“Aim: unify the Trust’s websites under a single platform and deliver a consistent experience across all of their digital assets.”
The GORSE Academies Trust is a Multi Academy Trust working with Academies in Leeds to provide high standards of education to children and young adults in impoverished communities.
The GORSE Academies Trust (TGAT) recognises the importance of digital in growing its position as a leading provider of World-class Primary and Secondary education that will inspire the next generations of students. TGAT had disparate websites that were run independently and in some cases via agencies.
The first step in TGAT’s digital vision was to unify the websites under a single platform and deliver a consistent experience across all of their digital assets, with a focus on ensuring the current website was migrated onto a platform with the ability to deliver enhanced digital functionality way into the future.
We worked with each Academy’s Principal and key staff on a website-by-website basis to ensure buy-in and a successful transition to the new website.
We turned to open source which has a very strong future and adopted the popular WordPress platform to leverage its ubiquity and speed up implementation of the first phase of the digital plan which included:
I created interactive prototypes using InVision to communicate ideas with stakeholders and gather feedback, working with key stakeholders throughout to ensure the websites retained each Academies individual personality whilst representing The GORSE Academies Trust.
The websites were welcomed by parents and teaching staff and helped the Trust develop a greater unity and brand identity to the websites, ensuring important information was accessible to parents, improving the user experience.