A simple letter template for foster carers

If your fostering service asks for a weekly or monthly letter to the child in your care, it helps to have the same shape each time. You stop staring at a blank page, and over months the letters read like chapters of one story.

Here's a simple template. Copy it into whatever you write in, and change anything that doesn't fit your service or your child.

The template

A letter for [child's first name] [Dates the letter covers, e.g. 5 to 11 October 2026] · Letter [number]

Hello [name],

This week… [One or two sentences about the week as a whole. Was it busy, quiet, sunny, rainy, a school holiday?]

Something that happened. [One moment, told like a short story: where you were, who was there, what they did or said.]

Something new. [Something they tried, learned or managed for the first time, however small.]

Something that made us smile. [A funny remark, a game, a kindness.]

People you saw. [Full names and who they are: "Mrs Hughes, your class teacher", "Jean, our neighbour".]

Coming up. [Something they're looking forward to next week.]

[Sign-off, e.g. "With love,"] [Your names] · [Date written]

Add one or two photos, each with a caption saying who is in it, where and when. The child may not remember any of it, so the caption does the remembering for them.

A filled-in example

Here is the template filled in for a made-up child, so you can see how short each part can be.

A letter for Mia 5 to 11 October 2026 · Letter 14

Hello Mia,

This week… It rained for most of it, so we had a lot of indoor days. You turned the lounge into a shop and sold us our own socks.

Something that happened. On Saturday we went down to the harbour between showers. You counted eleven boats and chose a red one with a striped sail as your favourite.

Something new. You swam a whole width of the pool without armbands, and Dan, your swimming teacher, said you kept kicking even when you were tired.

Something that made us smile. You told Jean she was "very old but quite good at snap".

People you saw. Jean, our neighbour, came for tea on Wednesday. Mrs Hughes, your class teacher, says your reading is coming on well.

Coming up. Your class trip to the farm is next Thursday. You've asked if there will be a tractor.

With love, Sam and Alex · 12 October 2026

That's under 150 words, and it already tells a reader what the week was like, who was in it and what mattered.

A monthly version

If your service asks for a monthly letter rather than a weekly one, keep the same parts but widen them. Replace "this week" with "this month", choose the two or three moments you'd most want the child to know about, and use "something new" for anything that changed, such as a new school year, a new friend or a haircut. Fewer, better-told moments read better than a month in bullet points.

Tips for each part

• The heading. Dates and a letter number make the letters easy to put in order later, for the child and for the social worker.
• Something that happened. One moment, told well, beats a list of everything. "We went to the harbour" is a fact; "You counted eleven boats and chose the red one with the striped sail" is a memory.
• Something new. First swim without armbands, first word, first sleepover, first time trying broccoli. These are the details families usually remember for each other.
• People you saw. Use full names and roles. In fifteen years, "your teacher" won't mean anything; "Mrs Hughes, your Year 2 teacher" might help them find her.
• Coming up. Keep it to things that are planned and certain. Don't promise contact, moves or treats that might not happen.
• Sign and date it. Many services ask for this, and it shows who wrote it and when.

For a monthly letter, use the same parts but pick the best two or three moments from the month.

If the week was hard

You don't need to pretend every week was lovely. Describe what happened rather than using labels, say how you helped, and end with something steady. There's more on this in writing about hard weeks and family time.

The part templates don't fix

A Word template gives you headings. It doesn't stop photos jumping around the page, or the letter looking like a form. Making something that feels like a keepsake usually means the laptop, fonts, margins and page breaks, at the end of a long week. That's a design job, and nobody expects foster carers to be designers.

My Chapters: Letters is an iPhone and iPad app that does that part for you. You write in your own words on your phone, with ideas suited to the child's age, and every letter comes out designed, numbered, signed and dated, with captioned photos. It sends to the social worker with the child's reference number, and binds every letter into a book for their life story. The first month is free.

Related guides

• How to write a weekly letter to a child in foster care
• Example letters for children in foster care, by age
• What to keep for a child's life story