School and family
Notes to school, and the sheets that keep a household running. 8 templates, all free to fill in and print.
These are the small documents that keep a household and a school year running. A note explaining an absence, a permission slip that answers the questions parents would otherwise phone about, a reading log a teacher can sign. The household ones — chores, meals, the week ahead — work because they are on paper where everyone can see them rather than in one person's head. None of them is complicated. The value is that they exist before you need them, rather than being written at seven in the morning.
Household paperwork is small, repetitive and easy to leave to memory, which is why it fails on the mornings that matter. Schools need notes with dates and signatures, trips need permission before a deadline that is earlier than you think, and the person looking after your children needs information you have never had to write down because you have always been there. Most of these documents take ten minutes once and then work for a year. The commonest mistake is treating them as school bureaucracy rather than as records: an absence note and a permission slip are both things a school has to keep, and a missing one is a phone call to you at nine in the morning.
Notes and slips the school keeps
A school absence note needs the child's full name and class, the dates covered, the reason in general terms, and a parent or carer signature, and it usually needs to arrive the day the child returns, not the following week. Schools record attendance for statutory reasons and the categories they must use are set by the local education authority, so a clear reason helps them code it correctly. A field trip permission slip is a consent document with a deadline: sign it, name any medical or dietary information the school needs, give a contact number that will be answered on the day, and return it early. Photograph anything you sign before it disappears into a bag. Slips go missing between the kitchen table and the classroom more often than anywhere else.
Reading logs and study planners
A reading log is a record, not a test. Date, title, minutes or pages, and a line about what happened in the story if the school asks for one. Keep it beside the books, and fill it in at the time, because reconstructed logs are obvious and pointless. A study planner works differently. It turns a term into weeks and a subject into sessions, working backwards from exam or assignment dates. Blocking out the sessions is the part that helps; a list of topics without times is a wish. For older children, let them fill it in themselves and keep it visible, so the conversation becomes about the plan on the wall rather than about whether they have done any work.
Running the house on paper
A chore chart works when the tasks are specific, the frequency is stated and the same person is not silently doing the invisible ones. Write down what the job involves, since taking the bin out means the bin, the bag and a new liner, and rotate anything nobody wants. A weekly meal plan saves more money and argument than almost any other single sheet, because it converts seven decisions made at six in the evening into one made on Sunday with a shopping list attached. Plan around what is in the cupboard, leave one night blank for the week going wrong, and keep the plan somewhere everybody can see. Neither of these documents works because it is clever. They work because they move a decision from a bad moment to a good one.
Leaving children with someone else
Babysitter instructions should be written for someone who has never been in your house. Emergency numbers first: your mobile, a second adult, the doctor, the emergency services number for your country, and the address written out, because someone under stress cannot always recall it. Then allergies and medication with doses and times, bedtime routine, what the children may eat and watch, house rules, how the door and alarm work, and where the first aid kit is. Add anything about behaviour that would be useful and hard to ask about. If a child takes medicine at school, make sure the school's version of that information is current too. A volunteer hours log, if you help at the school, keeps the record many programmes ask for at year end.
The order to do it in
- Put term dates, trip deadlines and payment dates in one shared calendar as they arrive.
- Sign and return permission slips the day they come home, photographing each one first.
- Send an absence note with dates and a reason on the day the child returns.
- Write one babysitter sheet with emergency numbers, the address, allergies and routines, and update it termly.
- Plan the week's meals and chores on one visible sheet, then shop from that list.
Common questions
What should a note to school for absence say?
The child's full name and class, the exact dates of absence, a short general reason such as illness or a medical appointment, and your signature with the date. Schools code attendance under rules set by the local education authority, so a clear reason helps them record it correctly. Send it on the day the child returns. If the absence was for an appointment, keep the card or letter in case the school asks.
How far ahead do schools need permission slips?
Usually earlier than the trip date suggests, because the school has to confirm numbers, transport and staffing. Treat the printed deadline as real and return the slip the day it arrives. Include any medical, dietary or behavioural information the school needs, and a number that will actually be answered that day. Photograph the signed slip before it goes back, because replacing a lost one is slower than reprinting your copy.
What information should a babysitter have?
Your mobile number and a second adult's, the full home address written out, the emergency number for your country, and the doctor's details. Then allergies and medication with doses and times, the bedtime routine, food and screen rules, and how the door and alarm work. Keep it on one printed page by the front door rather than in a message thread, and go through it in person the first time.