School bag reminder

On the evening before a school day, patchio can remind you what's coming up tomorrow – so the school bag is packed and ready in the corner. You'll find the switch for this at the bottom of the Timetable tab.

What's in it

• tomorrow's periods, with their time span and, for A/B weeks, which week is running;
• tomorrow's subjects by name, in period order and with the weekday: “Tomorrow (Tuesday): Maths, German, PE, Chess club”. Clubs are simply included; a double period appears once, not twice;
• your slot notes from the timetable (“PE kit”, “Recorder”) – the actual reason for the reminder;
• assessments coming up tomorrow;
• school events running tomorrow – school trip (Klassenfahrt), outing (Wandertag), parents' evening (Elternabend): “Also tomorrow: School trip: Berlin (day 2 of 3)”. For multi-day events, patchio counts from the second day onwards, so it's clear how much longer it runs. If the event has a time, it's included: “Also tomorrow: Parents' evening, 19:30–21:00”. For a multi-day trip, only where it applies – “from 07:30” on the first day, “until 17:00” on the last, nothing in between.

The in-app notification says the same as the email, just in one line – with several children, it shortens to the subjects and the most important mention. Everything's in full in the email.

When it comes – and when it deliberately doesn't

It's sent exactly when tomorrow is a school day: there are periods in the plan, it's not a weekend, not a recorded day off, not the holidays, and not a public holiday in the school's region. Friday and Saturday evenings stay quiet, and so do holiday evenings – a reminder you'd never expect on a day off would just be an annoyance.

For public holidays, what counts is the region of the school, not the whole country: it stays quiet in Bavaria before Ascension Day, while people are packing bags in Berlin. The evening before Ascension Day is just as quiet as a holiday evening – and the “Tomorrow” card in the School overview says “no school” on the same days, both working from the same list.

The reminder deliberately does not jump ahead to the next school day: packing on Wednesday evening for Monday would make no sense. It answers “what's coming tomorrow” – when things pick up again is shown in the School overview.

The one exception: the evening before school starts again. If school resumes tomorrow after the holidays, the reminder comes – just with a slightly different tone (“Back to school tomorrow”).

Who gets it

Recipients can only be household members with their own login – an email to a profile without a login wouldn't exist. When you turn it on, patchio suggests whoever manages school (in practice, the parents); you can adjust the recipients at any time. A child with their own login can get the reminder too.

The reminder arrives by email and in notifications. You can turn off each independently in your profile, under notifications.