Cold designs and builds school websites in Webflow, for primaries and secondaries, academy trusts, independent schools, sixth forms and colleges. We write the admissions and curriculum copy with your staff, put the statutory information where the DfE guidance expects it and hand over a site the office can update between lessons without calling anyone.
This is an instant, live ballpark quote calculator. You’ll see a project range and flexible payment options, including pay over time and monthly retainer costs.
Step 1 of 2Enter your website (or the one you’d like) to start:
A lot of school websites come from template suppliers serving thousands of schools, and it shows. The same layout, a slideshow of stock-looking photos, a menu that mirrors the staffroom filing cabinet and a news feed nobody has touched since half term. Parents hunting for term dates or the uniform list give up and ring the office. Then the trust asks why the site failed its compliance check.
We start from the questions people ring the office about: term dates, admissions, uniform, clubs, lunch menus, letters home. Those get the shortest route on a phone. Statutory pages are planned in from day one and checked against the DfE list before launch, and the build meets WCAG 2.2 AA. Our pricing calculator gives you a range before you need to take anything to governors.
Fewer calls to the office about things the website should answer. A site that passes a compliance check without a scramble, and looks like the place families walk round on an open morning. Staff post news and letters in minutes. Our portfolio shows the kind of design work your governors would be signing off.
made by
Every design starts from your own identity: the crest, the colours, the photography you have consent to use and the way your head speaks to parents. No template themes. For academy trusts we build one design system with room for each school's character, so the trust looks joined up and every school still looks like itself.
Schools take money for plenty of things, from trips and uniform to wraparound care and lettings. Most of that belongs in the payments system you already run, such as ParentPay or Arbor, and we link to it cleanly. Where an independent school or college needs its own checkout, for application fees, short courses or holiday camps, we build it into the site with confirmation emails that reach the right inbox.
Your best evidence is what pupils make and do: art, drama, music, sport, science fairs and trips. We build galleries and news sections staff fill from the Editor, with captions and tagging set up so a child without photo consent is never named. Colleges and training academies get project pages for student work, which also feed the courses that need applicants.
Search shapes the admissions and course pages from the first wireframe, with clear headings, answers near the top and the right schema. PDFs that parents search for become pages. Old URLs are redirected so years of links from the council, feeder schools and local press keep counting. If you need more applicants from search after launch, our education SEO team works in the same office.
Plenty of parents check the school website on a phone, often at the gate or on the way to work. We design that version first: term dates two taps from the home page, a calendar that works on a small screen, letters that open without downloading a file and a contact page that says who to call about what. Desktop gets the same content with more room.
About half our work is rebuilds. Before we move a school site, we list every page and document, check what the DfE guidance requires, keep what parents use and retire the rest. Redirects are mapped so old links in letters and newsletters still land somewhere useful, and the statutory pages are checked line by line after the move.
Week one covers your current site, the DfE publishing list, your admissions calendar and a short call with the head, the business manager and whoever runs the website day to day. The brief lists every page, who owns it and who it's for.
From week two, design and build run side by side and you see progress twice a week. We write the admissions and curriculum copy, migrate news and policies, and set up the Editor so office staff can post letters and events from their first day.
Before launch we test on real phones, run an accessibility check against WCAG 2.2 AA, map redirects and confirm every statutory page is in place. Single-site builds usually go live within six weeks, timed around the holidays if you prefer, with a recorded handover for staff.
Schools have more audiences than most organisations. Prospective parents deciding where to apply, current parents looking for a letter, pupils after homework links, job applicants, governors, inspectors and the trust. Each wants something different, and most of them are holding a phone. A good school website gives every one of them a short path, and stops the office answering the same five questions every morning.
Forty second answers with no jargon. Anything else, ring the office and ask whoever picks up.
Yes. We check the site against the DfE's guidance on what maintained schools and academies must publish online, from admission arrangements and the curriculum to the SEND information report, behaviour policy and governance details. Anything missing from your current site gets flagged in the first week, and your business manager or clerk signs off the final list.
Four to six weeks for most single sites, and around three if the site is small and the content is ready. Trust sites covering several academies, or large course catalogues, take eight to twelve. We plan the switchover around your calendar, so nothing changes in the middle of open evening season.
One site is a single job and a trust with several sites is another. Payment or booking features and the amount of content we write move it too. Our pricing calculator gives you a range in about three minutes, which helps when you need a figure for a governors' meeting. Once the scope is agreed, so is the price, and pay-over-time options are available.
Yes. Webflow's Editor works in a browser, so posting a letter, changing a date or adding a news story takes a couple of minutes and no code. New staff can learn it from the recorded handover we give you at launch. For bigger changes, a care plan means we do it for you.
We build to WCAG 2.2 AA: a proper heading structure, colour contrast that passes, keyboard navigation, alt text, captions on video and forms that work with screen readers. We test before launch and give you an accessibility statement to publish. The bigger risk is content added later, like scanned letters, so the handover covers keeping new posts accessible.
Yes. A trust usually needs a central site plus one for each academy, sharing a design system so they look related, with each head able to update their own pages. We plan the structure so trust-wide policies live in one place and every academy links to them, which saves uploading the same document eight times.
We've built for learning providers before. Debut Academy, a training academy and salon with several Essex campuses, got a new brand and a Webflow site where staff manage course listings and reviews, with enquiry forms feeding HubSpot. For Basildon Council's Skills Show, we refreshed the brand and designed a separate leaflet for every school involved.
A new site needs visitors to earn its keep. Our SEO for schools and colleges takes the admissions pages further after launch, and our school marketing work covers open day campaigns and paid social for intakes that need filling.
Smart design decisions, great communication, and fast turnarounds, even over the Christmas break. Everything was scoped clearly, delivered on time, and they went above and beyond with extra refinements.
They delivered a professional, high-quality website and continue to provide excellent ongoing SEO support. Communication is clear, results-driven, and they genuinely understand our business objectives.
I couldn’t be happier with the outcome and highly recommend their team. I would absolutely work with them again (and likely sooner than they expect!).
They delivered far beyond what I was expecting, and I’m honestly over the moon with my new website.
The final product met all our expectations and clearly reflected their creativity, attention to detail, and dedication to delivering quality work.
We were most impressed with Cold | Digital Agency's creativity.
We're impressed with their enthusiasm for success.
They brought our identity to life in a way that felt authentic and future-focused.
Our SEO and Google rankings have improved significantly, and we’ve had a big increase in quality leads coming through the website.
They’re extremely attentive, they listened to what I wanted and brought it to life amazingly.
Superb service for my business and such a professional team.
Excellent service and really delivered on the brief I gave them. Designed the logo and my website, very happy with the result and would highly recommend.
Their whole purpose was to listen to me and deliver.
They provided professional and personalized services to suit my needs.
They consistently delivered all items on time and kept me informed throughout the process.
Overall, we were pleased with the service provided.
Cold | Digital Agency couldn't cater to my needs anymore if they tried.
I have been nothing but greatly satisfied with the work he has done for me, everything has been carefully considered and tailored to me!
They had it built much faster than I was expecting with lots of amazing features, couldn't have asked for a better site and I was very surprised at the great price for the quality they provided.
| WEB DESIGN Primary schools | WEB DESIGN Secondary schools | WEB DESIGN Academy trusts |
| WEB DESIGN Independent schools | WEB DESIGN Sixth form colleges | WEB DESIGN FE colleges |
| WEB DESIGN Private nurseries | WEB DESIGN Training providers | WEB DESIGN Special schools |
This is an instant, live ballpark quote, not a final proposal. It can cover branding, websites and marketing. You will see a project range and flexible payment options, including pay-over-time. Takes about 3 minutes.
Prefer to skip the calculator and ask a quick question? Drop us a line and we'll be in touch.
