About Termcapsule
A class time capsule for teachers: pupils write to their future selves now, and the teacher opens every letter on the day they choose.
Why it exists
Many teachers end the year with a time capsule. Pupils write to the person they will be next year, the letters go into a shoebox, and the box waits in a cupboard until the first week back. It works, but letters go missing, a child who moves school never gets theirs, and the teacher spends an evening copying and sorting. The online ways of doing it tend to ask every pupil for an email address, or ask the teacher to scan and upload a stack of paper.
Termcapsule keeps the shoebox idea and drops the chores. The teacher prints one slip for each seat. Pupils scan the square on their slip, type their code, write and seal. Nobody can read a letter before release day, the teacher included. On that day every code opens its own letter, and the teacher can read and print the lot.
How it treats children's data
There is no pupil account, no pupil name, no pupil email and no photo, ever. A seat number is the only thing that identifies a pupil, and the list that says which child sat at which seat stays on the teacher's paper. Letters refuse email addresses, web addresses and phone numbers, and prompts a teacher writes cannot ask for a name, birthday, address or school. Surnames inside a letter cannot be detected reliably, so the page asks pupils to leave them out rather than pretend to catch them. Letters are deleted 180 days after release.
How it is built
The pages are static files. A small server keeps the classes, seats and letters in one database on Cloudflare. The teacher signs in with a passkey, so the site never holds a password. Class links and codes are kept only in a scrambled form, so a copy of the database would not open a single letter. There is no advertising and no tracking script.
Who it is for
Elementary and middle-school teachers, from kindergarten to grade 8, running a capsule at the end of a term or a year. It suits a class with its own tablets, a computer room, or pupils taking turns on one device.
What it is not
It is not a messaging service: pupils and parents never get email. It does not read or screen letters, and it makes no claim to. The teacher follows their school's own rules on pupil work. Termcapsule is not affiliated with any school, school district, education authority or letter-to-the-future service.
Install it
On a phone it can sit on your home screen like an app. On an iPhone or iPad, open the Share menu in Safari and choose Add to Home Screen. On other browsers, use Install in the menu.
Contact
Questions and problem reports go to [email protected]. A report that names the page and what you pressed is the quickest to fix.