How to organise school notes
You want to know how to organise school notes. Rest assured it is not as hard as it seems this article will teach you how.
If you searched up how to organise school notes you are either a parent or student.
The first part of this page helps parents organise school notes, the second part dives into organising school notes as a student.
School notes - organising for parents
Learning how to organise school notes is not as hard as it seems. Yes, there are a lot of school notes, especially if you have children going to different schools. Some schools might argue that they have a seamless system (for them) but as a parent, it becomes a nightmare to check which email, website, and school app to keep track of.
When I was a young mum in the early days of pre-school I got two pieces of advice from other mothers:
If we all agree not to iron our kid’s clothes they will all look the same – (yes please, I have never looked back).
And have a 24 hour turn-around on school notes if possible.
Before we know how to organise school notes, we need to be aware of the different types of notes.
In general, they are:
Sign offs
Pay now
Date notes
Information / Newsletter
Parent and Child notes
Sign offs
From the time your child starts school prompt your child at the end of the day “do you have any notes?” They hand over "given note", you sign it and give it back immediately – put it in a specific notes section in their bag, and you are done. The day the teacher asks your child for the note, they will be one of the few with a signed note. It cost you 30 seconds and after a while, your child will likely be “the one” with signed notes. It becomes positive reinforcement you didn’t even have to you yourself.
Sign-offs also come via the online portal nowadays when you do your emails this is probably 120 seconds more work than you want it to be, but simply follow the prompts login and sign off when you work your way through your emails (I hope you batch emails but I digress). This quick system prevents these small things from becoming clutter in your mind and inbox.
Pay Now
School gives dozens of little “pay now notes” try and deal with this ASAP so it is off your plate. And get it off your to-do list.
For cash – have a small pile of coins and notes ready for the year so when your kid needs $2,- dollars or $5,- cash you have it ready to go.
Pay online – you can either pay via an online portal, realistically taking you 5 precious minutes but if you do it whilst pacing through email this should be okay. Also, every time you do this, it becomes faster.
Pay on the app – nearing the end of primary my kid’s school had an app for special lunches and small donations. It requires you to set the app up. Might be a little task you rather skip, however, once it is set up it tends to work very fast.
Date notes
These are notes that you need to remember. Preventing you and your child are not the only ones going to school on a pupil-free day (yes I have done this). Or you forget to drop your child off at the swimming carnival. These notes need to go in your calendar system. This will allow getting reminders when you do your weekly planning. During your planning, you can steer the ship in terms of pick-ups and drop-offs for that day.
If you want to be super organised. Maybe have a look at the school calendar for the year and place key dates in your calendar at the beginning of the year.
Information/newsletters
The school needs to communicate with you. The first few years you might love this. Come to the end of primary, I was speed-reading through the 3 pages of school prayers, looking at the key photos and dates. A 3-minute read was all I needed to get a good sense of the message. The fact that the school thought it was a great idea to send an A4 newsletter via phone app didn’t help all I could do was quickly read the general gist.
Parent and child notes
There is a difference between "parent" and "child"-notes. When children get to higher primary you can start giving them some responsibility through the use of a calendar. Let them write down their next assignment and their swimming carnival or that it is crazy sock day. Clearly, you will also have this in your calendar to “shadow” them but they are starting to become responsible for their own schedules and events.
In the final years of primary, my kids were well-established with their budgets. If they had to buy snacks for a movie day or a homework project at school it would become their expense. This gave them some sense of autonomy and responsibility. My thinking is that it will become easier to phase yourself outcome high school if they are used to doing some of these things early on.
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How to organise school notes for students
With school notes, I mean not the notes you and your parent need to sign. I mean the homework notes, worksheets, etc.
Every day after school I suggest you enter into this simple organising school note routine:
Empty your bag and find the notes you have gotten at school that day
Determine if there is still work to do
If yes, when and where will you do this work (if it is fresh in your mind it is easier to decide
If no, place them in their right full spot (the subject it belongs to)
Do your homework (for the specific duration and time you allocate to doing this)
Pack your bag for tomorrow
Pick something fun to do / eat
This is a full habit/routine / reward cycle. It includes all the aspects you need to cover to not fall behind. Some of the steps above are self-explanatory the others I’ll dive a bit deeper into.
Step 2 and. Action those notes / do your homework
If you want to be an organised student you need a spot for your stuff, a calendar, and a day plan.
A spot (home) for your stuff.
Find out if you like folders or simple plastic sleeves (even drawers). It doesn't matter what you use but you need to create a home for each subject you have.
When I studied at University I had a drawer for each subject. For High School, my daughter has a stand with a colored folder for each subject. The color means that you won’t mistake maths for science and vice-versa, each subject is separate.
Make this “home” super easy to place the new notes in. For this reason, I won’t have a ring-bound folder this is several steps too much work for me. I simply won’t place the notes in their homes and it becomes messy.
Calendar
You need at a minimum a calendar showing your whole term or semester. This allows you to write down when you have an assignment due so you can plan your time in advance (rather than realise the day before). Keep this calendar on the wall. Have easy access so you can add or cross through the different study miles stones on your path.
A day plan
On a micro level I suggest you have a simple homework time and place. After doing this for several days your mind will associate this time and place with doing some study.
You:
Do the work outstanding for that day or work ahead on the first upcoming assignment.
Decide on the day or plan your week out on Friday or Sunday beforehand.
Pick what time is the best time for you to study the aim is to work consistently a little bit rather than inconsistently a lot and throw your whole week or day out.
Step 4 wrap up and pack that bag
Once you filled your notes, have completed your homework for the day. All you have to do now is set yourself up for success tomorrow. Check your schedule and place the right subjects in your bag. Maybe you only want to take the relevant notes for each subject with you. As long as you have a system at home you can decide.
Step 5 reward
The reason why people have positive habits is that it gives them a positive feeling. A great way to create this feeling and anticipation of it is by doing the stuff you don’t want to do e.g. homework, filling your school notes. And either reward yourself straight after or during. When I think about doing my deep work. I associate it with a warm drink, a quiet spot, and a feeling of making progress on a longer goal. This is the reason I keep on doing it, the activity is linked to something positive. You can also have the reward after your homework. After a while, you have conditioned your mind in such a way. That it knows that once you have done x chore. You will get to do something fun, like play your favorite game for 30 minutes, have a snack, or play some basketball.
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How to organise school notes – wrap up
I have broken down school notes into two sections parents and school notes and students and school notes.
Parents
For parents there are five categories; sign-offs, pay now’s, date notes, newsletters, and parent/child notes. These things can be done quickly if you have other systems in place like your calendar and finances. They can also fall under simple routines specifying when, where and how you sign off on these things. It isn’t difficult but it also isn’t simple, due to the volume and the multitude of directions that school notes come to you. As with anything else, you get used to this. Whilst writing this page, I have just finished the primary school chapter in my kid’s life. My view is organising school notes need to be quick, clear and pragmatic.
Students
For students, I suggested a habit routine formation including school notes, homework, and setting yourself up for success tomorrow and all tomorrow’s to come. These steps can be:
Empty your bag
Find the notes you have gotten at school that day
Is there still work to do?
Do your homework
Pack your bag for tomorrow
And pick something fun to do
I write this as an “experienced mum” with two High Schoolers having studied myself most of my life. If you are new to any of these experiments. Spend some time finding out what is in the notes how they arrive and what works best for you.
You now know how to organise school notes – good luck tackling this organising habit. Let me know how you go.
