Which code where
| Job | Code type | Static or dynamic | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homework and resources | URL | Dynamic | Classroom wall, homework diary |
| Consent and contact forms | URL | Dynamic | Letters home, reception |
| Newsletter | URL | Dynamic | Gate noticeboard, reception, letters |
| Library catalogue and reading lists | URL | Dynamic | Shelf ends, library door |
| Parents’ evening booking | URL | Dynamic | Letters home, newsletter |
| Staff and visitor Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi | Static | Staff room, reception |
Homework and resources
A dynamic code on the wall of each classroom, at pupil eye height, that opens this week’s homework on the school platform. Every Friday the teacher repoints it. Pupils who missed the lesson, or lost the sheet, scan it with a home device or a parent’s phone. The printed code never changes, so it can be a proper laminated sign rather than a fresh sheet each week.
Codes on worksheets work too: a 2 cm code beside a question that opens a worked example or a short video. Print them in black so they photocopy cleanly.
Forms and the office
The letter home with a tear-off slip is where most school paper goes missing. A code on the letter that opens the consent form on the school site, already labelled with the trip, gets filled in on the bus stop. The office sees responses arrive instead of sorting slips. Keep the form on the school’s own domain or its usual platform, so parents recognise the address when the browser shows it.
Parents’ evening booking, uniform orders and the absence form all follow the same pattern: one dynamic code per job, each pointing at the school’s existing system.
Library and newsletters
Shelf-end codes in the library that open the catalogue search for that section let a pupil check what is in stock without queueing at the desk. Reading-list codes on the door open the list for each year group.
The newsletter code on the gate noticeboard and at reception always points at the latest issue. It is dynamic, so the sign stays and the link moves. Parents who miss the email still find it.
Getting the classroom code right
- Wall codes: pupils scanning from their desks are 2 to 3 m away, so 6 to 8 cm. If they come to the wall, 3 cm. Check with the size calculator.
- Letters: 2 to 2.5 cm, black on white, in a margin. Home printers and school photocopiers are the test; keep the modules crisp.
- Laminate wall signs. Classroom walls get display changes, sticky fingers and the odd flying pencil. Level Q or H.
- Colour: black or a very dark colour on white. Coloured paper reduces contrast; pale yellow is fine, blue and red are not.
- Words: “Scan for this week’s homework”, nothing else. Print the short web address beneath for anyone without a scanner.
Do this
A laminated 8 cm level Q code by the whiteboard, black on white, 'Scan for this week's homework' beneath with the short address, pointing at a dynamic link the teacher updates each Friday.
Not this
A 2 cm code printed in red on blue sugar paper at the back of the room, pointing at a shared drive folder that asks the parent to request access.
In practice
Before printing a term’s worth of letters, scan the code on a photocopy of the letter, not the original. Photocopiers soften edges and add speckle, and a code that passes on the copy will pass everywhere.
Child safety
A QR code is a printed web address, and it is public. The rules are short.
- Never encode a pupil’s name, class list, photo, login or medical detail. Not in the code and not in the visible page behind it.
- Codes point only at pages the school controls or its usual platforms, never at third-party sites, social media or general payment links.
- Say in the newsletter that the school will never ask for card details through a code, and that any code should show the school’s address when the phone previews it.
- Check that pages behind codes do not require a child to create an account.
- Retire dynamic codes at the end of the year rather than leaving them pointing at old content.
Try it yourself
List each room and its homework link, one per line, and the batch generator returns a printable sheet. Make them dynamic in QR Studio so each teacher can repoint their own code each week.