St Elias College: Web Design & Development Case Study

St Elias College is a Carmelite church school in Malta, part of the Carmelites’ long tradition of education on the island. M7Alpha designed and built the college’s website, written in Maltese, and hosts and maintains it. The site gives parents, students and the wider school community one place to read about the college’s mission, history, pastoral life, facilities and activities.

What does building a school website in Maltese involve?

It means designing every menu, heading and button around the Maltese language, from Dwarna (About us) to Ikkuntattjana (Contact us). Maltese menu labels can be long, and the language uses letters such as ċ, ġ, għ, ħ and ż, so the navigation, headings and page layouts have to display them cleanly on desktop and mobile alike.

Presenting the site in Maltese also sets the tone. It reads as a school speaking to its own community, warm and familiar, rather than as a brochure, which suits a college whose homepage describes itself as a small school with a big heart.

How is the Dwarna section organised?

All the background a parent might look for sits under one menu, Dwarna, with a short page for each topic.

Page	In English	What it covers
Storja	History	A timeline of the college, from its beginnings at the Carmelite convent in Valletta to its present name.
Il-Profeta Elija	The Prophet Elijah	The college’s patron and what he means to the Carmelites.
Amministrazzjoni	Administration	The school’s leadership and staff.
Il-Kura Pastorali	Pastoral care	Christian formation within the timetable, regular Mass and the after-school Connect group.
Suġġetti Mgħallma fl-Iskola	Subjects taught	The subjects on the curriculum.
Faċilitajiet	Facilities	Air-conditioned classrooms with interactive smart panels and other learning spaces.
Proġetti, Il-Kunsill tal-Istudenti, EkoSkola	Projects, Student Council, Eco-Schools	The work students do beyond the classroom.
Riżorsi ta’ Informazzjoni	Information resources	Yearbooks and other reference material.

Giving each topic its own page keeps pages short and easy to scan. It also makes each one easier to find, both for families browsing the site and for search engines and AI assistants answering questions about the school.

How does the homepage share the school’s values?

The homepage opens with the Carmelites’ educational work in Malta and the college’s mission statement, which describes a learning community where academic success and faith go hand in hand and every student is helped to grow as a whole person.

Below it, a section introducing the college as a school of vision and values sums up what it offers in four short points:

Values: a complete education rooted in the values of Jesus and the Gospel.
Facilities: air-conditioned classrooms with interactive smart panels, laboratories, a chapel, a library and other spaces.
Formation: weekly sessions on human and Christian life, and the Connect group after school hours.
Community: a small school with a big heart and a range of different activities.

Upcoming activities and a facilities section follow. Every page then closes with an invitation to find out more about the college, quick links to the main areas of the site and links to its social media.

Where does school life appear on the site?

School life has its own spaces: a Media section in the main menu, the Projects, Student Council and EkoSkola pages, and the information resources area where yearbooks are kept. Together they show the college as a community with plenty happening beyond lessons, which is often what parents look for when choosing a school.

Sharing school life online also means handling photos and names of students with care. A clear structure, with an obvious home for each kind of update, makes it easier for the school to decide what to publish and where, and to keep the site current through the year.

What should schools think about before planning a new website?

Start with your community and the information they ask for most, then build the structure around it.

Decide the main language, or languages, early, because it shapes menus and layouts.
Group background pages, such as history, ethos, administration and pastoral care, under one clear menu.
State the school’s values and facilities plainly on the homepage.
Give school life a regular home, such as a media section, so it is easy to keep up to date.
Agree how student photos and names will be handled before the site goes live.
Plan for hosting and maintenance so the site stays secure and working through every school year.

How M7Alpha helps schools and educational institutions

M7Alpha works with schools and education providers in Malta, including Newark School, Oxford House and STC Higher Education, with design, development and hosting all handled by our in-house team. See our web design and development service, read how long it takes to build a website, or contact us about your school’s website.

Frequently asked questions

Who designed the St Elias College website?

M7Alpha Creative Studios, a web design, development and branding agency in Żurrieq, Malta, designed and built the St Elias College website. M7Alpha also hosts and maintains the site.

Is the St Elias College website in English or Maltese?

The website is written in Maltese. Its menus, headings and pages, from Dwarna (About us) to Ikkuntattjana (Contact us), are all in Maltese, so the design was built to handle Maltese words and characters on every device.

What should a school website include?

An about section covering the school’s history, ethos and leadership, the subjects taught, facilities, pastoral care and school life, plus clear contact details. Each topic works best on its own short page, grouped under a simple menu.

How should a school handle student photos on its website?

Follow the school’s own policy and data protection rules, which usually means having consent before publishing photos of students and taking care with names. Agreeing this before launch makes it much easier to keep news and media sections up to date.