Events

Overview

This article explains how to make changes to a draft parents' evening that has been saved (invitations have not been sent) before publishing it. Additionally, it explains how to delete a draft parents' evening.

Open draft parents' evening

Follow these steps to open, update and publish a parents' evening you previously saved as a draft, but didn't publish:  

1. Open Events.
2. Select Parents' Evening.
3. From All Parents' Evenings, locate the draft parents' evening previously created and saved.

4. Select the Parents' Evening to open it.

   The draft parents' evening opens. A draft parents' evening differs from a published parents' evening when opened, as a Send Invitations button is displayed:

   

Make updates

Expand a section to find out more:

• To add or change the title and location of a draft parents' evening:
  1. Open the draft parents' evening if it is not already open.
  2. Select the Overview tab if it is not already selected.

  3. Select Edit:

     

  4. Update the Title and Location as required,then select Save:

     

     A message is displayed confirming your changes have been stored:

     

• To add or change the SENCO assigned to the parents' evening:
  1. Open the draft parents' evening if it is not already open.
  2. Select the Overview tab if it is not already selected.

  3. Select Edit:

     

  4. To add a SENCO where one hasn't been added, toggle SENCo appointments on:

     

  5. If you have changed the SENCO from the original one in the General settings (see Assigning a staff member as SENCO) and want to switch the SENCO to the new one (by default the Parents' Evening intentionally does not update with the new one), select the SENCo Staff Members name, and select the new one from the drop-down list:

     

     Changes made to the SENCO will result in the schedule related to any previous SENCO selection being deleted (for example, their availability and breaks). 

  6. Select Save. A message is displayed confirming your changes have been stored:

     

• To add or update the schedule for a draft parents' evening, for example, the dates, times, breaks or lengths of appointment:
  1. Open the draft parents' evening if it is not already open.
  2. Select the Overview tab if it is not already selected.

  3. Select Edit:

     

  4. Optionally, select a new duration for each parent-teacher consultation appointment, using the Duration of Time Slot (select a value from five minutes to an hour per slot, at five-minute intervals).

  5. Optionally, add or change the dates of the parents' evening. Select the Date, Start Time and End Time for the parents' evening:

     

     Where a parents' evening runs over several days:

     1. Select Add for each extra day.
     2. Select the Start Time and End Time for each of the days.

     If you make an error / add an extra day, select the delete icon to remove it.

  6. Optionally, add or change staff breaks for each date as required:

     

     1. Select one or more Dates as appropriate.
     2. Select one or more Time Slots as a break for staff.
     3. Select Add, as required to add an additional date.

     If you make an error select the delete icon to remove the break, or select X to remove individual times / days.

  7. Select Save. A message is displayed confirming your changes have been stored:

     

     When changing the schedule, any previously made manual-edits for individual staff members will be removed. You will need to remake those changes in the Staff Schedule tab.

• To add or remove pupils from a draft parents' evening:
  1. Open the draft parents' evening if it is not already open.
  2. Select the Pupils & Contacts tab.

  3. Select Edit:

     

  4. From the Edit Pupils & Contacts, select / deselect the pupils you want to invite to the parents' evening:

     

     1. Check / uncheck the Pupils you want to invite / remove from the parents' evening invitation list. 

     2. For each pupil invited, check / uncheck the contacts that you want to send the invitation to / remove the invite.

        To make bulk changes, check / uncheck the appropriate Quick Selection options (All Contacts, Parental Contacts and Emergency Contacts) to select the related contacts for all pupils.
        
        If you select / deselect Quick Selection options, change any exceptions manually by checking / unchecking contacts for individual pupils.

  5. Select Save after making your changes:

     

     A message confirms any changes made, and you are returned to the Pupils & Contacts tab:

     

• To add or remove a group from a draft parents' evening:
  1. Open the draft parents' evening if it is not already open.
  2. Select the Groups tab.

  3. Select Edit:

     

  4. Select the groups and associated staff involved in the parents' evening:

     

     1. Check / uncheck one or more classes / groups that you want to include / exclude in the parents' evening. To select all classes / groups, check the checkbox next to Group Selected:

        

     2. Where multiple staff members are assigned to a class group, select the member of staff who will be present for the parent's evening:

        

        Where a class is shared, only one of the staff members is assigned. Parents book appointments with one staff member per class. For multi-day events, the same staff member is assigned for all days -you cannot assign a different staff member for the class on different days. 

     3. Select Save after making your changes:

        

        A message confirms any changes made, and you are returned to the Groups tab:

        

• To add or change a staff member's schedule:
  1. Open the draft parents' evening if it is not already open.
  2. Select the Groups tab.

  3. Select Edit:

     

  4. For each staff member involved with parental consultations, make any changes as required:

     

     1. Select the member of staff:

        

     2. To change a staff member's location enter the new location in Teacher Location:

        

     3. Where a staff member will not be available for an appointment slot, change it from Available to Break or Unavailable as appropriate:

        

     4. Select Save after making your changes:

        

     5. A message confirms any changes made, and you are returned to the Staff Schedule tab:

        

• To publish a parents' evening:

  1. Open the draft parents' evening if it is not already open.

  2. Select Send invitations:

     

     Review Send Invitations, then select Send Invitations to publish the parents' evening and send invitations to the contacts of those pupils listed: 

     

     Where a pupil has no contacts selected, No Contact is displayed. 

     Where a contact is using the Parent App, this is indicated using a Parent App lozenge. 

  The draft parents' evening is now live (published) as shown when you return to the All Parents' Evening page.

  

• To delete a draft parents' evening:
  1. Open the parents' evening if it is not already open.

  2. Select Delete:

     

  3. Where prompted, confirm the deletion by selecting Confirm:

     

     Deleted parents' evenings cannot be recovered.

     The parents' evening is deleted. A message is displayed confirming this:

     

Tips and best practices

1. Where the majority of staff / pupils are being selected, check the corresponding select all box, then uncheck those individual pupils / staff members that are the exceptions. 
2. Enter the name of a member of staff / pupil / contact into the search bar to quickly locate them, ready to assign to / unassign from a parents' evening.
3. Use filters to reduce the number of groups displayed. This will speed up pupil / group selection. Filter by either Group Category or Group Type.
4. When you check child related contacts to send an invitation, to speed up the process, select from either All Contacts, Parental Contacts and Emergency Contacts.  Uncheck any exceptions as needed.
5. Where a parent is flagged as having a Court Order preventing contact, they are listed, but cannot be selected when sending an invitation. 

Next steps

After the parents' evening is published, it is time to wait for parents to book appointments to meet with class teachers. 

To manage the appointments and invite the additional parents after the parents' evening has been published, see the following articles:

• Manage parents' bookings (add / make, change and decline bookings).
• Add pupils to a parents' evening.

To manage staff involved with the parents' evening and add groups, see:

• Manage staff schedules.
• Add groups to a parents' evening (the teacher associated with the group will be added to the parents' evening when this is done).

If you need to cancel the parents' evening, see:

• Cancel a parents' evening.

Related information

• Assigning a staff member as SENCO.

Updated 21 May 2026 16:02