shiftpup Web version

Shiftpup guide ·

How to add dates from a school newsletter or flyer to your calendar

Capture the part of the newsletter that lists dates, then add each date that applies to your child as its own event, checking the year, the time and whether it's an all-day event. Shiftpup for iPhone reads a photo or screenshot of the list on your phone, lets you remove the dates that don't apply and adds the rest to Apple Calendar together. For a single date, your iPhone's own Add to Calendar may be all you need.

Capture the dates

With Shiftpup for iPhone

  1. Snap it or choose the screenshot. Pip reads the list on your iPhone, line by line: each date, its title and its time if there is one.
  2. Check each event against the letter. Remove the ones for other classes or year groups. Make closures and trips all-day events, and give timed ones a sensible end, like an assembly from 9:15 to 10:00 am.
  3. Add them to Apple Calendar with one button, or share a calendar file with someone who uses a different calendar app.

A family calendar shared through iCloud is a good home for school dates. Set it as your default calendar first (in Settings, open Calendar, then Default Calendar) so the events land where both parents look.

With your iPhone's own tools

Both are made for one event at a time. For a whole term's list, see when the built-in features are enough.

By hand

Open Calendar, tap +, add the title, date and time, or turn on All-day. For a run of days, like half-term from Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October, make one all-day event that starts on the Monday and ends on the Friday. Add an alert the evening before anything that needs packing: a costume, a packed lunch, a signed permission slip.

Things that trip people up

Common questions

Can Shiftpup read a whole term's dates at once?

It reads every date on the photo or screenshot. For a list that runs over several pages, read each page in turn for free, or all of them together with Shiftpup Pro.

Will the events update if the school changes a date?

No. Events you add are a snapshot of the letter. If the school publishes a calendar subscription link, subscribing to it is the way to stay in sync. Photos are for everything that only comes as a letter or a flyer.

Is the newsletter uploaded anywhere?

Not by Shiftpup for iPhone: it reads the photo on your phone. The web version is a different tool, built for work schedules, and it sends photos to a cloud service only after you agree. It isn't made for school letters.

Fridge or Family Calendar to iPhone Calendar

Turn a photo of the paper family calendar into iPhone Calendar events: pick whose events to add, check the month and the colours, and avoid doubling up.

Class Timetable or Syllabus Dates to Calendar

Put a weekly class timetable and a syllabus’s due dates into your calendar: repeating classes, term breaks, rooms and the dates that need a year.

Event Poster or Flyer to Calendar

Save a gig, game, fair or class from a poster or flyer to your calendar with the right date, time and place, using your iPhone’s own tools or Shiftpup.