Term Overview Planner

Who this is for

A term on one page, one row per week. Write what the class is doing each week, the lesson or assessment that matters most, what has to be booked or ordered, and the events and dates that will get in the way.

Class and subject teachers sketching a term before the detail goes into the weekly planner, and heads of department who want each class's term on one sheet they can read in a minute.

What this helps you track

• Which topic or unit the class is on in each week of the term
• The key lesson, task or assessment each week is built around
• The resources that have to be ordered, booked or copied before the week arrives
• Trips, inset days, assemblies and the other dates that shorten a week
• The notes that make next year's version of the term quicker to write

How to use it

1. Write the class, the subject, the term and the teacher at the top, with the date the term starts.
2. Fill the topic column first, week by week — the shape of the term before any detail.
3. Add the one lesson, task or assessment each week turns on, so the sequence can be checked for sense.
4. Note what each week needs — a room, a set of texts, a practical kit, photocopying — while there is still time to arrange it.
5. Copy the term's events and dates from the school calendar into the events column so a week that loses two lessons is planned as one that does.
6. Keep the sheet with the weekly planner and mark up the notes column as the term goes, so the next term's overview starts from what actually happened.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

How many weeks does it cover?

There are rows for up to fourteen weeks. Leave the ones you do not need blank, or write holiday weeks in so the sheet matches the calendar on the wall.

Is this a scheme of work?

No. A scheme of work is the school's or the department's document. This is a teacher's own overview of how one term with one class will run, and it can be written from a scheme in a few minutes.

Where does the day-to-day detail go?

On the teacher weekly planner, which takes one week at a time. This sheet is the row above it: what the week is for, not what each lesson contains.

Can I use it across a whole year?

One sheet per term keeps the rows readable. The browser version saves in your own browser, so three terms can sit in three tabs.