3 kids in 3 different schools – welcome to crazy!

I didn’t realise how good I had it last school year with only two children in the same school. In September 2013, my eldest changed schools and went up to High School and my youngest started in reception. All of a sudden I had 3 children in 3 different schools! The year before that was really busy looking at schools, parents open evenings and applying to schools for both kids and I thought that was busy! From September to December I had a new challenge of dealing with parentmail x3 from 3 different schools, admin for all the different schools and working out the systems of two brand new schools. I made several mistakes such as forgetting to sign various papers, getting mixed up and missing my daughter’s parent’s evening. I even asked one of the schools if they could change their email heading from just ‘Office’ to the name of the school so it would be easier to filter through all the parentmail. They said no.

Basically, it’s like having a full time job on top of already having a full time job! I figured I had to get extra organised in order to stay on top of things. Here is a list of some of the things I’ve done which helps me. I’m not saying doing these things will make you remember parents’ evenings and mufti days, but it will help you to feel less crazy. If you are in a similar situation, I hope this helps you. And, if you have any tips for me, please comment on this post below.

• Create folders in your email for each school and as soon as emails come in, categorise them under each school so that if you ever need to refer to them again (and you probably will), they’ll be easy to find and easy to see which school they are from.
• Create dropbox folders for each child and put documents from parentmail for each child in those folders.
• Create a homework folder in Dropbox and individual folders for each child. Show them how to save their homework in their folders so everything is in one place and can be easily printed out or emailed to teachers.
• Anything that needs to be printed out from parentmail or letters from their school bags, or awards/headteacher awards, file in a folder with tabs for each child.
• Any of those letters/documents that are important, put on the fridge (allocate a space for each child’s info on the fridge) and highlight the due in by date. Those magnets that have a clip on them are perfect for this.
• Get the kids in the habit of giving you letters/documents from their school bags as soon as they or you get home. If there is anything urgent, try and deal with it right away and put it back in their school bags and remind them to turn it in the next day. That way you won’t forget and won’t be late in returning the forms.
• Pay for clubs that have fees all in one go rather than weekly. Less admin and you won’t have to worry about having the cash on you or remembering to pay it.
• Bookmark your child’s online homework page (if they have that) and put it in your work schedule to check it weekly, if possible on the day they get their homework in.
• Always keep an eye out for mufti day sweets/presents when at the grocery store or in charity shops and stock up. That way if you forget/(or never saw the letter) and your child tells you on the morning of that it’s mufti day, you have something for them to bring in and it doesn’t turn into a stressful situation.
• Log all term dates, inset days and after school clubs, lessons, activities in your schedule. I use my calendar on my iPhone/iMac/iPad which is helpful because I can always refer to it at home or out and about. You can also set reminders too for important things so that if/when you forget, a reminder will pop up. If you use a paper-based diary, just spend some time jotting everything down, even a year ahead if you have the information to hand. Believe me, if you have 3 kids in 3 different schools, this helps tremendously. It sounds like such a simple thing, but we get so busy and forget to log stuff. If it’s not in my calendar, I tend to forget.

There’s probably more stuff you can do, but that is off the top of my head. I’ll comment on this post if I come up with any new strategies. Good luck everyone and wish me good luck for this term. I already messed up and sent my son to school an hour earlier than he was supposed to go. At least a few of his friends’ parents did too so he had mates to hang out with. I tell you, it really is a full time job staying on top of everything! Ok, off to oversee bookbags.