Parents' Evening Booking provides a quick and easy way for parents to book appointments with teachers.  Parents' evening events can be created using any groups synchronised with your MIS system, for example, registration groups and classes.

Integrating your MIS data

Generating parent accounts

When you can see your data appearing in the Data Dashboard, follow the instructions to generate accounts for parents.

Creating a parents' evening event

Before creating a parents' evening event, you must generate parent accounts. If this step is missed, you can't email the event details to parents, and they will not have an account to let them book a slot.

Follow these steps to create a Parents' Evening Event:

1. Select the Add-ons tab.
2. Scroll down and select Parents' Evening Booking:
   
   
    
3. Select Create:
   
   
   
   The Create Evening window opens:
   
   
    
4. Enter a Title for the event, for example, Year 7 Parents Evening (Spring 2025).
5. Select + ADD to choose the registration/year group(s)/other groups to include for the parents evening:
   
   
    
6. Select Add.
7. Select the Date of the event, its Start time and End time. For events over multiple days, select Add Date to add additional dates and times:
   
   
    
8. Set Booking Available Between to set the booking window within which parents can make a booking for the parents evening.If this is over multiple months, select the start date, then select the right button to navigate months, then select the end date in a future month (see animation below):
   
   
   
   If you choose to end bookings on the same day as your first event, you can set a time for bookings to finish, giving teachers some preparation time. When the booking window ends, parents cannot make bookings.
9. Set the Slot duration to indicate how long each appointment will be:
   
   
    
10. Select Travel Time as required to allow parents time to get from one appointment to the next:
    
    
     
11. Enter any additional notes for parents, for example, whether appointments are in person or online, what to do on arrival at the school and details of teachers who will not be available.
12. Select Next.

Setting staff details

For each member of staff who is allocated to the groups you selected in the previous steps, you will see a row from which you can tweak their settings:

Confirm that the relevant teachers have been pulled through from your MIS based on your chosen group(s).

For each staff member as necessary:

1. Change the Start Time and End Time if the particular teacher is not available at the start of the evening or has to leave early.
2. Change the Duration of the meetings with specific teachers if, for example, a special needs class may require extra time.
3. Uncheck any unnecessary groups from the Class field. For instance, a Head of House may be assigned to all pupils in their House but may only wish to meet families from the classes they teach:
   
    
4. Where an event runs over multiple days, uncheck any day where the teacher is not available:
   
   
    
5. Change the teacher's name made visible to parents when booking, by overtyping the entry in Teacher Name.  This can be particularly useful to add the names of several teachers that may be working together to teach a single class, who will be jointly conducting the consultations. 

To save your progress to date without publishing it, select Save Draft, alternatively, select Publish to publish a finalised version of the event:

After publishing a parents' evening event, you cannot make any changes. Review all details carefully before publishing to ensure everything is correct, particularly the booking window. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to send an invite email to parents until the booking window opens. If the booking window starts in the future, for example, you must wait until that date to send the invites.

Publishing will make the event visible to any parents who log in, but they will not be able to book until the booking window that you set arrives.

Publishing a draft parents' evening event

If you have previously saved a parents' evening event as a draft and you want to make it live:

1. Select the Edit icon:
   
   
    
2. When the event window opens, select Next.
3. Select Publish to make it live.

Administering the parents evening

After your parents' evening has been published, it is listed in Your Dashboard.

The % Booked indicates the percentage of eligible students who have had a booking made on the evening (not the percentage of available slots that have been filled).

 Select View from the Dashboard to view the event, manage it and check the progress of any bookings:

The Teach Slots window is displayed:

Sending an invitation to parents

Invitations are not automatically sent to parents.

To send invitations to parents:

1. Select Send Email to send an invitation to all the parents associated with the Parents' Evening. The Send Email window loads. By default, the email will include the event details, including a link to take them to the booking page:
   
   
2. Edit the email wording as required. Use placeholders to personalise the message.
3. By default, the message will be sent to all parents. 
   
   You may choose to only send the message to contacts who have an email address (or mobile number for text messaging) and who are both Parentally Responsible and Priority contacts for each pupil, as recorded in your MIS.
   
   To send to primary contacts only, hover over the arrow on the right of the Send button. Select Primary Contact:
   
   
   
   Anyone with access to the pupil details will see all appointments, no matter which parent booked the appointment.
   
   If there are parents you wish to exclude from messages, ensure they are not marked with Parental Responsibility or as a Priority/Primary contact in your MIS system. Additionally, parents without an email address or mobile number recorded will not receive messages.
    
4. Select Send.

You can choose whether to automatically send reminders to parents with bookings the day before your event. This can be set globally for all your parents' evenings in Add-on Settings.

Before creating a parents' evening event, you must generate parent accounts. If this step is missed, you won't be able to email the event details to parents, and they will not have an account letting them book a slot.

Adding to your website calendar

To add details of your parents' evening to your website calendar, including a link to book:

1. Select Add to Website Calendar.
2. From the Add Parents' Evening To Calendar window, check the information that has been auto populated, making any changes as needed:
   
3. Select one or more categories to display the event in.
4. Select Save to add the event to your calendar.

Determining which pupils and parents are included in the event

To view a list of those pupils and parents who have been invited to the parents' evening:

1. Select Recipients to check which pupils and parents are included in the event:
   
2. Select All or a group in the left pane to see a list of pupils:
   
3. Optionally, select to Export or Print the list.

Select Please Select, then select the No Contacts filter to see a list of those who will not receive an invitation to make an online booking:

Contact them directly to book an appointment.  

Determining who has booked an appointment at your parents' evenings

To generate a list of who has booked an appointment at your parents' evening:

1. Select Report to check who has booked onto your parents' evening:
   
2. Select All or a group in the left pane to see a list of pupils and how many appointments they have made:
   
3. Optionally, choose to Print or Export the list.

Select Please Select, then select the No Bookings filter to see a list of those who have yet to make any appointments:

Contact them directly to book an appointment as appropriate.  

Creating a teacher appointment schedule

To create a teacher appointment schedule:

1. Select Teacher Schedule:
   
2. Select the teachers whose appointment schedules you want to print / email. To select all teachers, select Select All. Selected teachers will have a purple tick next to their name:
   
3. Select Email to email to those staff members with email addresses (indicated by an envelope icon next to their name). When prompted, Confirm you want to send the emails:
   
4. Select Print to print out.

Pausing event bookings

To pause appointment booking for an event:

1. Select Pause Evening to open the Pause Evening window:
   
2. Check Please tick this box to confirm you would like to pause the evening:
   
3. Optionally, when prompted, check Send Email to parents if you want to let them know you have paused bookings and when you will reopen them:
   
   1. Review and modify the Email subject as appropriate.
   2. Review and modify the Email body as appropriate.
   3. Optionally, check Send to primary contacts only if you want the email to go to your primary contacts, not all contacts.
   4. Optionally, check Only send to contacts with bookings if you want to restrict the email to only those contacts who have made appointments already.
4. Select Confirm (or Confirm & Send if you have opted to send an email to parents).

Resuming event bookings

To resume parents' evening bookings:

1. Select View from the Dashboard to view the event that has been paused:
   
2. Select Resume Evening.
3. From the Resume Evening screen, check Please tick this box to confirm you would like to resume the evening:
   
4. Optionally, check Send Email to parents if you want to let them know that they can restart making bookings for the parents' evening:
   
   1. Review and modify the Email subject as appropriate.
   2. Review and modify the Email body as appropriate.
   3. Optionally, check Send to primary contacts only if you want the email to go to your primary contacts, not all contacts.
   4. Optionally, check Only send to contacts with bookings if you want to restrict the email to only those contacts who have made appointments already.
5. Select Confirm (or Confirm & Send if you have opted to send an email to parents).

Booking appointments on behalf of parents

To book an appointment on behalf of a parent:

1. Select Please select staff.
2. Select a staff member from the list.
3. Select a date (if the parents' evening runs over multiple days).
4. From the list of available appointments, select Book Now:
   
   
5. Select a pupil from the list (you'll only be offered pupils who the staff member is expecting to see):
   
6. The appointment is created:
   
7. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
8. Optionally, check Send email of changes to parents.
9. Select Save bookings.  

Removing an appointment

To remove an appointment:

1. Select Please select staff.
2. Select a staff member from the list.
3. Select a date (if the parents' evening runs over multiple days).
4. From the list of available appointments, select Remove Booking next to the appointment you want to remove:
   
5. The booking will be removed and the slot will become available:
   
6. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
7. Optionally, check Send email of changes to parents.
8. Select Save bookings.  

Adding a public note for all bookings with a specific teacher

To add a note that all parents can see regarding bookings with a teacher:

1. Select Please select staff.
2. Select a staff member from the list.
3. Select a date (if the parents' evening runs over multiple days).
4. Select Add/Edit note for parents booked with this teacher:
   
5. When prompted, add or edit the note:
   
6. Select Save.

Do not use this feature to save private notes. Add a note to a specific pupil appointment to save private notes.

Adding a note to a pupil appointment

Pupil appointment notes can only be made after an appointment has been saved.

To add a note to a specific pupil appointment:

1. Select View next to the relevant live parent evening from the Dashboard:
   
2. Select Please select staff.
3. Select a staff member from the list.
4. Select a date (if the parents' evening runs over multiple days).
5. From the list of available appointments, select Edit Notes to add / edit notes for a specific pupil:
   
6. When prompted, enter your notes into the relevant notes section:
   
   1. Staff Public Notes are viewable by all members of staff.
   2. Staff Private Notes are viewable only by the teacher with whom the appointment is.
   3. Parent Notes are viewable by the pupil's parents.
7. Select Save.
8. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
9. Optionally, check Send email of changes to parents.
10. Select Save bookings. 

Making Slots Unavailable / Setting Teacher Breaks

After saving your Parents' Evening, you can change the status of certain time slots to Unavailable so that parents cannot book them.

This can then be used for breaks for teachers and to make appointments for a second parent if needed.

Follow these steps to make a slot unavailable:

1. Select View next to a relevant live parent evening from the Dashboard:
   
2. Select Please select staff.
3. Select a staff member from the list.
4. Select a date (if the parents' evening runs over multiple days).
5. From the list of available appointments, select Available on the slot you want to make unavailable:
   
6. When prompted, enter a reason for making the appointment unavailable, for example, "Break" and "James' dads appointment":
   
7. Select OK.
8. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
9. Optionally, check Send email of changes to parents.
10. Select Save bookings. 

The appointment row is marked as Unavailable. The note will show in the Teacher Schedule so the staff member can see what the appointment has been booked out for.

How can parents access the Parents' evening event, and how do they book?

When your Parents' Evening Booking is enabled, a dedicated page is created on your website that you can share with your parents.  The page can be edited as required.  

Accessing the parents' evening online booking page

As a parent, you can access the booking system by following these instructions:

1. Open a web browser.
2. Enter the school URL and add /parentportal/parents-evening to the end of it, for example,  www.schoolname.co.uk/parentportal/parents-evening.
3. When prompted, enter your Email Address (the one registered with the school) and Password:
   
4. Select Login:
   

If you have not yet set your password, select Forgot your password to request a password reset email.

Booking Appointments

Follow these steps to book an appointment:

1. Select the child you want to book an appointment for in the top right-hand corner of the screen (select the circle containing their initials).
2. Select the day for the appointment (if the event is across multiple days).
3. Select a time slot for each teacher you want to book with, then Reserve. Your selection will show in green with the word RESERVED.  The slot will only be reserved for 10 minutes.
4. Select Save to confirm the reservation by selecting Save in the bottom right corner:
   

Updated 11 December 2025 16:19