Celebrate School With A Digital Yearbook

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With school years coming to an end, in the middle of a pretty weird time, you might feel a bit disconnected from classic end of year traditions. But don’t worry, we’ve got a new tradition just for you! Why not make your own digital yearbook, filled with photos, memories and messages from your pals? Here’s how…

Pick your team

Teamwork makes the dream work, and making a yearbook needs a few pairs of hands. So, rally your friends and get thinking about who can do what - you’re probably going to need someone who’s good at visualising (for the design), someone who’s a natural storyteller (for the words), someone who is snap-happy (for the pics) and someone who loves a list (to keep everything organised!). The more the merrier here, so pick your pals and pick your jobs.

Think of a theme

Every great yearbook has a theme. It’s a visual statement running through the entire thing from front to back cover, filling the pages with colour, images and little quirks that keep everything consistent. Maybe you’ll go with a pop art style, or a vintage look with polaroid camera style photos. Maybe you’ll want it to look more like an editorial magazine or newspaper...or turn every page into a meme. Check out some theme inspiration here, and get creative!

Content, content, content…

So you’ve got your team and your theme, next up, you’ve got to decide on what you want to fill the pages! Brainstorm with your team and make a list of everything you want to include. Start with the basics like class photos and staff photos. Then, get more specific with school events, volunteering, field trips, sports events, dances...anything that made your time at your school special. You can also include funny pages like ‘then and now’ - ask people to submit a recent selfie and a baby picture, or ‘top memes of the year’. You might even want to get in touch with your headteacher and see if they’ll write a letter to the year!

Get quoting

A really traditional thing in a year book is a quote from everyone. Send out an email to everyone in your class/year and ask for a recent photo and a quote that they want to include. You could have a theme for the quotes, asking a question like ‘what do you want from the future?’ or ‘what piece of advice do you have for everyone else?’, or just keep it more generic about the times you’ve had at school, or asking for their favourite quote of all time.

Awards

Another great section to include is awards. Did your year win any sporting events? Is there a piece of artwork that you think was particularly amazing? The awards don’t have to be serious either. You could give out ‘best joke of the year’ or ‘best TikTok dance’. Anything to make people smile and feel special!

Putting it together

Putting together an entire yearbook might seem a little bit daunting, but thankfully, there’s a really simple template over on Google Slides that has everything you need to help build it out! And it’s free! Just follow the instructions and guides and you’ll have it put together in no time. Don’t forget to stick to your theme and keep it consistent throughout. Check out this guide for some handy design tips. Work together as a team to build the pages - why not give each person a section to work on and then give feedback as you go.

Last checks

No one likes a typo or a rogue punctuation mark where it’s not supposed to be, so make sure you edit, edit, edit! Proofread every section once, twice, three times...and then give it to someone else to check through too. When you’re done with your checking, you’re pretty much done! Next up, think about how you’re going to distribute it. If you’re doing it completely online it’s easy enough to make it into a PDF and get an email list of everyone involved and send it out like that! You could also talk to your teachers and see if your school is able to print out any hard copies.

And that’s it...you’ve created your digital yearbook...and what a year it’s been! Good luck, get creative, and enjoy!