Our Lady of Lourdes

Redeveloped custom WordPress theme for Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy

After working with Matthew Setchell on St Bede’s Catholic Middle School WordPress website and the bespoke WordPress theme for Church Hill Middle School it was only natural that he should choose me to redevelop the WordPress theme for Our Lady of Lourdes Multi-Academy website.

Tasked with taking the existing theme and moving it away from an overly-complex proprietary page-based shortcode system, I rebuilt the website theme using my own WordPress base theme framework, working in the existing design elements. Once re-built, we optimised the theme for speed and responsivity so that it works across multiple devices and browsers.

IT Manager, Matthew, was as complimentary as ever:

https://twitter.com/LourdesSupport/status/920729950164054021

The new theme is easier to edit for WordPress users of all skill levels and is measurably faster too, scoring more than double on Google’s independent PageSpeed Insights tool.

Why hire Jem for your WordPress project?

  • 5 5

    We needed a quick refresh of our website, which is heavily used by prospective and existing parents, staff and pupils. We needed to make sure that our site was flexible to appeal to all our end users and showcased our school. Working with Jem, I was able to quickly turn my thoughts into a brief, and then into a final product.

    Jem clearly knows what she is doing with WordPress, and her work showcases her considerable knowledge and no nonsense approach. I intend to use her again, when required, and would recommend her to others looking for a developer who knows WordPress inside out.

  • 5 5

    Jem developed our new website on time and to budget. She worked through the detail excellently and we got a superb end product that was optimised for web and mobile. We were highly impressed by her approach and knowledge. I would thoroughly recommend her to anyone wanting to embark on such a project.

  • 5 5

    We commissioned Jem to create a new school website. We wanted a website which was well ordered, accessible with a simple design and, most importantly, easy to update by various, non technical members of staff.

    Jem provided us with really useful design ideas which helped us give her an idea of what we wanted. Jem very quickly produced a new website, which looks very impressive. Jem then provided an excellent training session which enabled us to add our own pages and menus. Throughout the whole process Jem has been quick in answering our many questions and her suggestions have always been very helpful.

    We have found Jem to be extremely professional, helpful and supportive and we would thoroughly recommend Jem to any school looking for a new website.

  • 5 5

    We wanted to update our old website, Jem came highly recommended and I can see why. She had lots of great ideas and design skills, nothing was too much trouble, with very prompt replies to our emails. The end result blew me away, and I would recommend her web design services to anyone. 100% total satisfaction.

Why I love working with WordPress

I've been using WordPress since the heady days of version 1.0 and developing WordPress websites commercially since version 1.5 (released in 2005!)