Web developer in Kurseong for boarding schools, tea estates and stays
What does a boarding school need first from a web developer in Kurseong? The dormitory, shown ahead of the view. A family choosing a school here decides almost entirely from a screen, from another state or abroad. Tea estates and stays nearby can have sites built the same way.
Overview
Built around a weekday
I build a boarding school website around an ordinary weekday. A family is trying to picture their child's day, so that day goes on the site in full.
An estate or a stay is a smaller job. Each gets its own pages, written for a buyer or a guest who has never seen the place. I'd scope them apart from any school.
Side by side
Questions a parent brings, and where each is answered
Each question gets its own place on the site, in the order a parent is likely to read them.
Where will my child sleep?
- The page shows
- The dormitory, photographed as it is
What will they eat?
- The page shows
- The dining hall and a real week's food
Who looks after them when they are ill?
- The page shows
- The medical arrangements and the people
How does the term run, and when can we visit?
- The page shows
- The calendar and the visiting arrangements, plainly
Who do I speak to?
- The page shows
- A named person, and how to reach them
That's the order I'd build a school site in, starting with where a child sleeps.
What a scope from me looks like
What a school's first scope covers
Included
- A written scope: every page and feature as its own line, agreed before work starts
- Design to build, reviewed on a staging URL that stays open the whole project
- Mobile first — checked on a real phone
- Domain, hosting and every account created in your name from day one
- The dormitory, the food, the medical arrangements and the visiting rules, each on its own page
- The term calendar, editable by the school office
- Basic on-page SEO: titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console connected
- A runbook at handover: how to edit it, what renews and when
Phase two
- An admissions enquiry flow that takes documents
- An open calendar for a stay's rooms
- Ongoing SEO once the site has traffic to read
- A maintenance plan once the site is live
- Logo and brand design, quoted separately from the build
Not doing
- Guaranteed rankings
- Photographs of children without written consent from the school and the parents
A first scope for a school names the pages a parent reads and who updates the calendar each term.
The practical answers need the school's own words. Term dates, visiting and who to speak to have to be put into plain words, and a prospectus doesn't always have them.
Term dates and medical arrangements are the school's to tell me. I set them out exactly as stated, and I don't fill a gap with a guess.
What gets built here
Schools, tea estates and stays
Here's what each of the three needs first.
- A school — every practical page a parent needs, because a child will live there.
- A tea estate — the garden as it is, with the details a buyer asks about.
- A stay — the rooms photographed as a guest will find them.
- Consent first — signed paperwork for each photograph that shows a child, in place before the picture is used.
What moves the number
Pages, admissions and the office system
Page count sets the size of a school's quote, and an admissions flow with documents adds a good deal more.
| What changes it | Why |
|---|---|
| How many pages a parent has to read through | |
| Who updates the calendar each term | the office, or a call to me |
| An admissions flow that takes documents | more work than a simple enquiry form |
| Photographs with consent | whether the paperwork exists, or has to be done first |
| The admissions or office system the school already runs, or a stay's own booking calendar | whichever the site has to sit next to |
What changes the size of the job.
Where this comes from
Proof you can read for yourself
My record includes 600+ projects for US clients.
The projects page has the public ones, each with the client's review in their own words.
Nearby
Up and down the hill
Darjeeling is the parent district, with Kalimpong and Siliguri nearby.
FAQ
Boarding school questions, answered
Written for whoever will run the site.
Can the school office keep the calendar up to date itself?
- The school office can keep the term calendar up to date itself, from its own login. The scope names the person who does it, so a changed date doesn't sit unnoticed.
Can we show photographs with children in them?
- Photographs with children in them go on the site only with written consent from the school and the parents. I ask for that paperwork before the photographs, and a photograph doesn't go up until the paperwork exists.
Does it change things when enquiries come from other states and abroad?
- Enquiries from other states and abroad change what the site has to say, not how it's built. The site says more, in plainer words, and names a person a parent can write to.
Should a tea estate's site show the garden at its best?
- A tea estate's site shows the garden as it looks on a working day. The details a buyer asks about sit beside the photographs, in your own words.
Can a stay take bookings through the site?
- An open calendar for a stay's rooms comes in phase two of the scope. The first version shows the rooms, with a number to ring about dates.
Who on your side works on our site?
- I lead every project, supported by three developers, a designer and three SEO specialists in the Kolkata, India office, plus around six people working remotely. The scope names who does what before anything starts, and you'll see the work on a staging link while it's being built.
Next step
Start from the prospectus
Send the prospectus, or a few pictures of the estate or the guest rooms. We'll talk it through, and the first scope comes back to you in writing.
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