With the Staff Notebook, school leaders and teachers work together in one shared OneNote notebook. You share agreements and documents, keep meeting notes and follow up with each staff member individually. The notebook comes with every staff team in Microsoft Teams for Education, and it's included in the Microsoft 365 education licenses, including the free A1 license. This article explains how it's structured and how to set it up.
How is a Staff Notebook structured?
| Part | Who can do what? | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Collaboration Space | Everyone in the team edits | Meeting notes, working groups, project planning |
| Content Library | Leaders edit, staff read | School rules, procedures, the yearly calendar |
| Private notebooks | Each staff member and the leaders | Performance reviews, goals, observations |
| Leader Only (optional) | Leaders only | Preparation and confidential notes |
Staff members see only their own private notebook. Leaders see all private notebooks.
Step 1: create a staff team
- In Teams, click Teams > Create a team.
- Choose the Staff team type.
- Give the team a name, for example "Teaching staff 2026-2027".
- Add leaders as owners and staff as members.
Step 2: set up the Staff Notebook
- Open the staff team and choose the Staff Notebook tab in the General channel.
- Click the button to set up the notebook.
- Choose a blank notebook or copy content from an existing notebook.
- Decide which sections each staff member gets, for example Goals, Meetings and Professional development.
- Finish. Teams creates the notebook for everyone.
Step 3: use the notebook
- Work in groups: create channels for working groups. Each channel gets its own section in the Collaboration Space.
- Share information in the Content Library. Everyone has the latest version and nobody changes it by accident.
- Follow up individually: write down agreements from conversations in the staff member's notebook.
- Open in the app: Open in app gives you every OneNote feature, such as drawing and audio recording.
Tips
- Create a standard template for team meetings in the Collaboration Space.
- Use OneNote tags (such as To Do or Question) to find follow-up items quickly.
- Learn more about OneNote in getting started with OneNote.
Also see the Microsoft 365 education starter guide and OneNote keyboard shortcuts.
Read also
Microsoft 365 for education: set up your school and class
Get started with OneNote in Microsoft 365: guide and tips
The most useful OneNote keyboard shortcuts for Windows
Nederlandstalige versie: Het Staff Notebook in Microsoft Teams voor Onderwijs instellen en gebruiken