Time Saving Tips for Busy Staff

The education sector in the UK seems to be feeling the squeeze a little more with every passing year. Every member of staff is having to be constantly more creative and stretch their budgets to provide all the essential services to pupils and parents.

This can quickly lead to a situation where the people crucial to the smooth operation of the school or nursery are having to ‘firefight’ urgent tasks almost constantly.

Whilst there is a mass of tips and time-saving advice for classroom activities, there isn’t anywhere near as much helpful material for other critical members of the team – those who deal with the administration, lunchtime organisation or finance required to ensure the children have access to everything they need throughout the day.

With that in mind, we have put together a few tips to give you some ideas – enjoy!

Leverage Technology to Your Advantage

Dealing with a busy phone line and a constant stream of emails, all while ensuring parents and other members of the team are kept informed and up-to-date with all the relevant information and changes they need to know about is a challenge that can daunt even the bravest of school staff members!

While schools are already tech-savvy environments, there are lots of recent developments that you may not yet have heard about. For example, creating an app for your school using a service like Schoop can save you lots of time when dealing with messages for parents.

Using a collaboration tool like Trello or Slack can reduce your internal emails and make it easier to keep colleagues informed. Another tech addition proven to improve productivity, and therefore help you get through your workload quicker, is a second computer monitor for office and admin staff. Consider investing to see the difference yourself!

Lunchtime Help

Laying out tables and chairs for lunch, then getting them cleared away before the next P.E. class needs the hall, can be stressful and physically demanding. Investing in this ‘Wallpocket’ table system will save you time and pain for many years to come, massively reducing the number of staff required and the time it takes to lay out and clear away your dining area!

If you haven’t seen this video before, we highly recommend you check it out here: Wallpocket Demo Video

Get Important Information at Your Fingertips

Save time by downloading all of the Paper Plus Catalogue product data and importing it to your school finance management system. This will save you having to type the catalogue descriptions, order codes, and pack quantities onto your purchase orders.

Paper Plus – Going Above and Beyond to Support School Staff

We know you go above and beyond for your school every week, which is why we believe it’s only fair that we show you the same level of commitment. We’ve incorporated many useful additions into our service to make your life easier. We also send a complimentary chocolate or sweets gift with every order as an additional ‘thank you’ in recognition of the incredible job you do!

We’ll deliver directly to your store cupboard. This saves you having to carry heavy boxes around, and eliminates the tripping hazard of boxes carelessly left in your reception area.
You can contact us or place an order by any method that suits you. We try to be as flexible as possible to accommodate everybody’s needs.
We provide a consultancy service for school furniture orders. This gives you added peace of mind, knowing you’re ordering the correct size and specification that will be compatible with existing furniture.
We’ve set our minimum carriage paid order value to just £50 for your convenience.
We can offer advice on best practises to prepare for school inspections, helping you to ensure you maintain a good OFSTED score.

These are all useful services developed through hundreds of conversations with clients. We work hard to add as much value as possible to your experience with Paper Plus.

One Less Thing to Worry About

Over 17 years of working closely with schools has given us a unique insight and a wealth of practical experience in dealing with your needs.

Schools who use our service already know we are more than just another supplier – we’re a family-run business that cares about your ability to provide the education our children deserve. We recognise that this requires a team effort involving a lot more dedicated and caring staff than teachers alone.

Never Be Afraid to Ask!

Our school-centric approach has created a friendly environment where our customers know they will always receive the highest levels of service in a reliable way. Even if you require assistance with something and you’re not sure if we’ll be able to help, don’t be afraid to get in touch and ask. We’ll always help if we can, and if we can’t we might be able to offer some advice or point you in the right direction!

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