UK schools get .sch.uk domain

The .uk domain name registry claims the “School Names on the Net” initiative is the first of its kind in the world.

By standardising the schools domain name format to schoolname.location.sch.uk, parents and pupils can easily find and identify a school website from the over 30,000 standard curriculum primary and secondary schools that exist across the UK.

In Scotland the project was further extended to include pre-schools and in Wales some establishments requested local language domain names alongside the English version.

Although many schools in different areas share the same or similar names, Nominet says that this domain name structure ensures every school is guaranteed a domain name regardless of the level of their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources.

Juliette Stone, Nominet registrant services manager and the project
co-ordinator for "School Names on the Net" said: "When we embarked on the project in 1999, there were very few .sch domain names in existence and assigning names to 30,000 schools seemed an enormous challenge.

“We have received tremendous support from the schools, many of which
will use this as a stepping stone to build their presence on the web, as well as to encourage children and parents to get online," Stone added.

The "School Names on the Net" project is a key element of the Government's National Grid for Learning programme.

It was carried out in association with the British Educational Communications and Technology agency (BECTa) on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED), the Welsh Assembly Education Department and the local education authorities of England, Scotland and Wales.