Somewhere in a drawer, or perhaps in a cardboard box in the loft, there they are: the school reports. The very first report from group 1 (the first year of Dutch primary school, at age four), with colourful stamps and the teacher's handwritten comments. The report from group 6 when your child got a fail in maths for the first time. The final primary school report, with the letter giving the secondary school recommendation (the schooladvies) tucked inside.
Lots of parents keep school reports more or less automatically. They go in a folder, a drawer, a box. But "kept" doesn't yet mean "findable in twenty years".
A school report is a snapshot, not a list of marks
A school report shows where your child stood at that moment, how the teacher saw them, and what their strengths and areas to work on were. That information doesn't change. Its meaning does grow as time passes.
A report from group 3, when your child was six, only becomes truly interesting when your child sees it again as a teenager. "Finds it hard to stay focused on the task", it says in the teacher's handwriting. And they look up from the project they put together in a single evening in their final exam year. Your child's story is in those reports, hidden between the headings and the teacher's remarks.
The same goes for drawings, projects and other things from school. We wrote earlier about how to keep childhood memories in a way that also works in the long run. Schoolwork fits in well there.
Paper disappears even without a fire or a house move
Paper deteriorates. Slowly, but it happens. Yellowed, creased, stained or simply lost. Things go missing whenever you move house. Water damage and fire are the worst case, and they really do happen to people.
Even without disasters, paper is impractical. You don't know exactly where anything is and you have to dig through boxes. If your child ever wants to see it again, say as a twenty-year-old student looking for funny stories for a speech at a family party, there's a good chance the report has gone or can't be found.
A digital copy solves that. The original can stay where it is. The content is kept, whatever happens to the paper.
Three ways to store school reports digitally
There are several approaches, each with its pros and cons:
Scanning to PDF. The most complete approach. With a scanner or a scanning app on your phone you make a digital copy of the whole report, handwritten comments included. Keep the PDF in a cloud location you actively look after, not on an external hard drive that ends up at the back of a cupboard within a year.
Taking photos of the pages. Quicker and easier than scanning. The quality is a little lower but more than good enough for most reports. Lay the report flat on a table in good light and take a clear photo of each page.
Adding it to a digital diary. This goes a step further, because you put the report in context straight away. You add it as a memory, with the date, and write a few sentences alongside. What was special about this school year? What did your child think of the report? That context will be just as valuable in twenty years as the report itself.
A digital diary keeps the report and the story around it
The difference between a folder of PDF files and a digital diary is context. A folder of files is an archive: handy, and cold. A diary is a timeline where school reports are part of something bigger, your child's story.
In an online diary like Ouderliefde you add the report as a memory, on the date of the report. It sits in date order next to the other memories from that school year: the photo from the first day in group 3, the video of the Christmas show, the drawing your child made of the teacher. Together those fragments give a real picture of that year.
Later your child can look back on it as a story, rather than as a folder of loose files.
What else to keep alongside the report
A school year is more than a report. A few things worth keeping digitally:
- Drawings and crafts. Take a photo of each piece your child brings home. You don't need to keep everything. The most typical and the funniest ones are worth it.
- School photos. The yearly school photo records what your child looked like at a particular age. Scan or photograph it and save it with the year.
- Invitations and letters from school. Sometimes a report comes with a letter about a special activity or a school trip. That context makes the report richer.
- Your own notes. What did you think of the report? Did anything surprise you? How did you react? A few sentences of your own add a layer the teacher can't give.
Start with the next report
You don't have to catch up on everything. Start with the next report your child brings home and add older ones when you have the time.
Every report you add makes the archive more complete. In a few years you'll have a timeline your child will really value later on.
Want to try it? Every new account starts with 7 days of free Premium: full access to every feature, including keeping schoolwork, photos and videos on one timeline.
Want to read more? Have a look at our article on how to organise your child's photos or read why a digital baby book beats a paper one.