One-page catch-up sheet for your first day back

On your first morning back from leave, fill in a one-page catch-up sheet with four columns: decision, owner, open risk and day-one action. Draft it only from the threads and files you name and open, using a prompt that marks every gap as blank and never guesses an owner. It works by hand too.

Steps follow Kent County Council's term dates page and Microsoft Support's article on referring to files in Copilot Chat, checked 13 October 2026. The Oastbridge example is made up.

If you're about to go off rather than coming back, start with the companion One-page cover note to leave before half-term.

Which days does the sheet cover?

Kent County Council lists half-term for community and voluntary controlled schools as Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026, with term 2 starting on Monday 2 November 2026. Academies and free schools can set their own dates, so check your child's school calendar.

Write the first day you were away and the day you're back at the top of the sheet. If you left early on Friday 23 October, start the window there. Anything older than your first day away belongs in your cover note.

Which sources go in?

Pick the places where things actually moved while you were out, and open each one before you list it. The prompt can only work from what you hand it, and you can only check a row against a source you've seen.

Skip anything you haven't opened. A long thread you only skimmed the title of will produce rows you can't stand behind.

• The cover note you left, if you wrote one, and any reply from your cover person.
• Team channel or group chat threads with posts dated inside your window.
• Shared files that changed while you were away, such as a tracker or budget workbook.
• Emails flagged or addressed to you that need a decision.
• Meeting notes or recaps from meetings you missed.

Example: a first morning back with one unowned decision

Say Ruth at Oastbridge Housing is off from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026 and back on Monday 2 November. She names four sources: her cover note, the estates channel thread, the shared repairs tracker and an email chain about the print contract. The sheet comes back with these rows.

The second row is the reason for the owner rule. Three people post about the figures in the thread, but nobody takes the work, so the cell stays blank and becomes Ruth's first question.

• Print contract renewal moves to 1 December 2026 | owner Priya, assigned in the 28 October email | old contract lapses on 30 November | confirm the 1 December start with Priya.
• Q3 repairs report uses the revised figures tab | [blank: owner not named] | two versions of the tab in the tracker | ask in the estates channel who owns the tab.
• [blank: not agreed] on the 19 November tenant workshop venue | owner Sam, assigned in the 29 October thread | venue still unbooked | ask Sam which venues are on hold.
• Boiler contractor visits move to Thursdays | owner Ruth, per the cover note | [blank: not in sources] | tell the duty team about the new day.

Check the sheet before you act on it

Open the source named in each row and confirm it assigns the owner in words. Then sort the Gaps list by date, because a blank against a deadline that falls on 2 or 3 November needs chasing before anything else. For a workbook that changed a lot, Catch up on shared Excel changes with Copilot covers the detail, and Summarise a Teams channel thread before you reply helps with a thread too long to read in one go.

Sources

• Kent County Council, term dates 2026 to 2027, checked 13 October 2026.
• Microsoft Support, Refer to specific files and more in Microsoft Copilot, checked 13 October 2026.