A planner setup for teachers
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Teaching days are scheduled to the minute, but the work around them — preparation, marking, emails, meetings, reports — has no timetable at all. A planner that gives that invisible work a place is what protects your evenings.
Add a marking sessionOpen the weekly review templateOpens in your browser — no install or sign-up needed.
Where a teacher's time goes
Beyond lessons, a typical week holds preparation for several classes, marking that arrives in waves, duties, department meetings, parent emails and calls, trips and events to organise, and report deadlines a few times a year. Much of it is predictable by term — which means it can be planned once instead of remembered every week.
Step by step
- Enter term dates and fixed events. Holidays, parents' evenings, report and exam deadlines, trips — everything with a known date.
- Add lead-time tasks. For each event, add the preparation task with the right lead time before it.
- Put the timetable in as repeats. Lessons, duties and regular meetings repeat by weekday so your free periods are visible.
- Prepare one week ahead. On Thursday or Friday, plan next week's lessons and list the resources you still need.
- Batch marking and email. Fixed sessions for marking and two short slots a day for messages.
- Close the week on Friday. Ten minutes: inbox, overdue, next week. Then stop.
Type these lines into Pladay
Each line below was read by the same parser the app uses. The task, date and repeat rule are what you get when you type it.
| You type | Task | Due | Repeats | Try this |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mark year 9 essays every wednesday at 4pm ~90m | Mark year 9 essays | Wed, Oct 14 → Wed, Oct 21 → Wed, Oct 28 · 4:00 PM | Every week · Wednesday | Try this |
Lesson planning every thursday at 3:30pm | Lesson planning | Thu, Oct 15 → Thu, Oct 22 → Thu, Oct 29 · 3:30 PM | Every week · Thursday | Try this |
Draft reports on Nov 30 !! | Draft reports | Mon, Nov 30 | — | Try this |
Book the coach for the museum trip in 2 weeks | Book the coach for the museum trip | Fri, Oct 23 | — | Try this |
Plan the term before it starts
Put the fixed dates in first: term start and end, half-term, parents' evenings, report deadlines, exam weeks, trips. Then add preparation tasks before each one — “draft reports” three weeks before the deadline, “book the coach” six weeks before the trip. The term then tells you what is coming instead of surprising you.
Marking in batches
Marking expands to fill whatever time it is given. Schedule it as fixed sessions — for example Wednesday after school for one year group — with a realistic time per piece. Batching also makes feedback more consistent, because you mark similar work in one go.
How Pladay fits a teacher's week
- Add the timetable and duties as repeating tasks with times (recurring tasks).
- Whiteboards include grid, lined paper, mind-map and 16:9 lecture-slide templates for sketching lessons; recording a whiteboard is a Pro feature.
- Log parent conversations and follow-ups in the Contacts module with a reminder date.
- The Friday weekly review clears the inbox and previews next week before the weekend.
- Need term dates in your school calendar too? Use the private calendar feed (calendar sync).
Templates for this
FAQ
Can students or parents see my tasks?
No. Pladay is a personal planner. You can share a list as a read-only link if you want to, for example a trip checklist.
Can I use it on the school computer?
You can use it in any browser. If you sign in on a shared computer, sign out afterwards; without signing in, data stays in that browser.