Scan a school letter

The note comes out of the school bag, and it says everything at once: a school outing (Wandertag), a signature needed by Friday, five euros for the bus, and a list of what to bring. Instead of typing all that out four times, you photograph the letter – patchio suggests what should go into the calendar and onto the task list.

Only what you tick gets added. Nothing is saved silently.

How to do it

1. Open School → Dates and tap “Scan a school letter”.
2. Photograph the letter – ideally straight on, from above, in good light.
3. patchio reads it and shows you suggestions as separate cards.
4. Untick anything that's wrong. You can change the title, date and time directly.
5. Tap “Add N suggestions”.

Button not there? Then AI features are off for your household – an admin turns them on under Manage (see below).

What patchio recognises

For deadlines and amounts, you choose who's dealing with it – you, by default. Both end up in a task list for your household; if there's a list called “School ‹first name›”, patchio suggests that one.

For an assessment, you still need to choose the subject – it's rarely stated clearly enough in the letter to assign it automatically. Without a subject, the assessment can't be created.

If the letter states a time (“Parents' evening on 3 September at 19:30”, “Departure 07:30, back around 17:00”), patchio adds it to the event as a proper time – not as a note. You already see it in the card below the date and can change or clear it there before adding; without a time, the event counts as all day. The location stays in the note (“Meeting point: school yard”). For an assessment, the time and place still go into the title: an assessment has no time fields, and the school only ever says “on Thursday” there.

Years missing from the letter

School letters usually just say “on 25/09” with no year. patchio takes the next occurrence from today. That's almost always right – but check the date before you add it anyway.

Keeping the original

After adding, you can tap “Attach original to the event”. The photo then stays on the first event created, so you can look up later exactly what the letter said – handy if someone asks what time the bus comes back.

The photo stays private within your household: only your family members can open it. If you don't attach it, patchio deletes it when you close the scanner, or after 24 hours at the latest – even if the app crashes in between, or you just close the tab.

An attached letter shows as a paperclip on the event; tap the event to open it.

You can't attach an original to an assessment – only to events.

Privacy: what leaves the household

The scanner is behind the AI categorisation, recipe photos & school letters switch under Manage. It's off by default and has to be turned on by an admin.

If it's on and you tap “Scan a school letter”, this one photo goes to Claude (Anthropic). A school letter typically carries your child's data: year, school, events, sometimes their name. You should know that before you press the button.

What doesn't go with it: your child's name from their profile, their year, their grades, your events, addresses or contacts. Just the image.

And it only happens when you tap the button – never while photographing, never in the background, never afterwards with letters you've already attached.

More on this: AI categorisation · Privacy policy

If it doesn't work

• “Couldn't read a school letter in that photo” – usually the image is blurry, too angled or too dark. Try again, straight on, in daylight.
• A date is wrong – change it directly on the card before adding.
• The type is wrong (“Day out” instead of “School outing”) – change it on the card.
• Something's missing – add it the normal way via “Add event”. The scanner is a shortcut, not a requirement.

Related topics

• School trip, outing & parents' evening
• Tests, class tests & grades
• School bag reminder