International school website: admissions, open days and parents

What should an international school website include?

An international school website should give a relocating family everything they need to shortlist the school, visit it and apply, without having to email for basic facts. Parents often compare several schools in one evening, and the school that answers their questions first usually gets the first tour.

Larger schools also need news, a parent portal link and careers pages, but those serve current families and staff. The pages above serve the families you have not met yet.

What questions do parents ask before shortlisting an international school?

Parents shortlist on curriculum, fees, location and availability of places, then look for reasons to trust the school. They search in those terms too: “British curriculum school Bangkok”, “IB school near Sukhumvit fees”, “international kindergarten Thonglor”, or they ask an AI assistant to compare schools in the area they are moving to.

The questions behind those searches are predictable, so answer them on the site:

• Which curriculum do you follow, and which exams do students take at the end?
• What are the fees for my child’s year group, and what extra costs should I expect?
• Are there places available for the year and term we arrive?
• What support is there for children who are new to English, or who have learning needs?
• How long is the commute from the areas families usually live in, and is there a school bus?
• Which accreditations or inspections does the school hold?
• Where do leavers go on to study, if the school publishes its own destinations data?

Answer each one in plain text on a relevant page, not only in a downloadable prospectus. Plain, factual answers are what Google and AI assistants extract when parents ask these questions; our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT explains why.

How should the admissions journey work online?

The admissions journey should be a clear sequence of steps that parents can see in advance and complete mostly online. Uncertainty is what slows families down: not knowing what comes next, which documents are needed or when they will hear back.

Lay the journey out on the admissions page as numbered steps, with what the family does and what the school does at each one:

1. Enquire through a short form: child’s name, age, current school, intended start date and how the family prefers to be contacted.
2. Visit on a personal tour, an open day or a virtual tour for families still abroad.
3. Apply using an online application form, with the application fee explained up front.
4. Send documents such as school reports, passport copies and any learning support reports, uploaded securely.
5. Assessment, with what it involves, how long it takes and whether it can be done remotely.
6. Offer and acceptance, including the deposit or registration fee and the deadline.
7. Welcome: uniform, transport, induction day and a named contact for the first weeks.

Tell parents how quickly the admissions team replies at each stage, and keep to it. A well-designed enquiry form that asks only for what is needed at step one will get more families started.

How should a school promote open days and tours?

Promote open days with a dedicated page for each event, listing the date, time, programme, who should attend and a short registration form, and link to it from the home page and the admissions page. A single line in the news section is easy to miss.

• Make registration quick: parent name, email, phone or messaging app, child’s age and year of entry.
• Send a confirmation and a reminder with directions, parking and the gate to use.
• Offer an alternative for families who cannot attend: a personal tour or a video call with admissions.
• Follow up afterwards with a short message and a link to apply or ask questions.

Keep past events off the page once they are over. Nothing tells a parent that a website is neglected faster than an open day that happened last term.

How should a school website serve parents who are still abroad?

A school website serves parents abroad by letting them do almost everything remotely: understand the school, see it, talk to someone and apply. Many international families choose a school before they have even found a home.

• Virtual tour or video walk-through of classrooms, play areas and facilities.
• Call booking with time zones handled, so a family in London or Seoul can pick a slot that suits them.
• Contact by email and by the messaging apps families actually use, such as WhatsApp, LINE or WeChat.
• Fees in the local currency, clearly explained, including when each payment is due.
• Relocation information: areas where families tend to live, transport, and useful contacts.

Language matters too. If your families include Thai parents alongside expatriates, Thai pages written by a fluent writer are essential, and some schools add a third language for a large community such as Japanese, Korean or Chinese families. Each language needs its own properly written pages, not a translation widget; our guide to bilingual website SEO explains how to set this up so each version can be found.

What should a school website say about safeguarding and pupil privacy?

A school website should state clearly that child protection is a priority and explain, in general terms, how the school keeps pupils safe. Parents look for this, and its absence is noticed. The detail belongs in your policies; the website’s job is to make your approach visible and the key documents easy to find.

• A short statement of the school’s commitment to safeguarding and child protection.
• The role of the designated safeguarding lead and how parents can raise a concern.
• A note on safer recruitment checks for staff and visitors.
• Links to the child protection policy and other key policies, kept up to date.

Privacy needs the same care. Under data laws such as Thailand’s PDPA B.E. 2562 and Europe’s GDPR, information about children calls for extra caution. Use pupil photos only with parental consent, avoid full names next to faces, collect only the data each form needs and explain in a privacy notice how it is stored and used. Our guide to website security basics covers the technical side.

Who builds international school websites, and what does it cost?

International school websites are built by web design agencies that can handle admissions flows, several languages and a large number of pages. PJW Partners builds websites for schools and education businesses, launching in English and Thai, for clients worldwide.

At PJW Partners, custom websites start from $1,500 USD. A full school website, with multiple phases, admissions forms, open day booking and two or more languages, is a bigger build and receives a tailored quote; many websites launch in 3 to 6 weeks, and larger school sites can take longer. Our website cost guide explains what affects the price. If you are planning a new website or rebuilding an old one, tell us about your school and we’ll reply within one business day.

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