Setting up your family schedule for the school year

The first two weeks of a school year are where family scheduling breaks. Everything is new, nothing is habitual, and one missed pickup sets the tone. Spend an hour up front and the term runs itself.

Step 1: put the fixed skeleton in first

Term dates, school hours, inset days, and every recurring activity. These are the events that repeat, so enter them once as recurring rather than one by one.

Step 2: assign each event to a person, not to 'the family'

Colour-coding per child is what makes a busy week legible at a glance. When everything is one colour, the calendar becomes wallpaper.

Step 3: add the driver, not just the event

'Swimming 4pm' is not a plan. 'Swimming 4pm — Dad drives' is. Put the responsible adult in the event so the handoff is explicit.

Step 4: set reminders one step earlier than feels necessary

The useful reminder isn't at 4pm when swimming starts — it's at 3:15pm when someone still has time to leave. Set your default reminder lead time to match the travel, not the event.

Step 5: handle the exceptions as they come

Half-terms, sick days and one-off cancellations don't mean deleting the series. Skip the single occurrence and leave the rest of the term intact.