Boarding routine 4 min read Updated October 2026
Shift handovers that don’t lose information
Most incidents that escalate in a boarding house don’t start with one counselor’s mistake, but with information that didn’t pass between two counselors. A good handover is short, fixed and written. This guide shows what must be passed on, in what order, and how to do it in five minutes.
1. Why handovers fail
A handover fails when it depends on memory. The outgoing counselor is tired, the incoming counselor isn’t yet inside the events, and sometimes they don’t meet at all. The result: a student who was ill all morning isn’t checked in the evening, or a parent who was promised a call back never gets one.
- No fixed order, so different things are passed on each time.
- Everything is verbal, so nothing is left to go back to later in the shift.
- Stories instead of tasks: what happened, without what needs to be done and by when.
2. What every handover must cover
Six topics come up in every handover, in every group, at every hour. When they always come in the same order, it’s hard to forget one.
| Topic | What to pass on |
|---|
| Who isn’t here | Who is out on an exit approval and when they’re due back, and who is missing without explanation. |
| Health | Who is ill, who got medication and when the next dose is, who needs follow-up. |
| Incidents | What happened during the shift, with names and times, and what has already been done. |
| Open tasks | What needs to be done in the next shift, and by what time. |
| Parent contact | Who we promised to call back, and what was said. |
| Watch for | A student who seems troubled, a conflict that isn’t over, a fault in a room. |
3. A five-minute handover template
The verbal handover should be short, because the details are already written. The incoming counselor reads first and only then asks.
Handover in five minutes
Template to copy1. Numbers: how many students in the group, how many present, how many out on approval, how many missing.
2. The three most important things: no more than three, in order of urgency.
3. Tasks with a time: “Noam’s medication at 20:00”, “call Shira’s mother by 19:00”.
4. Questions from the incoming counselor.
5. Confirmation: the incoming counselor repeats the first three tasks out loud.
4. Write first, then talk
The most important rule of handover: what isn’t written didn’t pass. A counselor who writes during the shift, in real time, ends the shift with a handover that is almost ready. A counselor who leaves everything to the end writes from memory and misses things.
- Write an incident when it happens, in two or three lines: what happened, when, what was done.
- An open task is written as a task, with a time and an owner, not as part of a description.
- An important note is marked as important, so it stands out among dozens of routine notes.
5. When there’s no face-to-face handover
Sometimes the outgoing counselor has already left, or the shifts don’t overlap. In these cases the written handover is all there is, so it has to stand on its own.
Before leaving without a handover
- Check that every incident from the shift is written, with a time.
- Write explicitly “no open tasks” if there are none, so the next counselor doesn’t wonder.
- Leave a phone number for urgent questions in the first hour.
- Make sure the incoming counselor or the person in charge knows the handover is waiting.
6. How to know handovers are working
Once a month, check how many things “fell between shifts”: a task not done, a parent left waiting, a medication given late. If they keep coming back, the problem is usually the structure and not the people.
Common mistakes
- A long handover that retells the whole shift, so the three important things get lost.
- A handover on WhatsApp that disappears among dozens of other messages.
- Tasks without a time and without an owner.
- An incoming counselor who nods instead of repeating the tasks out loud.
Want to see how notes, attendance and exit approvals wait for the next counselor when their shift starts? We’ll show you in a demo.
