How to Organise School Artwork by Year (a Simple System)

A single school year can produce hundreds of pieces of paper: paintings, worksheets, cards, certificates and the occasional glued masterpiece. Without a plan they colonise every surface in the house. With a simple yearly system, they become one box and one book.

The system in one line

One folder in use, one box per child, one edit at the end of the year, and a digital copy of everything.

Step 1: A "current year" folder

Keep one large portfolio or folder for each child, for the current school year only. Everything that comes home goes in it, except what you hang up or recycle at once. Because it has a limit, it never grows beyond the folder.

Step 2: A labelled box

For each child, keep one archival box. Label it with the child's name. Use dividers for each year, such as Nursery, Reception and Year 1, or for the US, Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grade. At the end of each year, the best pieces move from the folder into the box.

Step 3: Photograph as you go

Photograph the pieces worth keeping in a weekly batch. A digital library gives you a safety net, searchable and shareable, and it means releasing the paper does not mean losing the memory. Our guide to scanning with your phone shows how to do it quickly. In Squiglet, pictures land in the right child's timeline, grouped by month, so there is no filing to do.

Step 4: The end-of-year edit

In the last weeks of summer term, sit with your child and the folder:

1. Spread everything out.
2. Let your child choose their favourites.
3. Add your own picks, pieces that tell a story or mark a milestone.
4. Photograph anything not yet photographed.
5. Move the keepers to the box, and recycle the rest.

Our guide to deciding what to keep has a framework that makes this easy.

What to keep from schoolwork

Beyond art, a few categories deserve a place:

• Firsts: first name written, first story, first drawing of the family.
• A September and a July sample. The handwriting and drawing from the start and end of each year shows growth beautifully.
• Certificates and reports. Keep these flat, or scan them.
• Anything with your child's own voice, such as "My Weekend" writing.
• Pieces they are proud of. Their pride is a good guide.

Name the digital files

If you keep files on a computer, use a consistent pattern such as year-child-title (2026-max-rocket), or let an app handle it. A good folder structure is Child / School year / Month.

Make a book of the year

Once a year, turn the best 30 to 50 pieces into a printed book. It is the easiest way to turn a year of paper into a keepsake. See how to make a children's artwork book.

A yearly calendar

That is the whole system. It takes minutes, not weekends, and it means you will actually be able to find that Reception rocket in ten years' time.

Nursery and preschool

Young children produce more art than any other age, but most of it is process rather than product. Keep a handful of pieces per term, and photograph the rest. Photograph the teacher's labels and notes as well, because they often contain the child's own words.

Worksheets, exercise books and certificates

Not everything is art, but a few things deserve a place.

• Exercise books: keep one from the start and one from the end of each year, or photograph a few pages.
• Certificates and reports: photograph, then keep the originals flat in a plastic sleeve at the front of the box.
• Class projects: photograph the child with the project before it is recycled.

An example folder structure

On a computer or phone, a simple structure beats a clever one.

The child's name, then the school year, then the month: for example Max / 2026-27 Year 1 / 2026-09.

If you use an app that groups pictures by child and month automatically, you do not need to build this yourself. In Squiglet, every picture lands in the right child's timeline.

Starting from a backlog

If you already have a mountain, do not try to do it all at once.

1. Start with the current year, because it is freshest and easiest.
2. Work backwards, one year at a time, one evening each.
3. Stop when it stops being fun, and come back next week.
4. Do the oldest last, as the stories are the hardest to recall.

Make the end of year a ritual

The last Friday of the school year is a perfect moment. Put on music, spread the pieces on the floor, and let the children pick their favourites. Order a book, put the keepers in the box, and release the rest. It becomes something to look forward to.