Great Academies Education Trust has launched a new range of websites after investing in a major redesign project for its schools in Tameside and Rochdale.

GAIN LINE, who delivers consulting and software development services for SMEs and helps businesses achieve commercial gains, through digital optimisation, was chosen to deliver the Trust’s multi-site project.

The project focussed on bringing the existing Trust and Schools websites together under a new single centralised system that was true to the brand and enhances their overall vision, values, and growth ambitions. 

Mark Law, Managing Director at GAIN LINE, said: “The requirements were clear and ambitious from the start. A best-in-class, mobile-first, user-centric design that would help the Ashton-under-Lyne based Multi-Academy Trust and its Schools achieve their objectives” 

GAIN LINE supported the Trust’s ambitions to identify audience requirements and prioritise key messages, through a range of stakeholder workshops, where the project aimed to improve the local communities’ journey towards studying at and engaging with the Trust and its schools. 

Mike Wildhood, Project Manager at GAIN LINE said: “The challenge in these new websites was to ensure that we could build a system that was easy to use and intuitive for the various audiences that would use them, from announcements on school closures and COVID advice, to updating term times or ensuring that the Department of Education’s regulatory compliance is met”.

The Trust currently oversees three 11-16 secondary schools: Great Ashton Academy, Middleton Technology School, and Copley Academy, and a two-form entry primary school, Silver Springs Primary Academy.

Reflecting on the project, Brendan Loughran, CEO at Great Academies Education Trust said; 

“We are delighted with our new websites. They have moved the Trust and our Schools forward as a brand, which is exactly what we wanted them to do, and this is now coming back to us as feedback which is superb. Rolling out an intuitive system, which can be used immediately, was central to our requirements, whilst recognising the Trust’s long-term growth objectives which enable future education establishments to be easily integrated into our new digital infrastructure”.