Keep Faith at the Forefront This School Year

Katie Fitzgerald reviews the Great Things Catholic Student Planner, perfect for helping students keep faith at the center of their academic work.  

Great Things Catholic Student Planner

Published by Into the Deep

A Wonderful New Planner for Catholic Students  

If you have a student in upper elementary, middle, or even high school, you’re going to want to add Into the Deep’s new Catholic student planner, Great Things, to your back-to-school shopping list. My 11-year-old daughter and I flipped through the entire thing page by page, and we were so thrilled by everything we saw. What a blessing to have this resource to help incorporate our Catholic faith into our children’s education!   

What’s In the Planner? 

This planner places the faith at the center of the 2025-2026 school year. The spiral-bound hardcover book (which has pockets inside the front and back covers!) opens with some at-a-glance Catholic information, including the liturgical colors and their significance, lists of the holy days of obligation, the rules for fasting and penance, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the precepts of the church, and the seven sacraments. It also includes a prayer section with four pages of favorite prayers, including the Rosary.  

Each month begins with Scripture accompanied by a piece of religious artwork, with invitations to read, reflect, remember, and renew. A two-page calendar spread shows all the saint days and other liturgical celebrations that take place during that month, and it tells us what the church focuses on during that month (the Precious Blood and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for example). Each day also has a colored circle indicating the vestment colors worn by priests for that day’s Mass.

A monthly planning page gives students specific spaces to fill in with a chosen patron saint for the month, prayer intentions, monthly goals, a Bible verse he or she wishes to memorize, and “field notes.” The other pages for each month are designed for planning out each week day by day, and they leave ample room to write down assignments, activities, sports practices, and anything else the student needs to record or remember. These pages each have a fun Catholic fact and a space for the student to fill in something he or she is grateful for.   

An 11-Year-Old’s Critique  

My daughter is homeschooled, and she is beyond excited to use a Catholic planner to track her schoolwork next year, when she will be in sixth grade. She loved every element of the planner, but she was especially excited by the monthly calendar, which she said reminded her of the one we received from church at Christmastime. Having her own special place to keep track of the liturgical year really appeals to her.

She did point out that sometimes it was hard to differentiate the colors of the little circles, especially purple, which looked black to her on certain pages, but we agreed that this was not a major problem. Another thing she noticed is that while the front cover indicates the planner begins in June 2025, this appears to be a misprint, as the interior pages run from July 2025 to June 2026. (We caught at least one more additional minor typo elsewhere in the book as well.)

My daughter also mentioned that the pages and layout are equally appealing to boys and girls. The color palette is pretty neutral, and the contents have broad appeal. There is also enough blank space that artistic kids could easily personalize each page with drawings or doodles that express their own interests and style.  

Who Is Great Things for? 

Based on the fill-in page where the student can write down a patron saint, a memory verse, monthly goals, and more, I would recommend this planner for grades 5 to 8, but aside from that page, which feels directed at children, there’s really nothing that wouldn’t appeal to a high-schooler or even a parent or teacher. Though our family will be using it with a homeschooled student, it would work just as well for a student attending a brick-and-mortar school. The sturdy cover will help it survive traveling in a backpack, and the elastic band attached to the cover makes it easy to either bind it shut or mark a specific page for quick and easy access. It’s everything I can imagine wanting in a student planner!  

The Great Things Catholic Student Planner is simply a lovely resource that deserves a place in your child’s backpack or homeschool work area when school resumes this fall. It’s a beautiful, easy way to keep faith at the forefront as your student studies and develops throughout the academic year.  

Is this a book you'd like to read? Share your thoughts with the Catholic Mom community! You'll find the comment box below the author's bio and list of recommended articles.

Copyright 2025 Katie Fitzgerald
Images: copyright 2025 IntoTheDeep.co, used with permission, all rights reserved.