). A CMS catered to schools will have the right functionality for a truly engaging website. When choosing a CMS for your school, look for a design portfolio featuring similar schools to get a good idea of what to expect from that platform.
Top School Website Examples
Here are the best examples of school websites that stand out thanks to their unique features:
- Cotati Rohnert Park Unified School District - Quick link direct to essential resources
- Bishop Foley Catholic High School - Vibrant imagery and clear messaging
- Khan Lab School - Minimalist design and innovative approach
- Bright Star Schools - Visually cohesive design
- Vista Charter Public Schools - Dynamic and impactful homepage
- TanenbaumCHAT - The structured layout
- The Association of Theological Schools - Homepage with prominent calendar
- Precious Lamb Preschool - Clear call-to-actions
- Zaytuna College - Rich imagery and thoughtful design elements
- Athabasca University Graduate Students’ Association - The standout event calendar
- AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School School for Children - Intuitive navigation and engaging visuals
- Park University - Powerful program finder
- Ross School - Stunning website designs and highly visual layouts
- Bow Valley College - Balancing the site’s text and imagery
- Putney High School - Unique typography of the content page
1. Quick link direct to essential resources: Cotati Rohnert Park Unified School District
Cotati Rohnert Park Unified School District is a district where all students are welcomed, valued, engaged and excited about learning. Through a supportive and inclusive educational environment, CRPUSD aims to empower students to discover their passions, embrace challenges, and unlock their full potential, laying a strong foundation for a lifetime of achievement and fulfillment.
Why We Love CRPUSD’s Web Design
CRPUSD’s website excels with a clean, modern design and intuitive navigation. It balances a large amount of information without feeling cluttered, creating a welcoming experience for users.
Our favorite feature?
The quick links at the top of the homepage offer easy access to essential resources like the Parent Portal and School Calendar, making navigation straightforward and efficient.
How They Built This School Website
Morweb’s user-friendly content management system (CMS) enables organizations like CRPUSD to keep their website constantly updated with drag-and-drop editing tools. Schools can easily add new content and adjust the layout on the front end of their website without any coding knowledge.
2. Vibrant imagery and clear messaging: Bishop Foley Catholic High School
Bishop Foley Catholic's mission and ministry is to form young minds, get to know and love Christ, while at the same time receiving an excellent academic education. BFC is a warm and welcoming community that offers many opportunities for growth in academic excellence, friendships, teamwork, and faith. In turn, BFC benefits from the many talents and gifts our students bring to the community.
Why We Love Bishop Foley Catholic High School’s Web Design
Bishop Foley’s website combines a clean, professional look with a welcoming tone that reflects the school’s community spirit. The use of vibrant imagery and clear messaging helps to communicate the school’s values and mission effectively.
Our favorite feature?
The bold call-to-action buttons on the homepage, like "Apply Now" and "Schedule a Visit," stand out, making it easy for prospective students and families to engage with the school directly.
How They Built This School Website
The website is built using Morweb CMS, which provides a responsive design and user-friendly tools for quick updates, ensuring smooth navigation and accessibility across devices.
3. Minimalist design and innovative approach: Khan Lab School
Khan Lab School (KLS) is a non-profit independent lab school situated in Silicon Valley. We believe in the importance of essential content and skills over excess information, preparing students for the future. Academic mastery is crucial, but we also prioritize student mindfulness and social-emotional learning. Our decisions are guided by what is best for our students, addressing challenges with humility, focusing on results, and maintaining high expectations for our school and students.
Why We Love Khan Lab School’s Web Design
Khan Lab School’s website shines with its sleek, minimalist design and innovative approach, reflecting the school’s forward-thinking mission. The use of bright, dynamic visuals and concise content helps engage visitors while showcasing the school’s unique learning model.
Our favorite feature?
The immersive video on the homepage immediately grabs attention, giving prospective students and parents a glimpse into the school’s culture and approach to education.
How They Built This School Website
Khan Lab School (KLS) built their website on the Morweb platform. Morweb’s unique school functionality made the platform an easy choice for a website provider. The academy customized one of Morweb’s education themes and took advantage of powerful features including blogs, event pages, career listings and web accessibility options.
With the Morweb platform’s drag-and-drop editor, keeping the site updated is easy for the faculty and administrators to manage on their own.
4. Visually cohesive design: Bright Star Schools
Bright Star Schools is a free, public, open enrollment charter school organization that operates nine schools across Los Angeles.
Founded in 2003, Bright Star Schools provide 3,600+ students in grades TK - 12 with holistic, inclusive support to achieve academic excellence and grow their unique talents so that they find joy and fulfillment in higher education, career, and life.
Why We Love Bright Star Schools’ Web Design
The Bright Star Schools website excels in its vibrant and welcoming design, which reflects the organization's commitment to providing quality education. The use of bright colors and engaging visuals captures the attention of visitors, while the well-structured layout makes it easy to navigate through the site. Key information about the schools, programs, and enrollment is prominently displayed, ensuring that users can quickly find what they need. This design effectively communicates the school's mission and values, creating a positive and user-friendly experience.
Our favorite feature? This website’s homepage offers impactful statistics that showcase Bright Star’s impact.
How They Built This School Website
The Bright Star Schools website, built on the Morweb platform, effectively manages nine schools under one domain with a unified design. Each school has its own section with unique content while maintaining a consistent look that strengthens the brand. The site’s clean layout and easy navigation create a smooth user experience and simplify content management for administrators. Morweb’s flexibility allows each school to showcase its offerings while benefiting from shared resources, making the website a valuable tool for students, parents, and staff.
5. Dynamic and Impactful Homepage: Vista Charter Public Schools
As a proud member of the International Studies Schools Network, Vista Charter Public Schools have multiple education facilities in California. The schools aim to provide a quality education for all students by focusing on both heart and mind as critical tools of student engagement in learning.
Why We Love Vista Charter’s Web Design
Vista Charter Public Schools' website features a streamlined and intuitive design that enhances user experience. The standout element is its well-organized navigation, making it easy for visitors to find information quickly. The clear layout and consistent color scheme contribute to a cohesive look, while the responsive design ensures accessibility across all devices. This combination of clarity and functionality makes the website highly effective for engaging both prospective and current students and their families.
Our favorite feature? Their testimonial videos are seamlessly integrated into the website’s homepage, offering a dynamic and visually appealing way to explore the school’s impact.
How They Built This School Website
Vista Charter Public Schools built their website using the Morweb platform, known for its user-friendly content management. The site includes one main page with six integrated school websites, all connected seamlessly.
Morweb allows the school to easily update content without technical expertise, and the minimalist design reflects the school's brand while ensuring a clean, user-friendly experience. One major benefit of Morweb is its flexibility, enabling the school to make changes to both design and content without needing extensive developer support.
6. Colorful Icons: TanenbaumCHAT
TanenbaumCHAT has been a cornerstone of Jewish life in Toronto for over 60 years. As the only community Jewish high school in the GTA, it has had an unparalleled impact and fulfills a unique role. TanenbaumCHAT offers a renowned dual curriculum, academic excellence, a program imbued with Jewish values and Israel engagement, and a strong, inclusive and supportive school community. Their students represent a wide range of Jewish backgrounds. They come from many Jewish feeder schools, and our unique New Stream program welcomes students from secular public and independent schools.
Why We Love TanenbaumCHAT’s Web Design
TanenbaumCHAT’s website is engaging, with a polished design that reflects the school’s academic excellence and vibrant community. The structured layout and clear navigation make it easy for users to find information quickly.
Our favorite feature?
The About page stands out for its clear presentation of the school’s mission and values, alongside impactful visuals that highlight student life and academics.
How They Built This School Website
Morweb’s website builder is a great choice for schools with a limited technical background because it is easy to edit and update content on your website.
Using Morweb’s live site editor, Hope Academy’s staff can add new content and see how it looks on the front end of their website, essentially taking the guesswork out of web design.
7. Homepage with Prominent Calendar: The Association of Theological Schools
The Association of Theological Schools consists of more than 270 graduate schools of theology in the United States and Canada. Member schools conduct post-baccalaureate professional and academic degree programs to educate persons for the practice of ministry and for teaching and research in theological disciplines.
Why We Love ATS’s Web Design
The ATS website features a clean, professional design suited for theological schools and educators. Its organized navigation makes it easy to find key information like accreditation, resources, and educational standards. The minimalist layout, clear fonts, and ample white space enhance readability and user experience. A key feature is the prominent homepage calendar, which highlights events and resources that support member schools with best practices, peer networks, and research. This design effectively communicates ATS’s mission while providing valuable tools for its audience.
How They Built This School Website
The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) website, built on Morweb, offers tailored features for academic and professional organizations. It includes a comprehensive Resources Center for easy access to publications and materials, and a Membership section that allows users to manage accounts and access exclusive content. The platform supports dynamic content management, enabling regular updates on news, events, and accreditation standards. With a clean, user-friendly design, the ATS website effectively engages its audience while providing essential resources and tools.
8. Clear Calls to Action: Precious Lamb Preschool
Precious Lamb is a faith-based Christian preschool, teaching biblical foundations, but people of all faiths are accepted to attend. Since 2002, Precious Lamb has served hundreds of Long Beach families, providing tuition-free, high quality, early education for children 18 months-5 years old and their families who are experiencing homelessness.
Why We Love Precious Lamb’s Web Design
The Precious Lamb website excels in its simplicity and warmth, using heartfelt images and personal stories to connect with visitors. The straightforward design and easy navigation allow users to quickly understand the mission and find ways to support it.
Our favorite feature? Clear calls to action throughout Precious Lamb’s homepage urge site visitors to get involved.
How They Built This School Website
The Precious Lamb Preschool website is a welcoming platform that clearly conveys its mission of providing quality early childhood education. Built on the Morweb platform, it features an easily managed Events section for sharing upcoming activities and engaging Galleries that highlight images of the children and school.
The site’s warm, accessible design and simple navigation make it user-friendly, while Morweb’s intuitive content management allows staff to keep the site updated without needing technical expertise. Overall, it effectively connects the preschool with the community and showcases its impactful work.
9. Rich imagery and thoughtful design elements: Zaytuna College
In 2009, Zaytuna College was founded in Berkeley, California, with a mission that called for grounding students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well as in the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society. The College opened its doors to produce God-conscious learners who are conversant in both past and present, through a traditional liberal arts education.
Why We Love Zaytuna’s Web Design
Zaytuna College’s website is both elegant and informative, embodying the institution’s scholarly and cultural values. The use of rich imagery and thoughtful design elements reflects the school’s unique identity as America’s first accredited Muslim liberal arts college.
Our favorite feature?
The interactive programs section on the homepage offers a clear and engaging way for prospective students to explore academic offerings, making it easy to learn about the college’s distinctive programs.
10. The standout event calendar: Athabasca University Graduate Students’ Association
The Athabasca University Graduate Student’s Association (AUGSA) was formed in 2005. It provides student services and representation for AU graduate students through university and government relations with the mission that graduate-level education at AU is accessible, affordable, and of outstanding quality.
Why We Love AUGSA’s Web Design
AUGSA’s website is sleek and modern, with a design that effectively communicates key information to students while maintaining an approachable, student-friendly tone. The layout is clean, making it easy for users to find what they need quickly.
Our favorite feature?
The events calendar is a standout feature, providing students with easy access to upcoming events, important dates, and deadlines, helping them stay engaged and informed.
How They Built This School Website
The website is built using Morweb CMS, ensuring responsive design and accessibility for students across devices. Morweb’s user-friendly platform allows AUGSA to manage content easily and keep the site up to date with the latest information.
11. Intuitive navigation and engaging visuals : AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School
AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School is a Preschool through 12th-grade learning community, where students are supported and encouraged to excel in academic, artistic, and athletic realms. During its more than 45-year history, AGBU MDS remains a place where students create lasting bonds, develop their interests, broaden their horizons, connect to their roots, and hone the skills they will use well beyond graduation.
Why We Love ABGU MDS’sWeb Design
AGBU MDS’s website effectively captures the organization’s mission and values through a clean and professional design. The site’s intuitive navigation and engaging visuals make it easy for users to learn about their programs and initiatives.
Our favorite feature?
The program highlights section is particularly impressive, showcasing key initiatives and success stories with compelling imagery and concise, informative text.
How They Built This School Website
Adding new events is as simple as creating a blog post. Using Morweb’s event page templates, schools can easily create an event by inputting a title, date, description, ticket price and photo. All events are automatically generated on the events page by date and several are featured on the homepage for quick registration.
12. Powerful Program Finder: Park University
Park University is a private, nonprofit, institution of higher learning in Parkville, Missouri. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees with some programs offered online.
Why We Love Park University’s Web Design
Park University’s homepage is very powerful. High-quality images and easily digestible information about the school draw you in. This site hits all the marks with featured posts, a prospective student sign-up form, interactive campus map and social media live feed. The school’s virtual tour is a nice touch especially while the campus is closed to visitors.
Our favorite feature? The site’s program finder tool allows prospective students to sort by location, field of study, and program level to find the courses they’re interested in.
How They Built This School Website
Park University redesigned their website on WordPress with the help of a web design agency. The website’s theme was custom-developed for the university so it matches its branding seamlessly. WordPress makes it easier for the school’s administrators to update content, however, design changes will still require the help of a web developer.
13. Stunning website designs and highly visual layouts: Ross School
Ross School is a private boarding school located in the town of East Hampton in New York. The school’s curriculum is based on world cultural history and the evolution of consciousness based on the work of its two founders; mathematician Ralph Abraham and cultural historian William Irwin Thompson.
Why We Love Ross School’s Web Design
The website’s vibrant imagery and bright colors create an engaging design. Scrolling down reveals aerial footage of the campus and a live Facebook feed showcasing students.
The site offers three ways to navigate: quick links on the homepage, a top navigation menu, and a collapsible menu for detailed information. For supporters, the donation form is embedded with specific categories, and the giving page provides clear descriptions of how donations will be used, making it easy and compelling for visitors to contribute.
How They Built This School Website
Ross School built their website using Squarespace. Squarespace is known for its stunning website designs and highly visual layouts.
The CMS platform’s editor is great for non-technical people because it allows users to make edits and add new content with a drag-and-drop interface. While Squarespace’s editor isn’t quite as easy to use as Morweb or Weebly it doesn’t require the extensive coding knowledge of CMS platforms like Drupal.
One drawback of using Squarespace for nonprofit websites is that it lacks functionality for on-site donations and event registration. Ross School makes use of an embedded donation form which offers a better user experience than externally linked pages, however, embedded forms don’t have options to customize the design to match the rest of the site.
14. Balancing the site’s text and imagery: Bow Valley College
Bow Valley College is a post-secondary school located in Calgary, Alberta. The college has a variety of programs for academic upgrading, English language learning, continuing education and post-diplomas.
Why We Love Bow Valley College’s Web Design
Bow Valley College has a great storytelling focus in its website design. The homepage features recent stories covering student experiences, campus events and teacher spotlights. But what’s really great about this website is the photography featuring real students and the various campuses. They do a great job of balancing the site’s text and imagery to convey their message.
The site’s mega menu is well-organized making it easy to find the program you’re interested in. Bow Valley College’s website also has powerful functionality with a blog engine and a cart to pay for certain courses online.
How They Built This School Website
Bow Valley College designed their website using Sitecore. Sitecore is a powerful CMS which is great for larger websites but it is not very user-friendly for the general public. The backend can be quite confusing for the non-developer so you'll likely need someone on staff to help with site maintenance if you choose to go with this platform. Sitecore has a variety of attractive website designs but there is limited flexibility in the design if you aren’t experienced with coding.
15. Unique typography of the content page: Putney High School
Putney High School is an all girls’ school in London, UK. The high school is part of the Girls’ Day School Trust, a network of 25 independent schools and academies. The mission of the school is to build confident, creative thinkers and deliver an education that is truly relevant to their future.
Why We Love Putney High School’s Web Design
Putney High School’s web design has very slick animations with a unique navigation menu that drops down when you hover over the main categories. The homepage features multiple news stories and photos that animate as you scroll down the page. The high school's online donation page and parents portal link to external platforms to handle the added functionality.
Our favorite feature? The interior pages have unique typography and colorful images of the students to capture your attention.
How They Built This School Website
Putney High School used WordPress to design their website. WordPress’ blog engine is user-friendly for posting new content regularly so the school can keep their site’s homepage fresh. The theme looks like a custom design that was created to fit the high school’s branding. The main drawback of a custom WordPress theme is that it’s difficult to make changes to the design without the help of a developer.
School Website Best Practices: Our Takeaways
We hope you’re feeling inspired! If you’re unsure what elements to include when relaunching your school’s website, we’ve condensed all of this information into a few design best practices.
Remember, your CMS will power your school website, so before anything else, choose a platform that’s catered to meet schools’ unique needs. Designed specifically for educational institutions, Morweb makes it easy for school administrators to design engaging, informative websites without the need for a developer.
With this in mind, let’s explore some commonalities between the best school websites, and how our tools help you elevate your digital presence.
Feature Multiple Ways to Give.
Alumni giving is on the rise, and your website plays a key role in boosting donations. School websites that feature multiple ways to give make it easy for donors to contribute in ways that resonate with them. Diversify your giving opportunities by featuring the following donation opportunities on your website:
- A donation page is the foundation of your online fundraising strategy. The best donation pages offer a simple, secure, swift, and mobile-friendly giving process. Our fundraising module makes it easy to add suggested donation amounts, recurring donation options, and the ability to designate gifts to certain funds like scholarship funds.
- Monthly giving opportunities help you create a reliable pipeline of support. On your donation page, include a recurring donation option. You can even create a separate page that explains the program, how it impacts your school, and how donors can opt in.
- A matching gift page teaches donors they can double their contributions through employer matching gift programs. A well-designed matching gift page like the one below provides clear instructions on researching employers’ programs. Be sure to integrate a searchable database of companies that participate in matching gifts to help donors determine their eligibility.
Your school's website is a powerful fundraising tool. By featuring multiple ways to give like those above, your school can boost donor engagement and simplify the giving process, empowering you to invest more in your students’ education.
Include An Interactive Event Calendar.
An interactive events calendar informs students, parents, and staff about upcoming events such as back-to-school activities, sports games, parent-teacher conferences, and fine arts performances.
Plus, it enhances engagement by allowing users to filter events by category, add them to their personal calendars, and even register or RSVP online. Featuring an events calendar ensures that your school community is well-informed and actively involved, fostering a sense of belonging and participation.
Add our beautiful event pages to your school’s website, so you can easily sell tickets and collect RSVPs. The simple online registration process will make managing your events easier for everyone!
Maintain An Active Blog.
An active blog is a cornerstone of the best school websites and an important marketing tool. It provides a spot to share your school’s stories, showcase the vibrancy of school life, and highlight educational achievements.
From detailed accounts of school events to sharing insights into classroom activities, your school can provide valuable resources and enrich your website’s content. In turn, this can boost your school’s visibility in search engines, drawing in prospective students and their families.
Morweb’s robust blog module offers features to manage your posts, including category and tag management, scheduled published dates, social media integration, instant image optimization, video embedding, auto-saving, and post search. You’ll be able to maintain a blog that reflects your school’s commitment to transparency and educational excellence.
Make Your Website Accessible.
Adherence to accessibility standards is a hallmark of the best school websites, ensuring that all members of the school community, regardless of their abilities, can easily navigate the site. This commitment to inclusivity involves designing with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in mind, which includes:
- Providing text alternatives for any non-text content like images and videos
- Ensuring all functionality is available from the keyboard
- Using a sufficient contrast ratio between background and foreground colors
By implementing these standards, school websites not only comply with legal requirements but also affirm their dedication to providing an equitable and barrier-free educational environment.
To help, our platform offers built-in accessibility options, such as alt tags, descriptions, custom URLs, and so on. With our accessibility widget, users can increase font size, highlight links, change site colors to grayscale, and more.
Feature An Engaging Online Catalog.
The best websites offer an interactive showcase of educational opportunities available. Create a digital catalog that details your academic programs and extracurricular activities paired with multimedia elements that bring these offerings to life.
Morweb’s catalog feature is ideal for school websites that need to showcase programs to potential students. Create new program pages that feature images, videos, faculty information, and more. Our Program List Module offers a powerful search filter, SEO-friendly URLs, social media integration, and custom call-to-action buttons to drive leads.
By providing prospective students and their families with a detailed exploration of your school's curriculum and offerings, you can communicate your school’s unique strengths and educational values.
Actively Market Your School’s Website.
Impactful school websites are vigorously marketed to reach potential students and families. Start by sharing your website’s content on social media. After all, 41% of students rely on social media to obtain more information about universities before applying. Site visitors should also be able to easily share pages, events, and blog posts from your website via social media integration.
From here, paid advertising can complement your SEO efforts, helping to boost your school’s website in search results. Specifically, Google Ads can amplify your school’s events, fundraisers, and offerings. Organizations associated with schools can even tap into the Google Ad Grant to gain free access to the Google Ads platform.
While the Google Ad Grant is unavailable to schools, philanthropic arms of educational institutions are eligible to participate and receive up to $10,000 per month in Google Ads credits.
Using Google Ads effectively requires you to select relevant keywords, create compelling ad copy, and continuously optimize campaigns based on performance. Through the platform, your school can target specific demographics, geographic areas, and interests, ensuring that you’re reaching those who’d be a good fit for your school.
The Gist
Building a strong online presence for your school shouldn’t seem like it’s out of reach. With the right website platform and inspiration from your peers, your school’s website can go above and beyond to engage students, parents, teachers and your community.
Looking to dive a bit deeper into the world of school web design? Check out our favorite web design resources for institutions just like yours:
- Best Website Builders for Schools and Teachers. Explore the top website builders for schools so you can pick the right CMS for your institution.
- The Best College Websites (And Why They're So Great). Check out this list of beautiful college websites for inspiration.
- Top Nonprofit Website Templates Any Organization Can Use. Check out some top templates from Morweb and other content management systems to create a compelling school website.
