Website of the year is a new category for the 2011 Awards, and Snapdragons Nurseries is a worthy first winner.
The group of six nurseries, based in Bath and Wiltshire, created the current version of the website in 2009 - totally in-house and home-grown, conceived and designed by James Collard, manager of the Weston nursery, who handles all technical support and creative development and updates it daily.
A priority for Snapdragons was to convey the group message and image, while allowing the individual nurseries the autonomy to develop their own distinct personalities and disseminate their specific information.
The end result is user-friendly, attractive, mobile and packed with easy-to-access, useful and exciting information.
Managers can log in to post news items and photos. Each nursery's section contains news, photos, movies, a clothing shop, testimonials, menus, extra classes, training, events, festivals, parent forms and more. A password-protected staff section is used to manage annual leave and payslips, to ask senior management questions and distribute company notices.
The website is increasingly essential as a marketing tool, with visits doubling over the year from April 2010. Parents refer to the website for information, freeing up staff to spend more time with the children instead of answering queries.
Snapdragons uses Twitter, Facebook and BathMums to post links to the website, giving a high-profile presence to a wide audience. Planned developments include 'Meet the Manager' videos, an owner's blog, a press page and parent advice services.
Parents praise the website highly. Most of their visits are made to the news, photos and videos sections.
One prospective parent says, 'So impressed with the quality of the photography ... everything I needed was included ... the website has a wonderful ambience, it felt like "our kids".'
HIGHLY COMMENDED
The WigWam and the Teepee
These sister nurseries in Reading and Bracknell are both highly commended for their new websites, launched in February this year, which are 'personal, with excellent testimonials with photos'. An innovative MyChild portal offers two-way communication between parent and key worker, with words and images about each child. Both nurseries report a surge of new applications for places since the website was launched.
FINALISTS
Cranley Nursery, Edinburgh - www.cranleynursery.co.uk
Oak House Nursery School, Herefordshire - www.oakhousenurseryschool.co.uk
Playdays, Bolton - www.blackrod-nursery.co.uk
Criterion: Open to early years providers (nurseries, schools, pre-schools and childminders) whose websites are informative, accessible and innovative.