Statutory information
Accessibility statement.
Swiss Gardens Primary School is committed to making this website accessible to as many people as possible — including parents and carers using assistive technology. This statement explains how accessible the site is, where we know it falls short, and how to ask us to do better.
Using this website
What we've built in.
This website is run by Swiss Gardens Primary School. We want it to be usable by everyone — including people with sight loss, low vision, hearing impairments, motor difficulties, learning difficulties, and people whose first language isn't English.
We've designed and built the site so that you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts using your browser or device settings
- use every page on a phone without scrolling sideways
- move through each page with a keyboard, starting with a “Skip to main content” link
- see where you are when you use a keyboard, because links and buttons show a clear outline when selected
We haven't yet checked how well the site works when zoomed to 300% or more, with a screen reader, or with speech-recognition software. Those checks are planned (see How we put this statement together).
We've also tried to make the website text as simple to understand as possible: short sentences, plain English, no jargon. AbilityNet's My Computer My Way has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
Where it falls short.
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- some videos don't have captions yet
- one video has no sound and no text version of its slides yet
- many of our policy documents are PDFs that don't work well with screen readers
- some links open in a new tab without telling you first
There's more detail under Non-accessible content, and what we're doing about it under Our plan.
Feedback and contact
Tell us if you can't access something.
If you need information on this website in a different format — for example, a large-print version, an easy-read version, an audio recording, or braille — please contact the school office.
Get in touch
Email: office@sgprimary.co.uk
Phone: 01273 453176
By post: Swiss Gardens Primary School, Swiss Gardens, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex BN43 5WH
We'll consider your request and reply within five school days.
Reporting accessibility problems
We're always looking to improve. If you find any problems that aren't listed on this page, or you think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, please let us know using the contact details above.
Enforcement procedure
If you're not happy with our response.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the "accessibility regulations"). If you're not happy with how we respond to your complaint, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Technical information
Compliance status.
Standard we're aiming for
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2, level AA
This is the standard required by the accessibility regulations for public sector bodies in the UK.
Current status
Partially compliant
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, because of the non-compliances listed below.
Non-accessible content
Where we're not yet meeting the standard.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
- Videos without captions. These videos have speech or singing but no captions yet: the tour of Swiss Gardens and the “Starting with us” welcome on the homepage (the welcome is also on the Starting school page), the two hellos from our Reception teachers on the Starting school page, and the Stage 1 song on the Reception page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions, pre-recorded). We're preparing captions now and aim to add them by the end of November 2026.
- History video. The local-history video on the History page is hosted on YouTube and relies on YouTube's automatic captions, which can contain mistakes. This may fail WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2. We plan to add a corrected transcript.
- Policy PDFs. There are 58 PDFs in our policy library. Many of them have no document title, no language set, or a heading structure that screen readers can't follow, and a few carry the wrong title. This may fail WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and relationships), 2.4.2 (Page titled) and 3.1.1 (Language of page). The school is re-saving each policy as an accessible PDF when it is next reviewed.
- PE and Sport Premium PDFs. The five Sport Premium reports on the Key info page are untagged PDFs, so a screen reader gets their text with no structure. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1. We plan to publish these figures as a web page or as accessible PDFs.
Other things we're improving
- Links that open in a new tab. Most links to other websites, and many links to PDFs, open in a new tab without warning you first. This isn't a failure of WCAG 2.2 AA, but it can be confusing, so we plan to add a warning to these links.
Disproportionate burden
At present we are not claiming any exemption on disproportionate-burden grounds.
Content not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
- PDFs and Word documents published before 23 September 2018 are exempt from the regulations if they aren't essential to providing our services. We may still update older documents on request — see Feedback and contact above.
- Live video is exempt from meeting accessibility regulations. We do not currently broadcast live video on this website.
- Third-party content that is neither funded nor developed by the school, and not under our control — for example, comments on embedded YouTube videos — is exempt.
The background video at the top of the homepage is decorative. It has no speech, and the welcome it sits behind is written out in the heading and text above it, so it doesn't need captions. Screen readers skip it.
What we're doing to improve accessibility
Our plan.
Since our first review in May 2026 we have:
- added a skip-to-content link on every page so keyboard users can bypass the repeated header and navigation (WCAG 2.4.1)
- added a clearly visible focus indicator to every link, button and interactive element across the site (WCAG 2.4.7)
- enlarged the touch target around the homepage and video-band carousel dots (WCAG 2.5.8)
- stopped the homepage background video from playing for visitors who have asked their device to reduce motion
- corrected the heading structure on the Contact us page (WCAG 1.3.1)
- added full descriptive alt text to the historic pictures on the History page (WCAG 1.1.1)
- made the YouTube videos load only when you press play
Next, we will:
- add captions to the five videos listed above, aiming for the end of November 2026
- add a corrected transcript for the History page video
- re-save each policy as an accessible PDF (with a title, the document language and proper headings) as it comes up for review
- republish the PE and Sport Premium figures in an accessible form
- warn you when a link opens in a new tab
- carry out the extra checks listed below, and consider an independent accessibility audit
This work is led by the website project lead with the school office and senior leadership team, reporting to the governing board.
Preparation of this statement
How we put this statement together.
This statement was prepared on 3 May 2026 and last reviewed on 20 October 2026. The website was published on 20 October 2026.
This website was last tested on 20 October 2026. The test was carried out by the website project lead. We tested all 38 pages using:
- axe-core, an automated checker, against WCAG 2.2 AA, on a desktop-sized screen and a phone-sized screen
- manual checks of videos and captions, images and alt text, headings, link text, page titles and language, embedded content, and the skip link (tested with the Tab and Enter keys)
- a check that no page scrolls sideways on a phone
- a check of the structure, title and language of the PDFs in our policy library
Still to do:
- screen-reader checks using VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone, and NVDA on Windows
- zoom checks at 200% and 400%, and a reflow check at 320 pixels wide
- a check with speech-recognition software
We'll review this statement again by 20 October 2027 at the latest, and sooner when the fixes above are in place.
Cookies on this site
What we set, and what we don't.
The Swiss Gardens website doesn't set any cookies of its own, and there's no tracking or advertising.
- Visitor numbers. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits. It sets no cookies and doesn't build a profile of you. We only see totals, such as how many times each page was viewed.
- Google Maps on the Contact us page only loads after you press “Show map”. Google may set cookies once the map loads. We remember your choice in your browser's local storage so we don't ask twice.
- YouTube videos on the History and Reception pages only load after you press play. They use YouTube's privacy-enhanced service (youtube-nocookie.com). On the Reception page the preview pictures come from YouTube's image server, so your browser contacts YouTube to show them, but no cookies are set.
There are no other cookies. If you close a notice at the top of the site, we remember that in your browser's local storage so it doesn't come back.
You can clear cookies and local storage at any time in your browser settings.
Tell us if something on this site doesn't work for you.
Whether it's a PDF you can't read, a colour you can't see, or a page you can't navigate — we want to know. The office will reply within five school days.