Agree - quite doable as described, or perhaps some ideas outlined below would be of interest.
Application comments
1. better to choose student from a combobox list, which can have a find as you type feature if desired
2. this can be eliminated by the choosing of a list item (a name)
3. depends. If student details are shown above a list of notes then
4. the "notes" form can be eliminated. This is a form/subform design.
5. not clear what you want to delete. Perhaps Cancel to clear unsaved data and close the form without saving.
Search comments
1. Research cascading combos. User can choose a class and the secondary comob list of students gets filtered by that choice.
2. Act of choosing a student can retrieve the notes as before (or use button if preferred).
3. No need if user wants only student "Ima Dunz" notes. The form can be opened to or with only the chosen student. In fact, the option to open all and cycle through ("All" in the student combo can be a choice.
4. This could be the same main form/subform being used all the time.
The more we hear silence, the more we begin to think about our value in this universe.
Paraphrase of Professor Brian Cox.