How to Add Your School Calendar to Google Calendar or iPhone

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Most schools publish the year's calendar: first day, holidays, no-school days, half days, conferences and breaks. Having it in your own calendar means a teacher workday can't sneak up on you at 7 a.m. Here's how to get it there, whether your school offers a calendar link or only a PDF.

Quick answer: Look for a Subscribe, iCal or Add to calendar link on the school's calendar page. If there is one, subscribe and it stays up to date by itself. If the school only has a PDF, upload it to the PDF to calendar converter, check the events, and add them to a separate "School" calendar.

Step 1: Check whether the school has a calendar link

Many school and district websites have a calendar feed. Look near the calendar for a button or link labeled Subscribe, iCal, ICS, Google Calendar, Add to calendar or RSS/iCal feed. School apps sometimes have one under the calendar's settings too.

A link is the better option when there is one: if the school changes a date (a snow day, a moved conference), your calendar updates on its own.

Copy the calendar link. It often starts with webcal:// or ends in .ics.
On a computer, open calendar.google.com.
Next to Other calendars, click + → From URL.
Paste the link and click Add calendar. If the link starts with webcal://, change that to https:// first.

The calendar appears on your phone's Google Calendar app as well. Google refreshes subscribed calendars every few hours to a day, so a same-day change may show up late.

Easiest: tap the webcal:// link on your iPhone and confirm Subscribe.
Or: go to Settings → Apps → Calendar → Calendar Accounts → Add Account → Other → Add Subscribed Calendar and paste the link. On iOS 17 and earlier, it's Settings → Calendar → Accounts.

Step 2: If there's only a PDF, convert it

Plenty of schools only post the calendar as a PDF, often a one-page grid of months with color-coded days. Copying that by hand is slow and easy to get wrong. Instead:

Download the PDF from the school website or email.
Open the PDF to calendar converter and upload it. It reads tables and month grids, not just lists.
Check the events it found. No-school days and holidays become all-day events, and breaks become multi-day events.
Download the calendar file (.ics) and add it to your calendar:
- iPhone: tap the file and choose Add All, then pick a calendar (step-by-step guide).
- Google Calendar: on a computer, Settings → Import & export → Import (step-by-step guide).

What it costs: the first 3 events are free without an account, and a new account gets 5 more free. A full school year usually has 20 to 40 dates, so most families need the $4 pack (50 events, one payment, no subscription).

One limitation: a converted PDF doesn't update itself. If the school sends a revised calendar, convert the new PDF and replace the old events.

Step 3: Keep school events in their own calendar

Whether you subscribe or import, put school dates in a calendar of their own instead of mixing them into your personal one:

Google Calendar: next to Other calendars, click + → Create new calendar, name it (for example "Lincoln Elementary"), and pick it when you import.
iPhone: in the Calendar app, tap Calendars → Add Calendar, and choose it when you tap Add All.

A separate calendar lets you:

Color-code it so school days stand out at a glance.
Hide it on weeks you don't need it.
Remove it in one step at the end of the year, instead of deleting events one by one.
Keep one per child if your kids go to different schools.

Google Calendar: open the calendar's settings → Share with specific people or groups → add their email address.
iPhone (iCloud calendar): in Calendar, tap Calendars, tap the ⓘ next to the school calendar → Add Person.

Now both of you see the same no-school days without forwarding emails.

Step 5: Get a heads-up the day before

Calendar apps don't remind you about all-day events by default, and those are exactly the days that matter.

Google Calendar: Settings → click the school calendar → All-day event notifications → add "1 day before at 6 pm".
iPhone: Settings → Apps → Calendar → Default Alert Times → All-Day Events → "1 day before (9 AM)". This applies to all calendars.

Other school schedules that work the same way

The same steps work for sports schedules, lunch menus with special days, exam timetables, PTA meetings and after-school club dates. If the schedule is on a web page or in an email, copy the text into the text to calendar converter. If it's a screenshot from a school app, use the image converter. Exams have their own guide: How to add your exam timetable to your calendar.