The short answer
Yes, with written parental consent for each child and a clear purpose. Many nurseries avoid faces entirely and show hands, activities, rooms and resources, which is safer and still feels real.
See our nursery website design work, or tell us what you need.
Consent first
Use a specific consent form covering website and social media separately, and let parents withdraw consent.
Faces are optional
Close-ups of messy play, rooms and garden spaces show your setting without identifying children.
Never name children
No names, no school uniforms with logos, no location tags on live posts.
Make withdrawal workable, not just a sentence
Document where each approved photograph is used so a withdrawal request can be handled across the website and social channels. Record the purpose of the permission and keep it separate from permission for unrelated uses. Check whether a child is identifiable through context even when the face is not shown. A room photograph may include named work, personal belongings or a noticeboard, so review the whole frame. Confirm the lawful basis and privacy information with the person responsible for data protection. Use genuine setting images where appropriate, but do not suggest that a general guide replaces your safeguarding policy or legal advice.
For this topic, prepare a short written brief using your own business information. Start with the advice on make withdrawal workable, not just a sentence, then identify who can approve each detail and what needs checking before publication. Ask someone outside the business to read it and explain the next step back to you. Keep a copy of the agreed wording so future updates remain consistent with the service you actually provide.
Plan the information before choosing a layout
Start by collecting the information a first-time visitor needs to make a decision. List the essential pages, the questions people ask and the action each page should support. Use your own business details, real photographs and current policies. Separate information that rarely changes from details that need regular updates, such as fees or availability. This makes the brief clearer and reduces the risk of paying for pages nobody maintains. Ask a colleague to read the draft without explanation: if the next step is unclear, improve the wording before spending time on decorative details.
Test the complete journey on a phone
Open the site on a small phone with no saved session and follow the journey from the first page to the final request. Check the menu, contact choices, form errors and confirmation. Make sure a sticky control or cookie notice does not cover the submit button. Test every external booking link and confirm the correct location is selected. A form is only useful if the message is saved and reaches the person responsible for replying. Keep the number of required questions proportionate and explain what happens next. Do not judge the experience only from a large desktop screen.
Agree ownership and maintenance
Keep the domain and essential accounts under the business’s control. Agree who can change content, how support requests are handled and what the ongoing charges cover. Ask for a handover that includes the tasks you will actually perform, not just a list of passwords. Set a routine for checking contact details, broken links and outdated prices. Search performance depends on several factors and cannot be promised by a launch checklist. Focus first on an accurate, usable site, then review real enquiries to decide what needs improving. Keep measurement subject to the visitor’s cookie choices.
Keep the parent journey and records proportionate
Nursery communications should help families understand the setting and arrange a visit without collecting unnecessary information. Use age bands rather than child names or dates of birth in an initial website enquiry. Funding wording should link to current official eligibility information and distinguish eligibility from availability at the nursery. Keep enquiry follow up separate from ongoing promotional messages. Manager approval is useful when an email refers to availability or next steps that can change. Leo Digital’s visit system is already running at two London nurseries; it brings enquiries, stages and open days into a private admin panel. That is a specific deployed system, not a promise that every website includes the same scope.