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Liferay and Permeance Technologies helping NSW Public Schools get online

Announcement posted by Liferay Australia Pty Ltd 06 Jul 2016

85% of NSW public schools using the Schools Website Service to showcase their school to the public.
The NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC NSW) identified a need to provide a cost effective and simple method for public schools in NSW to set-up and manage an online presence. It also wanted to provide a way for each school to tailor the site to suit their specific needs and foster connection and engagement with the parents and carers of its students, the result is the Schools Website Service.

The School Website Service is available to all primary and secondary public schools in NSW and to date 2044 schools have a website (85% of all public schools in NSW).

The DEC NSW engaged with Permeance Technologies, a Liferay Platinum Partner, and selected the Liferay platform on which to develop the Schools Website Service. This followed successful earlier implementations of both Staff and Student Portals for DEC NSW by Permeance, also running on the Liferay platform.

Each school site is responsive and scales to whatever platform it’s being viewed on delivering a modern online presence for schools by which to communicate relevant school activities to student’s parents and their carers’. Each School’s site is a combination of DEC NSW content such as curriculum and policies, and the School’s own, including; newsletters, enrolment information, school news, photo and videos galleries and calendars. The sites can also integrate payments functionality, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Blogs. Keeping pace with today’s most popular method of consuming information, online, ensures that the parents and carers of students are able to engage in a way that best suits their personal preferences.

The concept of the School Website Service was developed by DEC NSW in 2011 in collaboration with the NSW Secondary Principals' Council and the NSW Primary Principals' Association and continues to receive widespread support and praise for the ease of use and professional appearance of each website.

After launching in 2011 Lila Mularczyk, President (then Deputy President), NSW Secondary Principals’ Council and Principal, Merrylands High School, was one of the first to offer congratulations, "Absolutely fantastic service, the best advocacy we have seen for public education in my working career," she said.

The ability to establish and manage a digital presence easily and quickly is seen as a way for all public schools in NSW to establish a professional online presence in an increasingly competitive environment. Parents and carers of children spend lots of time weighing up which is the best school to care for the education of their children. With an online presence the schools are well placed to convey their points of difference and values in a professional and relevant way.

"When choosing schools for their children parents do visit websites and if you've got a nice, colourful website that showcases all your different programs and achievements it's going to help," said Deputy Principal of Birrong Boys High, Angelo Stasos. "For schools to be able to so easily design and manage the website is a golden opportunity."

“A great user experience is so important when people engage online so we’re really pleased that Liferay has been able to help New South Wales public schools deliver modern websites that look great on any device and provide important information to the community,” said Adrian Johnson, General Manager, Liferay Australia.

The flexibility of the Liferay platform enabled Permeance Technologies to work with DEC NSW to quickly and easily customise themes and templates to suit the needs of the Schools Website Service. For the initial launch of the Schools Website Service an agile approach to development was undertaken and now the Program team follows a standard set of release dates and provides ongoing support to users.

“Permeance, and specifically our Education team, love the idea we’ve been helping Parents and Communities better connect with schools right across the state. The School Website Service assists Parents and Carers make important decisions and keeps them connected to their school and the school community,” said Shayne Tanner, Director at Permeance.

Each school pays a nominal fee for a website which includes hosting and support. Using a “website builder wizard” schools can then construct a website which enables them to select colours, formats, plus and content menus and then tailor it to their specific needs and those of their school community.
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