How to make a school yearbook in Ireland

Step 1: Decide who the yearbook is for

A Leaving Cert class book, a Transition Year project and a whole-school annual are different products with different deadlines. Pick one year group and one purpose first. Most Irish schools produce a book for the graduating year, finished before graduation.

Step 2: Choose how it will be made

• Build it yourselves: a teacher or TY class designs the pages in an online tool or software, then sends a finished file to a printer. Cheapest per copy, most staff time.
• Design service with a printer: you supply text and photos and a studio lays them out. Less layout work, but you still collect and organise the content.
• Fully managed: a company collects each student's content, designs every page, proofs and delivers. Least staff time. AerEthos works this way.

Step 3: Set a calendar backwards from graduation

Start from the date books must be in students' hands, and subtract printing and delivery, proofing, design and content collection. Content collection is the stage that slips most often, because it depends on dozens of teenagers replying. Build in two chasing rounds.

• Content collection: quotes, photos, plans, favourite memories
• Design and first proof
• Corrections and final sign-off
• Printing and delivery, with a buffer before graduation

Step 4: Collect photos and words properly

Use one submission route, not email threads. Photos need to be large and sharp; phone photos are fine if they are original files, not screenshots or messaging-app copies. Ask every student for the same things so the pages feel consistent.

• A portrait and a handful of group or action shots
• A short quote or message, with a word limit
• Plans for next year, if the student wants to share them

Step 5: Keep student data safe

A yearbook uses names and photos of young people. Collect only what the book needs, tell students and parents how it will be used, and be careful with anyone under 16, who should not be giving personal data to a service without a parent or the school involved. Ask any provider for a data processing agreement and where data is stored.

Step 6: Proof, correct, sign off

Names are the most common error: spellings, missing students, wrong class. Give two people the final proof and set a hard sign-off date. After sign-off, changes cost time and sometimes money.

Step 7: Money and distribution

Decide who collects payment. If the school collects, an office or teacher carries the cash handling and chasing. If students buy directly from the provider, the school does neither. Decide too how books reach students, ideally at a graduation event with enough copies for every order.

How AerEthos handles each step

We run steps 3 to 7 for the school. Your staff give a 20-minute kickoff call and a 30-minute sign-off. Students submit their own page content through a portal, we design a page for every student, we proof, print and deliver at least a week before graduation, and students buy their own copies from us, so the school pays nothing for the books.