School pupils to update council website

The council website is not as simple to navigate as it could be, especially with things that change all the time such as the Mayor's Forward Plan.

If you are not IT literate and don't have the time or patience to search it and then maybe have to email the website team to ask where the link you need is, you may soon give up and not find what you need.

Invite schools with pupils on IT courses to come into City Hall to 'meet the Geeks' and take charge of updating allocated pages of the council website, making sure the links work, designing better ways to keep items updated and better links to them.

Individual schools would then have responsibility for updating their own page of the website remotely.

Of course their ideas and work would need to be checked for accuracy and legality, but this can be done remotely– and their teachers would have written guidance and regular email advice from the council officers.

Each school could have their logo on 'their' web page and links to what else that schools IT class is doing.

There could be an award for the most imaginative improvement to the website, the most eye catching design and so on.

Freeing up council officers from the more menial tasks on the website for other duties;

Increasing the IT skills of Bristol children, giving them hands- on experience of a major organisations website, and also an understanding of the legalities around publishing;

Utilising the talents of Bristol's IT-savvy youngsters, and contributing towards their school CV, giving them real experience that future employers will want from them.