Back-to-school checklist 2026-2027 for the office and leadership

September packs into three weeks the work that the rest of the year spreads over months. What is not closed before classes start drags on until Christmas: an unsigned SEPA mandate ends as a returned payment in October, and an outdated collection authorisation becomes an urgent phone call on a Tuesday at five.

This checklist orders what the office and leadership should have settled before the year picks up pace. It is written for schools, nurseries, and academies; each block notes what changes by type of centre.

1. Enrolment and records

• Final lists by group: close last-minute joins and leavers, and check that each student is in the right group, year, and stage. A mistake here is copied into attendance, assessment, and billing.
• Health data: allergies, intolerances, medication, and specific needs, reviewed with families and visible to whoever needs them (tutor, dining hall, after-school staff).
• Collections and custody: people authorised to collect each student, and any custody order that limits who can do so. This is the detail that changes most over the summer.
• Outstanding paperwork: what is still missing from new enrolments, with an owner and a date to chase it.

2. Fees, services, and direct debits

• This year's fees loaded: tuition, meals, transport, early drop-off, and after-school activities at the new prices, before any receipt is generated.
• Discounts and grants applied: siblings, large families, school grants, or public aid. Correcting them after invoicing means issuing credit notes.
• SEPA mandates for new families: signed, with a unique reference and the correct account. If you want to review how to avoid returned payments, we explain it in SEPA direct debits in schools.
• Date of the first collection communicated: families should know in advance which day the first receipt is charged and for what amount.
• Invoicing software: confirm with your provider that the system is adapted to Verifactu, and with your adviser the date that applies to your centre.

3. Authorisations and data protection

• Images: each student with their authorisation by purpose (website, social media, internal communications). New families signed before the first photo. We develop this in how to ask for image consent.
• Outings and activities: generic authorisations for local outings, and specific ones for trips.
• Data protection information: given to new families, with the channel for exercising their rights.
• Internal access: review who has access to which data. Staff who left in June should not still have a user in September.

4. Communication with families

• App or portal access: every family registered and the invitation sent. Those who do not activate it in the first week usually need a phone call.
• A clear official channel: state in writing which channel is for notices, absences, and questions, and which is not. Family WhatsApp groups will exist anyway; we cover this in parent WhatsApp groups.
• Communication hours: when notices are sent and within what time a reply is given. Avoid starting the year with messages at eleven at night.
• Start-of-year meetings: called with a date and a format. There is a script in the start-of-year meeting with families.

5. Staff

• Timetables and cover: the team's timetables closed, and a known procedure for covering absences.
• Working-time records: the system ready from day one. We explain it in working-time records in schools.
• Wellbeing and protection coordinator: appointed and introduced to the staff and to families.
• Start-of-year training: who needs to learn which tool before the students arrive, especially new staff.

6. The year calendar

• Your region's school calendar and local holidays loaded into the centre's diary and visible to families.
• The September timetable, assessment dates, report delivery, and tutor meetings.
• Services with their own calendar: meals, transport, and after-school activities, with their start dates.

What changes by type of centre

• Nurseries: as well as the settling-in period, it is worth recording from September the schooling amounts for each child. Those are the figures the modelo 233 will ask for in January, and rebuilding them later costs much more.
• Academies: groups by level, timetables, and class packs loaded before opening enrolment, and the VAT treatment of each service reviewed with the adviser. We explain it in VAT in academies.
• Groups with several centres: the same fees, templates, and procedures at each site, so leadership can compare like-for-like figures from October.

The five figures leadership should see on 30 September

1. Places filled by group against capacity.
2. Unpaid amounts carried over from the previous year.
3. Enrolment applications still awaiting a reply.
4. Families without active access to the app or portal.
5. Services contracted against those planned (meals, transport, after-school).

If those five figures are on one screen and not in five spreadsheets, the start of the year is under control. More indicators for the rest of the year are in KPIs every head should measure each month.

Conclusion

None of these tasks is hard on its own. What makes September difficult is that they all arrive at once and depend on each other: without closed lists there are no correct receipts, and without families who have access there is no communication. Sharing the checklist with names and dates in the first week is what separates an orderly start from an October spent putting out fires.

If you want to see how all of this is organised on a single platform, book a demo of Edena.