This article explains how to set up a Parents' Evening in the portal so parents and guardians can book appointments with the correct staff for the correct students.
A Parents' Evening is treated as live when either the Booking Start date is reached or a staff member makes a booking on behalf of a parent before that date.
Make sure the correct students, teaching groups, and staff availability are in place before this happens.
Set Up a Parents' Evening
Log in as an Admin user, then click Admin Control Panel.
On the left, click Events, then click Parents Evening.
Click Add New Parents Evening.
In Title, enter the name of the Parents' Evening.
In Populate Using Lessons From, select the start date you want to use for lesson data.
In Populate Using Lessons Up To, select the end date you want to use for lesson data.
Select Parents' Evening Enabled? if you want to enable the Parents' Evening.
Select Allow Telephone Consultations? if you want parents or guardians to be able to request telephone consultations.
📌 Note: If a guardian chooses Allow Telephone Consultations?, they can no longer book sessions in the portal. The school must arrange the consultation outside the portal.
Select Enforce Single Teacher/Pupil Combinations? if a teacher teaches more than one subject to the same child and only one appointment should be booked with that teacher.
Select Enforce Single Lesson/Pupil Combinations? if a subject has multiple teachers and parents should only be able to book one of those teachers for that subject.
In Appointment Length (In Minutes), enter the appointment length you want to use.
Add students
Click Students.
Add students using any of the following options:
Years & Forms – Click the plus icon to add and the minus icon to remove.
Teams – Click the plus icon to add and the minus icon to remove.
Groups – Click the plus icon to add and the minus icon to remove.
Individual pupils – Select the School, Year Group, and Form, then enter the student name in Pupil Name and click Filter.
To add individual students from the results, click + Add.
To remove individual students, go to View Selected Pupils, find the pupil, then click - Remove.
Click View Selected Pupils to review the current list.
Click Confirm selected pupils.
Add teaching groups
Click Teaching Groups.
Select the teaching group types you want to use:
Timetabled Teaching Groups, which are based on the selected students' timetables.
Non-Timetabled Teaching Groups, which are based on student groups with the type Teaching linked to the selected students.
Select the teaching groups you want to include.
Click Confirm Teaching Groups.
Set booking dates and description
In Booking Start, select the date and time when parents and guardians can begin booking.
In Booking End, select the date and time when booking closes.
In Description, enter any additional information if required.
Create Sessions and Set Staff Availability
In Sessions, add the dates and times when the Parents' Evening takes place.
In Date, select the session date.
In Start Time, select the session start time.
In End Time, select the session end time.
Click Add to save the session.
Once the session has been added, click Staff Availability.
In the Staff Availability For Session window, select the staff member from Staff Member.
In Location, enter the room name or, if the Parents' Evening is remote, enter the link to the staff member's virtual meeting room.
Set the staff availability using the checkboxes.
Click Confirm Availability.
Repeat these steps for each staff member who needs availability added.
Click Save Changes.