The Booked Events module is for events that need to be booked into rather than just put on the calendar. Parent-teacher interviews are the classic case — limited capacity, time-slot scheduling, one booking per family — but the same mechanics work for open days, careers expos, music tuition sign-ups or anything else where you want parents or students to claim a place.
How it differs from regular events
| Module | Used for | Who registers? |
|---|---|---|
| Events (calendar) | School events that happen at a fixed time | Nobody — events just appear on the calendar |
| Booked Events | Events with limited capacity that people book into | Parents (or students) book a place, often into a specific time slot |
A booked event has a fixed date and capacity, an optional set of time slots, and a list of eligible students. Parents see only the booked events their children are eligible for, and only until the event closes.
The four building blocks
| Concept | What it is |
|---|---|
| Booking event | A single bookable event with a date, time range, capacity and eligible student list. |
| Session | A time slot within a booking event (e.g. 2:00–2:15 pm, 2:15–2:30 pm). Each session has its own capacity. Sessions are optional — events without sessions just take a flat booking count. |
| Group | A series of related booking events run as one (e.g. parent-teacher interviews running Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the same week). Groups can enforce one booking per student across the series. |
| Submission | A single booking — one student, optionally linked to one session, with the parent’s form responses attached. Submissions can be cancelled by the parent or by staff. |
A typical workflow
- Create the booking event with a date, time range, capacity and description. See Creating a booking event.
- Generate sessions if you want time-slot bookings (e.g. 30 × 15-minute slots between 2 pm and 9:30 pm). See Setting up time slots.
- Link a custom form to collect any information you need from parents at booking time (e.g. preferred teacher, dietary requirements). See Linking a custom form to a booking event.
- Set eligible students so only the right families see the event. See Setting eligibility and slip prerequisites.
- Optionally schedule reminders so parents who’ve booked get an email the day before. See Sending reminder emails.
- Watch submissions come in and export the attendee list before the event runs. See Viewing, managing and exporting submissions.
When to use groups
Use a group when:
- You’re running the same event across multiple days and want parents to book into any one of them.
- You want each student to book only once across the whole series (so the same family doesn’t book three slots).
- You want to manage the eligible student list in one place rather than per event.
Don’t use a group for unrelated events on different days — keep those separate.
What parents see
Eligible parents see a list of Booked events available for booking on their parent dashboard. For each event they can:
- Pick a time slot (if the event uses sessions).
- Fill in the custom form if one is linked.
- Submit the booking.
- Cancel a booking later, before the event runs.
If the event requires a slip submission first (see Setting eligibility and slip prerequisites) parents are taken through the slip first and can only book afterwards.
Where to start
- New to booked events: Creating a booking event.
- Running parent-teacher interviews: start with Creating a booking event, then Setting up time slots, then Grouping recurring booking events.
- Need to repeat last term’s event: Hiding, closing and copying events.