How to Plan a Multi-Academy Trust Website Project

A Multi-Academy Trust website project can quickly become complicated. There may be a central Trust website, several academy websites, different audiences, varied school identities and a long list of information to review. Without an agreed plan, decisions can take longer, content can become inconsistent and important approvals may be left until the last minute.

Good preparation gives everyone a clearer role and helps the project focus on useful outcomes rather than personal preferences. It also gives your design and development partner the information needed to create a website structure that works for the Trust as a whole and for each academy within it.

This guide sets out the main areas to consider before commissioning or starting a new MAT website project.

1. Agree what the project needs to achieve

Start with the reasons for reviewing your current website arrangements. “We need a new website” is a useful starting point, but it is not a clear enough project objective on its own.

Your Trust may want to:

Explain its vision, values and approach more clearly
Make information easier for families, staff and stakeholders to find
Present its academies consistently while allowing each school to retain its own identity
Improve the way recruitment information is communicated
Reduce duplicated content and administration
Make it easier for staff to update websites
Create a more suitable platform for future Trust growth
Strengthen communication between the central team, academies and wider communities

Try to turn these broad aims into a short list of agreed priorities. For example, your first priority might be improving the experience for prospective families, while another might be giving the central communications team better oversight of Trust-wide content.

A useful test is to ask: What should be easier or clearer after the project is complete? The answers will help guide decisions about structure, content, functionality and training.

2. Understand the audiences

A MAT website usually serves several audiences at once. The central Trust site may be aimed at families, prospective employees, existing staff, trustees, partners and local communities. Individual academy websites may have a stronger focus on parents, pupils and day-to-day school communication.

List your main audiences and the tasks they are likely to complete. These might include:

Finding information about a particular academy
Understanding the Trust’s values and organisation
Looking for vacancies
Contacting the central team or a school
Reading news and updates
Finding governance and statutory information
Learning about admissions or school places
Understanding what makes each academy distinctive

This exercise can reveal where the current experience is confusing. A parent may begin on the Trust website but need to move quickly to an individual academy. A prospective employee may want to understand the Trust’s culture before viewing a vacancy. A trustee or partner may need central information that should not be mixed into a school-level navigation system.

Plan around these tasks rather than around the organisation chart alone.

3. Involve the right people early

A Trust website project needs input from people who understand strategy, communications, school operations and approval requirements. It does not mean that every person needs to attend every meeting, but key voices should be included before major decisions are made.

Your project group may include:

The CEO or a senior Trust leader
A communications or marketing lead
A representative from the central operations team
Academy headteachers or nominated school representatives
Someone responsible for governance or statutory information
A colleague who understands technical systems and website administration
Trustees or governors where their approval is required

Agree who will provide advice, who will make decisions and who will give final approval. These are not always the same people.

It is also helpful to nominate one day-to-day project lead. This person can coordinate feedback, keep a record of decisions and make sure questions reach the right person. Without a clear project lead, a website project can become a series of disconnected conversations between different schools and departments.

4. Decide how the Trust and academies should work together

Before discussing visual design, agree the relationship between the central Trust website and academy websites. This is a strategic decision that affects navigation, content ownership, branding and ongoing administration.

You may be considering:

One central Trust website with academy sections
A Trust website alongside separate academy websites
A connected group of websites using shared design and content principles
A combination of centralised and school-level content

There is no single structure that suits every Trust. The right approach depends on your size, operating model, growth plans, internal resources and the level of independence given to each academy.

Think about which information belongs centrally and which should be managed by individual schools. Trust-wide content might include the organisation’s vision, governance, central team, vacancies and information for prospective academies. Academy-level content is more likely to include school news, term dates, clubs, uniform information, contact details and information about the daily school experience.

Document these decisions in a simple ownership table. It should show who is responsible for creating, approving and maintaining each main type of content.

5. Audit your existing websites and content

A content audit is one of the most valuable pieces of preparation. It gives you a realistic view of what already exists before anyone starts rewriting or redesigning pages.

Review the current Trust and academy websites and record:

Pages that must be retained
Pages that can be removed
Duplicated or conflicting information
Content that needs updating
Documents that are difficult to find
Outdated contact details
Frequently used pages
Information that should be moved between Trust and academy websites
Content that is missing altogether

Do not assume that every existing page needs to be copied into the new website. A redesign is an opportunity to simplify the experience and remove information that no longer serves a clear purpose.

It is also worth reviewing documents carefully. Policies, reports, forms and other downloads can become difficult to manage when multiple versions are stored across several websites. Decide which documents should be hosted centrally, which belong to an academy and who is responsible for checking them.

6. Create a realistic content plan

Content often takes longer than expected, particularly when several academies are involved. Start planning it as soon as the project begins rather than waiting for the design to be finished.

Create a list of the main content areas and assign an owner to each one. For every section, record:

The person responsible for drafting or supplying content
The person who will review it
The person who gives final approval
The target date
Any images, documents or information still required

You may decide that some content should follow a shared Trust-wide format. For example, academy profiles could use a consistent set of headings while allowing each school to describe its own character and priorities.

This balance matters. Families should be able to find equivalent information easily across academy websites, but every school should still feel genuine rather than interchangeable. A common structure can support consistency without forcing every academy to use identical language.

7. Set approval and governance arrangements

Approvals need to be planned, not treated as a final-stage formality. A website may require input from several teams, and late changes can affect layouts, navigation and development.

Agree:

Who approves the overall website structure
Who signs off Trust-level messaging
Who approves academy-level content
Who checks governance and statutory information
Who reviews images and permissions
How feedback will be collected
How many formal review stages are expected
How conflicting feedback will be resolved

Use one shared feedback process wherever possible. Asking people to comment on different document versions or send feedback through separate email chains makes it harder to identify the final decision.

It can also help to separate strategic feedback from detailed proofreading. Senior leaders may need to approve the overall message and direction, while nominated content owners check accuracy and clarity. Keeping these stages distinct makes reviews more focused.

8. Prepare your brand and visual materials

Gather existing brand assets before design work begins. This may include Trust and academy logos, colour references, fonts, photography, illustrations, templates and brand guidelines.

Also identify where the current brand system creates uncertainty. For example:

Are academy logos being used consistently?
Are there agreed relationships between Trust and academy identities?
Do schools use different templates for similar communications?
Are there visual elements that need refreshing?
Should the website introduce a clearer shared identity?

A website project can expose wider branding questions, so it is useful to discuss them early. You may need a straightforward set of principles explaining how the Trust brand and academy identities should appear together across digital communications.

Only use photography that the Trust is authorised to use, and plan how new images will be supplied if the existing library is limited.

9. Confirm practical requirements

Before requesting proposals or starting development, prepare a list of practical requirements. Consider how the websites are currently managed and what staff need to do regularly.

Your list may include:

The number of Trust and academy websites
Current hosting and domain arrangements
Existing content management systems
User roles and access levels
News, events and document requirements
Forms or third-party services
Social media feeds or integrations
Analytics access
Existing redirects and important URLs
Staff training needs
Ongoing support arrangements

This information helps suppliers understand the scale of the project and reduces the risk of important requirements appearing unexpectedly during development.

Keep the focus on genuine needs. A long list of features does not automatically create a better website. Each requirement should support a clear audience task or make website management more practical.

10. Build a project timeline with space for review

A realistic timeline should include more than design and development. Allow time for discovery, content preparation, photography, feedback, approvals, testing, training and launch.

Useful project stages might include:

Initial briefing and objectives
Stakeholder and audience review
Content audit and information architecture
Brand and visual direction
Page design and review
Website development
Content population
Testing and accessibility checks
Staff training
Final approval and launch

For a MAT, consider whether all academy websites will launch together or whether a phased approach is more manageable. A phased launch may help the team learn from the first website, although it also requires clear communication about what will happen at each stage.

Do not schedule launch immediately before a particularly busy period. Staff need time to become comfortable with the content management system and to resolve any final issues.

11. Plan for life after launch

The project does not end when the website goes live. Agree how content will be managed, reviewed and improved afterwards.

Decide:

Who will manage Trust-wide content
Who will manage each academy website
How new staff will be trained
How often key information will be reviewed
Who will monitor broken links and outdated documents
How future academies or website sections will be added
Where staff can get support

A clear post-launch arrangement helps protect the investment in the new website. It also makes it easier to maintain consistency as staffing changes and the Trust develops.

Planning a Multi-Academy Trust website is ultimately about making a series of shared decisions before design work begins. Agree the purpose, understand your audiences, define responsibilities and prepare your content. With those foundations in place, the project is more likely to produce a website network that is clear for visitors, practical for staff and flexible enough to support the Trust’s future direction.

Begin as soon as you are considering a redesign or a change to your website arrangements. Early planning gives you time to agree objectives, involve academies, audit content and understand approval requirements before design and development begin.

A communications, marketing or central operations lead is often well placed to coordinate the project, supported by a senior sponsor such as the CEO or another Trust leader. The important point is to have one named project lead and clearly defined decision-makers.

Every academy should have a suitable opportunity to contribute, particularly where its own website, content or identity is affected. However, not everyone needs to be involved in every decision. A representative group and a clear feedback process can keep the project manageable.

Prepare your key Trust and academy messages, page lists, essential documents, contact details, images and ownership information. You do not need every final word before design begins, but you should understand the scope and identify who will provide and approve each area.

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Talk to Design for Schools

Planning a Trust website project? We can help you clarify your requirements, structure your content and plan a practical way forward for your academies.

Contact Design for Schools or call 01618830043. You can also email hello@designforschools.co.uk.