The Story
Swinemoor Primary School in Beverley became a Digital Schools client in January 2013 – and remains one today. Over twelve years of school website design, photography, and ongoing support. The kind of partnership that defines what Digital Schools is really about.
Beverley, East Yorkshire. January 2013.
Some client relationships are transactional. A website gets built, handed over, and the agency moves on. The Swinemoor Primary School partnership has never been that. Twelve years, multiple website iterations, hundreds of pupil news broadcasts, a 360 photography tour, curriculum vocabulary films, and an ongoing conversation about what a school website can genuinely achieve — this is what a long-term digital partnership looks like.
How it began
Swinemoor Primary School in Beverley became a Digital Schools client in January 2013 — five years after Digital Schools was founded, and in the early years of what would become a growing portfolio of East Riding schools.
The school didn’t just want a new website. They wanted a digital presence that genuinely reflected the depth, creativity, and ambition of their curriculum. A platform that could give pupils a real voice online. A website that would work as hard as their staff did.
That ambition shaped everything that followed.
Leon Myers MBE
None of what followed would have been possible without the trust of one person — and the trust of the many who had come before him.
Those headteachers and school leaders — across the Cafe Society years and into the earliest days of Digital Schools — built the professional credibility, the educational instinct, and the genuine understanding of what schools need that Jon brought to every project that followed.
Leon Myers MBE — headteacher of Swinemoor Primary School — was the headteacher who said yes to Digital Schools at the moment that mattered most. In January 2013, when Digital Schools was a young agency building its reputation in the East Riding, Leon gave Jon the opportunity to build Swinemoor’s first website. That decision — to trust a photographer turned web designer with his school’s digital presence — was the foundation on which the longest and most celebrated partnership in Digital Schools’ history was built.
What Leon understood from the beginning was something that many headteachers take years to appreciate — that a school website isn’t just a compliance document. It’s the first impression every parent, every prospective family, every Ofsted inspector forms of your school. Done properly, it communicates your values, your culture, your ambition, and your community before anyone has ever walked through the door.
Over twelve years, Leon has been far more than a client. His advice — grounded in the daily reality of running a primary school, understanding what parents actually need, and knowing what Ofsted genuinely looks for — has shaped how Digital Schools approaches every project. His willingness to try new things, to embrace digital media as a genuine educational tool rather than an administrative necessity, created the conditions for the Swinemoor News Channel, the vocabulary films, the 360 tour, and everything else the partnership has produced.
The Swinemoor partnership is twelve years old. The friendship and professional respect that underpins it is the reason it has lasted — and the reason Digital Schools is the agency it is today.
Thank you, Leon. And thank you to every school leader who said yes before him.
A bespoke website built around curriculum depth
Swinemoor Primary School’s curriculum is anything but standard — and their website needed to reflect that. Digital Schools designed and built a bespoke school website with interactive curriculum pages that go far beyond a simple list of subjects.
Every curriculum area has its own dedicated space — structured, detailed, and built around the school’s specific approach to teaching and learning. Parents visiting the site don’t just see that the school teaches maths. They see how the school teaches maths, what the curriculum intent is, and what learning looks like in practice.
That level of curriculum transparency is exactly what Ofsted expects to see — and exactly what parents value when they’re choosing a school.
The Swinemoor News Channel — over ten years of pupil journalism
One of the most distinctive features of Swinemoor’s digital presence is the pupil-led Swinemoor News Channel — running for over ten years with more than 200 pupil presenters having taken part.
Every Friday, pupils prepare scripts, film around the school, and edit the final programme using Adobe software — going live the same day. The broadcast generates a significant traffic spike to the website every week, as parents, families, and the wider school community tune in to watch their children report the news.
The News Channel isn’t a bolt-on feature. It’s embedded in the school’s curriculum and culture — a genuine expression of pupil voice, media literacy, and the school’s commitment to giving young people a platform. Digital Schools built the infrastructure that makes it possible and has supported it every week for over a decade.
360 photography tour — bringing Swinemoor to life
Digital Schools produced a full 360 photography tour of Swinemoor Primary School, giving prospective families an immersive experience of the school before they ever visit.
For parents researching primary schools in Beverley and the East Riding, the ability to walk through the school virtually — to see the classrooms, the outdoor spaces, the hall, the corridors — makes an immediate and lasting impression. It’s one of the most effective tools a primary school can have during open day season and admissions periods.
Curriculum vocabulary films — learning on screen
Swinemoor’s pupils don’t just learn vocabulary — they film it. Digital Schools integrated curriculum vocabulary films directly into the website, creating a rich, searchable resource that brings learning to life and gives parents a genuine window into classroom practice.
The vocabulary films are a natural extension of the News Channel ethos — pupils as creators, not just consumers. Young people developing media skills, building confidence, and producing content that has genuine educational value for their peers.
Twelve years and counting
Since January 2013 Digital Schools has supported Swinemoor through multiple website iterations, platform developments, staff training sessions, and ongoing compliance monitoring. As a maintained primary school in the East Riding, Swinemoor operates within a local authority framework — and Digital Schools understands exactly what that means in terms of governance, admissions, and statutory requirements.
The school’s contacts have changed over twelve years. Staff have come and gone. Leadership has evolved. The website has been redesigned and rebuilt more than once. But the partnership has continued — because the commitment on both sides has never wavered.
Headteacher testimonial from the Swinemoor audit report:
“Digital Schools has been our trusted digital partner since 2013. The Swinemoor News Channel alone has transformed how our pupils engage with technology, media, and their own school community. The ongoing support, the photography, the compliance monitoring — it all adds up to something that genuinely makes a difference to our school every single week.”
What the Swinemoor partnership represents
Swinemoor Primary School is the clearest expression of what Digital Schools is really about. Not a one-off website build. Not a template dropped and forgotten. A sustained, evolving, genuinely collaborative partnership — built on trust, shared ambition, and a belief that a school website can be a living, breathing part of a school’s culture rather than a static compliance checklist.
Projects like Swinemoor Primary demonstrated how the original Digital Schools ethos — authentic storytelling, strong visuals and community voice — could transform the way schools presented themselves online.
Twelve years. One partnership. Still going.
That’s the Digital Schools difference.
