International School Basel 

Managing more static website content

Many international schools have multiple campuses and oftentimes prospective families are confused about the differences among them. ISB, however, does a great job guiding visitors on their homepage to a well-crafted landing page, One School - Three Sites, that provides clear and concise content for each campus. This page opens the door to landing pages for each school providing a comprehensive overview including the curriculum, the subjects, daily schedule, icons for other important topics; all critical information for families evaluating different schools for their children. 

Experience! Whether you are a prospective student or parent, prospective faculty, a current member of the community, alumni, the Experience landing page has something for almost everyone. From art to music to sports and community, this page provides just the right amount of text and visual content to inform and engage.

Sharing daily news, events and social media

From news, to events to social media, international schools are bursting at the seams with stories to tell. Schools often struggle with making it a priority to share, but fresh content about the current happenings is critical for sharing the value of a parent’s investment and also for differentiating yourself from the school down the road.

“Staying connected is an important part of our mission so we gave a lot of thought to how our new website would achieve this,” states Lisa. “We love Finalsite Posts and were able to do so much with the module.”

ISB has also created a social media mashup page using Finalsite Feeds, bringing in content from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Lisa explains,  “In addition to having our social media feeds appear on our home page, we created a dedicated social media page for visitors. The social media feeds make it easy to showcase all of the wonderful and amazing things happening at ISB everyday on various places throughout our site." 

Tackling password-protected Portals

“Our portals were like a closet that had not been cleaned out in five years. Parents had to click so many times to find their way, so our goal was to bring as much content to the top level as possible,” says Lisa. With some trial and error, and help from Finalsite’s project manager, ISB found the right layout and navigation to optimize their portal experience.

A little peek inside their portal shows how well they keep current families informed and engaged, critical for retention and also assists with word-of-mouth referrals. School calendars, staff and parent directories and other important information on support services and college counseling, parents at ISB are fortunate to have such a comprehensive resource at their fingertips.

“We tested out our portals at the new family welcome session and found that they could all easily log in and subscribe to calendars. I even checked on their phones to make sure they had it set up correctly and they did. It was so rewarding to get such positive feedback since we put some much effort into getting them right.”