The school values are ‘a family of learners’ and this is evident in the warm and community-driven feel of the school.

The Project

In 2021 Risedale School was ready for a new look! The school had previously been known as Risedale Sports and Community College and had been part of a wider federation of local schools. Following a decision to leave the federation, Risedale School wanted to establish their own unique identity. This required creating a new brand that would act as the signature for the school both on and offline.

The Process

The Risedale School rebranding project was undertaken in 2021 with the initial priority to create a new logo and branding that would then be used throughout school communications and the development of a new website. They also wanted to use the logo to reflect the supportive values of the school. It was important that the logo included the colours of the school houses and showed the connected nature of how they work. The logo also needed to read well from a distance as it is shown on the blazer pocket for school pupils. We opted for a strong interconnected design that has a strong shape. We produced the logo in a variety of versions including mono versions to be used in internal printing.

On signing off the logo we developed a brand guideline for the school to follow. This means that there is a consistent application of the new branding and it maintained a strong visual identity.

The new brand provided the foundation for the design and development of a new school website. The team at Risedale wanted to create a website where parents and carers could quickly access relevant information and allowed the school to show more personality in how they communicate. It was particularly important that as the website was launched through the pandemic that information around covid protocols was quickly accessible. 

Risedale School also wanted to be able to signpost pupils and parents to helpful online resources and this was a key consideration of the design. We were conscious that the website could quickly become very cluttered so decided that a sidebar layout on inner pages would provide space for this information without detracting from the main body of information on any given page. We also added an alert system that can be customised to display on specific days and times. This means that key school messages can be queued up ready to go live as appropriate. 

The Outcome

The website was launched in July ready for the new school year. The website offers a huge amount of editing flexibility to the team at Risedale School who are a perfect example of how to keep your website content up to date and user-focused.

🙋‍♀️ Increased the number of site users by 10%

🌟 Saw an increase of 11% in new users

🟩 Increased the number of sessions by over 16%

💥 Reduced the level of drop-offs on key pages

To view this project in more detail head to the Risedale School website and check out what Jen Gardiner had to say about her experience working with us…