I can always tell when the schools are back in full swing - my email basket is full of great news stories. And there have been some great things to talk about recently when it comes to education. But not all is worth talking about in the world of educational web sites. As I looked around at school and college websites, a winner did not really jump out. Mixed reviews I am afraid.

One exciting multi-media educational initiative was the Kendal Youth Radio project online at www.kyr.org.uk, CLEO's website for youth, and Kendal College's new journalism programme. The site is a work in progress but showed commitment, targeted messages to the audience, and provided the key information - where it was being broadcast - at the top of the page. These criteria could not be checked off for all the sites visited.

Kendal College is at www.kendal.ac.uk and has a very basic site. Some depth and improved viewer-friendly search capabilities would be helpful. It is full of email links to staff and departments. The home page features three main links - The College, Courses and Contact Us. There are lots of links beneath the surface, and it would be easier if more was available at the top level. Kendal College played a pivotal role in the KYR project students, facilities, hosting the media panel and there didn't appear to be a mention or link to it on their site. A little revising and this site could get top grades.

Lancaster University www.lancaster.ac.uk - has a comprehensive site with a strong home page linking you into all the other sections. However, it has looked the same for quite some time. Some departments have their own site, which can lead to some confusion in navigation. A more current design and colour scheme red is not the best colour to draw one in would go a long way. However, it does offer a virtual tour, online registration and payment options. A great start, but room for improvement.

St Martin's College at http://www.stmartins.ac.uk/, although simple in design, offered some nice images, was well structured and had a current news section, with links to stories. You could search browse by section or search by category, covering all the bases. They also have an environment section where they answer the question How green are we?'. This site is keeping up with the times. Well done.

Furness College, in Barrow, www.furness.ac.uk, had the most appealing home page but took a bit of surfing to get around it. The site is a new design, and offers full graphics, text only or screen reader versions (links in top right hand corner of home page), which is definitely keeping viewers' needs in mind. There were a couple of dead end links, but overall the site excels. Very good.

Higher education could certainly learn from primary and secondary school websites. Take Stavely CE Primary School's website at http://www.staveley.cumbria.sch.uk. You are welcomed on the home page by a view of the school painted by a Year 6 student - in fact, students' works are all over the site (including videos soon). Their section on Settling In, and being the new kid on the block, is fantastic with a great image, testimonials and empathetic text. Go to the front of the class.

But they are not alone, many of the primary, secondary and comprehensive school web sites were strong on visuals, content, interactivity, student participation, structure and links. Perhaps this reflects the younger generation's comfort zone with technology (and I am referring to the teaching staff who often take the web site responsibility on not just the students).

Perhaps the institutes of higher learning could find some funding to let their students get involved with making their sites more current. There could be some great things going on with the sites, behind closed doors, but for the most part, only a few of them opened the door for me.

Visit our Education section online for stories, links and ideas.

Our School Directory section is on the to do' list for updating. Please check and see if you are there, and if it needs updating, please send the information to the Web Editor kate.whiteside@kendal.newsquest.co.uk ..