12 Simple Tasks Teachers Can Do to Prepare for a New School Year

Christmas is done and dusted, and after soaking up some well-earned summer downtime, it’s time to start thinking about the new school year. If you’re like most teachers, your mind has probably already started drifting back to that never-ending classroom to-do list.

We all know how long that list can get when it comes to back-to-school prep! That’s why we’ve pulled together some simple, practical ideas to help with BTS prepping—so you can ease into the year without feeling overwhelmed.

Every task is:

• Simple
• Useful
• Designed to help you prepare for back to school without stress.

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12 Practical Back to School Prep Ideas for the Summer Holidays

This isn’t a strict checklist—far from it! Think of it as a collection of practical suggestions for your back-to-school prep. Ticking off a few of these jobs during the holidays can make life a whole lot easier when your new class walks through the door.

FOR SCHOOL

(1) Prepare Students’ Desk Plates, Name Tags, and Labels

Once you have your class list, you can begin to prepare desk name plates and any of the labels you will need for your new class.

Teach Starter Top Tip:
To create a customised set of desk name plates, click the ‘Open Customiser’ button on the desk name plate page you’d like to use. Enter your student names, choose your design options, and then click ‘Download PDF’. Your personalised desk name plates will be generated and saved to your computer’s Downloads folder.

(2) Prepare Your Classroom Calendar

There are lots of benefits to having a classroom calendar visible for your students. We have a variety of classroom calendar resources that can help you set up something that can be used as a teaching tool in the new year.

Here is a selection!

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(3) Make a Birthday Chart

When your new class walks in and sees their birthday already featured proudly on the wall – they will love it! This is a fun little job to get done over the summer holidays.

Check out even more of our birthday resources for fun ways to begin this part of your classroom decoration.

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(4) Prepare Student ‘First Day Welcome Kits’

You may like to create a little welcome pack for each student. A welcome kit is a simple pack you place on each student’s desk for their first day. It gives them something to do as soon as they walk in, helping reduce nerves and boredom while you manage the arrival chaos.

Some ideas for things you could include in each student’s welcome kit:

• a welcome letter from YOU!
• an “All About Me” activity sheet to complete
• a bookmark or a laminated positive affirmation card
• a back-to-school activity mat
• a small back-to-school treat with a fun gift tag
• a back-to-school colouring in page
• a back-to-school word search.

Teach Starter Top Tip:
Kick off the new school year with a fun activity that helps students learn who’s in their class! Use our Word Search Generator to create a word search featuring all your students’ names. It’s a simple way to break the ice and build a sense of community right from day one.

(5) Set Up Your Data Tracking System

Before the school year kicks off, it’s worth thinking about how you’ll keep track of student progress. A good system will save you time when it comes to reporting and help you spot learning gaps early.

Start by asking yourself:

• What style of system will be easiest for me to keep up with every day throughout the year – a paper-based system or a digital system? (The best system is the one you’ll realistically keep using.)
• Do I want my students to track their own progress as well? (This can be a great way to build ownership and motivation!)

Once you’ve answered these, start planning the basics. You will want to start small by deciding what you want to track, choosing one simple format, and setting a realistic routine for updating it. A data system only works if it’s easy enough to maintain.

Teach Starter Top Tip:
If you can’t explain why you’re tracking something in one sentence, don’t track it!

Once you’ve decided all of this, set up a simple, ready-to-use version of your system – even just a basic template with student names and one or two columns. It doesn’t need to be perfect or finished. Having something in place means you can start recording information right away in Term 1 and refine it as the year unfolds.

Here are a few of our favourite data tracking templates to get you started:

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(6) Set Up Your Filing System

Once you’ve sorted out how you’ll track student progress, it’s time to think about where all that information—and everything else—will live. A solid filing system will keep you organised when the paperwork starts rolling in and make life easier when new students join your class.

PAPERS

Regardless of how hard you work to reduce the amount of paper generated during the year, there will always be student work samples, tests, and other papers to file. Spend time preparing a filing system with your new students’ names. How you organise your files will depend on what works best for you.

Teach Starter Top Tip:
Keep in mind that when new students arrive, you will need to ‘slot’ their file in amongst the rest of your class files. Set up a filing system that makes it easy to manage a rejuggle of alphabetical order!

ELECTRONIC

Don’t forget all of your computer files too! Take a little bit of time to set up the folder structure you need for storing your electronic files throughout the year. Doing this during the school holidays means that when school returns, and with it the frantic mania of the first few weeks, you won’t end up with a single folder or desktop full of files that never make it into their proper electronic home!

(7) Figure Out Your Classroom Expectations

Summer holidays are the perfect time to get your tech sorted for the new school year. If you’re planning to use a digital parent communication tool, setting up accounts now will save you time and stress when Term 1 rolls around. It’s one less thing on your back-to-school prep list!

• The Seesaw app
• Class Dojo
• Email
• A private Facebook group
• A class newsletter.

Here are a few of our favourite newsletter templates:

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Teach Starter Top Tip:
Create a master list of student logins and passwords for all the digital subscriptions your class will use. Having this ready to go will make life so much easier when you’re helping students log in during those first few weeks.

(9) Shopping!

The magnetic pull between a teacher and a stationery store is real! Officeworks, Big W, Kmart – you name it! Chances are, you’ll find yourself wandering the aisles at some point during the summer holidays. That’s why planning what you need to get organised for your new class is essential.

Teach Starter Top Tip:
Make a list before you shop! Walking into Officeworks or Kmart without one is like doing the grocery run when you’re starving – you’ll spend way more than you planned.

TEACHING TOOLS & HANDS-ON RESOURCES

Think about last school year and the kinds of tools or hands-on resources you know would have made your teaching life easier. Extra sets of dice? Playing cards? Magnifying glasses? Maths manipulatives (MAB blocks, counters, fraction tiles, connecting cubes, etc.)?

CLASSROOM DECOR & STORAGE

Are you already thinking about changes you might make to your current classroom setup? Here’s what you need to do!

1. Get inspired! Think about the display and storage spaces that are available in your classroom and what you need to be able to store. Take a look through some classroom organisation ideas to help you figure out the best way to display materials and store resources in your classroom before you head to the store.
2. Choose a colour scheme. Think about whether you love rainbows or would prefer to go with fairly neutral storage containers, boxes, and display boards. You can always mix up the vibe of your classroom by adding a new colour scheme through display borders and labels. Check out our classroom organisation and display resources before you decide on what to buy.
3. Get creative! Using paper tablecloth rolls from party shops, fabric, or even flat sheets is a fantastic way to create vibrant backgrounds for your bulletin boards without blowing the budget. These options are easy to work with and give your classroom a fresh, colourful look.

   Print out your bulletin board letters and get those boards ready for the amazing displays you’ll add throughout the year!

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FOR YOU

(10) Cook Some Freezer Meals

Teaching is a crazy job. During term time, it has got to be one of the busiest working lifestyles around. Busyness can easily lead to the demise of making time for ‘simple’ things like eating well.

Doing some meal preparation during summer break is one way to reduce the amount of “I’ll just get takeaway” paper bags that might end up in your rubbish can, and should have you eating more than a grilled cheese sandwich when school gets really busy!

Take a look through these great lists of meals you can prepare and freeze ready to defrost and eat, as well as tips for cooking less and eating at home more.

• 25 Freezer-Friendly Meals for a Long Weekend
• 50 Fabulous Freezable Lunchbox Fillers
• The Cook Once, Eat All Week Easy Meal Prep Plan

(11) Take Time to Reflect

While it’s easy to spend a fair chunk of the break doing things to prepare for the new year, it’s important to take some time to reflect on the year you’ve just finished. Time spent in peaceful reflection isn’t time wasted – in fact, when you spend time thinking about what went well last year (and what didn’t go quite so well), it will help you refine how you spend your time and efforts in preparing for the new year.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

• What took way too much energy this last school year?
• What worked well that I should repeat?
• What do I want to simplify this year?
• Which classroom routines worked really well and I want to keep?
• Where did things fall apart most often (ie, transitions, early finishers, pack-up, etc.)?
• What systems relied too much on me instead of student independence?
• What boundary slipped last year that I want to protect this year?

(12) Plan ME Time!

Finally, and most importantly, in preparation for the new teaching year, take time to figure out when you are going to take time out when school returns. When the momentum of school returns it’s far too easy to put yourself last. And this? This is what leads to teacher burnout.

Be proactive and make plans for time out during the coming school year. Whether it be booking a weekend or two away or purchasing a pass to a weekly yoga class, make concrete plans and stick to them.

Teach Starter Top Tip:
There will always be something that makes you feel like you can’t take that time for yourself during school terms. Know that even if you take that few hours a week, or weekend every now and again just to tap out of ‘teacher life’ and tap back into ‘you’, the rest will still all happen as it needs to.

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Before you dive into planning, give yourself permission to rest – without guilt. Being rested is part of your preparation! A calm, energised teacher in Week 1 will always beat a perfectly planned one.