The verdict in three sentences
For an independent school in St Peter Port, St Martin or the Castel, the public website is only the shop window of a set of tools: admissions portal, fee payment, school management system, parent app, calendar feeds. A Guernsey agency often charges £8,000 to £25,000 for a redesign in 2026, while Kolonell offers £2,300 (Starter), £3,900 (Growth) or £6,900 (Premium), delivered in 3 to 4 weeks once content is ready. Those tools stay in place, as separate lines on quote: the redesign must re-link them cleanly, not rebuild them.
Which tools does your current site already connect to?
Before any mock-up, take an inventory. A typical grid:
| Existing tool | Role on the site | Action during the redesign | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admissions portal | applications and documents | link or button to the portal, address unchanged | kept, connection on quote |
| Fee payment | online payment for enrolled families | link from the parent area, never payment inside the public site | kept, on quote |
| School management system (MIS) | pupil data, attendance | no pupil data on the public site | kept, off site |
| Parent app | messages, permissions | links to the app stores and a help page | kept, on quote |
| Calendar feeds | term dates, events | feed embed or link, time zone tested | kept, on quote |
| Visit request form | booking a visit | rebuilt in the new site, minimum data | included in the tier |
This grid then becomes the test plan before go-live.
What budget should you plan in Guernsey in 2026?
2026 ballpark, based on typical quotes and public rate pages of island and UK agencies:
| Option | Indicative price | How integrations are handled | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guernsey agency | £8,000 to £25,000 | often rebuilt or rehosted | 3 to 5 months |
| Mainland UK agency | £7,000 to £20,000 | varies with school experience | 2 to 4 months |
| Specialist school platform | £4,000 to £10,000 + yearly licence | in-house connectors, sometimes mandatory | 2 to 3 months |
| Freelancer | £2,500 to £7,000 | simple links, little testing | 1 to 3 months |
| Kolonell Starter | £2,300 | links to existing tools | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Kolonell Growth | £3,900 | links and access pages, connections on quote | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Kolonell Premium | £6,900 | same, the multilingual tier, languages set in the quote | 3 to 4 weeks |
All tiers include a project manager reachable in your time zone, native English or French copywriting and 3 months of support. See the international offer.
How do you re-link the tools without breaking anything?
- Freeze the addresses: the portal and the payment tool keep their current address; only the links on the site change.
- Find every outbound link on the old site, including inside PDFs and template emails sent to families.
- Test every journey in staging: visit request, portal access, payment, app download, calendar subscription.
- Check the cookie banner: analytics tags and admissions portal tags must only fire after consent if they are not essential.
- Warn the tool vendors a few days before the cutover, especially if a domain or subdomain is involved.
- Keep the old hosting for 30 days and monitor Search Console for 6 weeks, with a 301 redirect map for admissions, curriculum, open days, transport and term dates pages.
Which other risks should you watch?
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- Children's data: the public form asks for no health, SEN, school report, passport or custody data; documents go through the secure admissions portal. The framework is the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2017 and the Office of the Data Protection Authority. This is not legal advice.
- Pedagogy: describe the Montessori or alternative approach as the school actually practises it, with no affiliation or accreditation it does not hold.
- Official documents: policies and safeguarding pages published as the school's own documents.
- Photos: documented parental consent and removal on request.
- Timing: cutover outside the admissions period and open days, ideally during the summer holidays.
Ask the provider: who writes the test plan? Who contacts the tool vendors? What happens if a connection fails on launch day?
When is an island agency a better fit?
If you want to replace several tools with a single platform, with data migration and on-site training, a local agency or a specialist vendor is often better placed.
Mini case study
Illustrative example: Cobo Lane Montessori School, a school of about 150 children. It uses five tools (portal, payment, parent app, calendar, management system) linked to an old site.
- Journeys to test: 5 tools x 3 scenarios (desktop, mobile, new family) = 15 tests before cutover
- Kolonell Growth: £3,900
- Local photographer (third-party cost, consents up to date): £450
- Tool connections: separate line on quote
- Base before connections: £4,350, against an agency quote of £12,000 that planned to rebuild the enrolment module, a £7,650 gap before connections
FAQ
Should we change admissions portal during the redesign? No, unless there is a strong reason. Keeping the tool and its address lowers the risk; the connection is a line on quote and is tested across 15 to 20 scenarios.
Can fee payment be built into the site? It stays in the existing tool, reached by a link. No payment goes through the public site at £2,300 or £3,900.
How long does testing take? Allow 2 to 3 days for 15 journeys, in the week before go-live.
What if a link breaks after the cutover? The 3 months of included support cover fixing the site's links; 6 weeks of Search Console monitoring helps catch 404 errors.
Let's scope your project. Send us the list of your tools and your calendar, and we will price a tier between £2,300 and £6,900 plus the connections on quote. See the international offer or request a free quote: detailed reply within 48 hours.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
