This summer I have been looking at more than a thousand primary school websites. This is because each year, TeachVac www.teachvac tries to look at all the sites where we find our teaching posts. Although most of the work is carried out by the dedicated staff team located on the Isle of Wight, I like to do my share as Chair of the company.

Incidentally, if you aren’t using TeachVac as your search vehicle for teaching posts, why not? So far in 2020 we have identified over 43,000 vacancies and last year the annual total was over 60,000. We are the most comprehensive job board for teachers in England that is free to both teachers and schools.

Looking at lots of websites can be very boring to do. However, it can also be very revealing.

As a community of educations, we are deeply concerned about children and meeting their needs for learning. Do we forget that adults may also have challenges? Certainly, looking at lots of websites, I do wonder. Not many carry WCAG or other notification that the site has been matched against guidelines for those parents or other adults that might use the site and have various challenges.

A percentage of the population is colour-blind. Do school web sites take this fact into account? How about background colours and those with adult dyslexia?

Then there is the issue of which ‘browsers’ the web site uses, and if tailored to work best on one type, does it make that clear to first time visitors?  

I am intrigued to see that teaching posts can be found under any of the following list of tabs: vacancies; employment opportunities; working for us; jobs: there may be others as well.

Jobs can be mixed up with others from the Academy Trust or hidden so well that you must assume that the schools doesn’t want anyone to find them. As to leaving jobs on sites well beyond closing dates, that’s all too common and frustrating for job searchers.

Few sites offer translation options even where the school acknowledges that pupils speak a variety of languages.

Of course, none of this is true for your web site, but if you want a checkout, do please make contact with the TeachVac team via ww.teachvac.co.uk