Booking Lessons & Appointments

You access these features using the diary. For help accessing the diary see Managing My Diary.

Choosing a Space in Your Diary

Desktop

To choose a slot to book the lesson within, hover your cursor over an available space. You will start to see a lilac box appear that follows you when hovering over available space.

Once you have found a suitable time and date, click on the start time within the available space and the box will automatically 'lock on' to that time.

You will then see the start/end time become visible along with arrows for you to expand or reduce the required slot time; as you do this you will notice the slot duration will change.

The ‘clear' button will release the booking time frame to allow you to pick another time slot.

Once you are happy with your selection you can tap the ‘+’ button. You can then choose from the following options:

• Book Lesson - this will show the Booking Popup.
• Create Personal Appointment - see Personal Appointments for more details.
• Offer This Slot to Your Pupils - see Offering Empty Slots to Pupils for more details.

Mobile

Day Agenda View

The mobile day agenda view is quite different to other diary views.

The gaps between lessons are compressed. Once you have found a suitable gap, tap on the gap and you can then choose from the following options:

• Book Lesson - this will show the Booking Popup.
• Create Personal Appointment - see Personal Appointments for more details.

For a guide to using this view see Mobile - Day Agenda View.

Week View

Once you have found a suitable time and date, tap on a time within the available space and an indicator box will automatically 'lock on' to that time.

You will then see the start/end time become visible along with draggable handles for you to expand or reduce the required slot time; as you do this you will notice the slot duration will change.

The ‘bin' button will release the booking time frame to allow you to pick another time slot.

Once you are happy with your selection you can tap the ‘+’ button. You can then choose from the following options:

• Book Lesson - this will show the Booking Popup.
• Create Personal Appointment - see Personal Appointments for more details.
• Offer This Slot to Your Pupils - see Offering Empty Slots to Pupils for more details.

Booking Lessons

Booking Popup

The layout of the popup is different for the Desktop & Mobile interfaces, but the functionality remains the same.

Lesson Details

1. Pupil Selector - click/tap to choose a pupil.
2. Lesson Times - you can set these here. Conflict warning information will be updated as you change these times and show at the bottom of the popup. See Things Affecting Bookings for more details
3. Quick Duration Change - click/tap these to set the lesson duration relative to start time. Caters for common lesson duration values. Shows the current duration for information.
4. Lesson Type.
5. Pick Up/Drop Off - pick up & drop off locations.
6. Notes - any notes regarding the lesson. To record progress and comments after the lesson we recommend you use the progress feature. See Recording Progress After a Lesson for more details.
7. Booking Conflicts - warning regarding potential conflicts and/or problems if this lesson is booked. For a more guide to potential booking conflicts see Things Affecting Bookings.

 Syllabus

You cannot change anything in this tab until you have selected a pupil on the 'Lesson' tab.

Select the 'Syllabus' tab to choose the syllabus for this lesson. The syllabus will default to the pupil's default as set in their settings. See Pupil Settings for more details.

To record progress a lesson must already be booked. See Recording Progress After a Lesson for more details.

Payment

Note: Your school may have disabled or simply not set up pupil payments. If so this tab will not be visible.

Select the 'Payments' tab to record pupil payments for the lesson.

For a detailed guide to recording lesson and other payments see Recording Payments Using the Diary.

 

Once you are wish to book the lesson use the 'Book' button. If there are no conflicts this should book the lesson and close the popup.

However if there is a conflict with another lesson booking or personal appointment you will be asked to confirm that you definitely want to book:

Choosing 'Amend Booking' will return you to the booking popup to allow you to amend the lesson times. Choosing 'Book Anyway' will ignore any conflicts and book the lesson.

Things Affecting Bookings

Booking Conflicts

Booking conflicts occur when the desired lesson booking overlaps with an existing lesson or personal appointment.

You can get an idea of potential conflicts when you choose your slot on most of the diary views:

The lesson booking & edit popups include conflict warning information at the bottom which updates as you change the lesson times:

These warnings include information regarding:

• Any conflicts with previously booked lessons.
• Any conflicts with your personal appointments.
• If the lesson times are partially or fully outside of your normal working hours.

Any warnings are advisory only and will not prevent you from booking the lesson.

Minimum Lesson Gap

You can specify the minimum gap you or an administrator should leave between lessons when booking into your diary. The gap indicator is shown to school administrators (and yourself) to allow them to make an informed decision when booking lessons. They are not prevented from violating the minimum gap.

The minimum lesson gap is enforced for pupils requesting lessons too closely to others in your diary. They cannot violate the minimum gap.

The gap is represented as as shaded areas before and after lessons on most diary views, except the mobile day agenda view:

The minimum lesson gap is not shown on the Mobile Day Agenda View. See Day Agenda View for more information on this view.

You can set & change your minimum lesson gap using your account settings. See Changing My Account Settings - Minimum Lesson Gap for for more details.

Working Hours

If you enable working hours you can define the usual hours during the week in which you work.

Your working hours are shown to school administrators to allow them to make an informed decision when booking lessons. They are not prevented from booking outside of your working hours, but are warned to discourage this.

Your working hours are also shown to pupils to allow them to make an informed decision when requesting lessons. They are not prevented from requesting lessons outside of your working hours, but are warned that their request is likely to be rejected if they do. Only applicable if your school has enabled pupils to request lessons.

They appear on most diary views, except the mobile day agenda view, as semi-transparent green block behind all other items:

On the Mobile Day Agenda View as a green block to the right of the booked items:

See Day Agenda View for more information on this view.

You can set & change your working hours using your account settings. See Changing My Account Settings - Working Hours for for more details.

Personal Appointments

You can create personal appointments in your diary. These represent exceptions to your usual working times for things such as holidays, doctor appointments etc.

Creating

The layout of the popup is different for the Desktop & Mobile interfaces, but the functionality remains the same.

1. You.
2. Description - a short description of the purpose of the appointment. This is shown in all diary views, lists and summaries.
3. Notes (optional) - more detailed notes, such as specific details about your appointment. Not shown in diary views.
4. When - use this toggle to choose custom dates/times & repeat intervals.

The following elements are only shown if the 'Custom Times' option is selected. See Quick Times for details of the alternative:

5. All Day - If you want to block out the whole day choose this option. All day appointments are shown differently in most diary views. See How the Diary Shows All Day Appointments for more details.
6. Appointment Times - Not shown if the 'All Day' option is selected.
7. Quick Duration Change - click/tap these to set the lesson duration relative to start time. Caters for common appointment duration values. Shows the current duration for information. Not shown if the 'All Day' option is selected.
8. Repeat - select this option if you wish to create an appointment that repeats at a regular interval. If not selected a single appointment will be created for the dates & times chosen
9. Forever - select this option to create an appointment that repeats forever.

The following elements are only shown if the 'Custom Times' & 'Repeat' options are selected and the 'Forever' option is not selected

10. Repeat Interval - how often to repeat this appointment. Options include Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly & Yearly.
11. Last Repeat Date - The date of the last repeated instance of this appointment.  As you change this the Number of Times to Repeat field will be automatically updated.
12. Number of Times to Repeat - how many times to repeat this appointment at the chosen interval, inclusive of the first instance. As you change this the Last Repeat Date field will be automatically updated.

Quick Times

You can choose a pre-defined 'Quick' time if you simply wish to book out whole days such as a specific weekday or weekends:

This will result in an all day appointment that recurs forever on the given day(s).

Once you are happy, use the 'Save' button to create the appointment.

How the Diary Shows All Day Appointments

All day appointments are shown at the top of the various dairy views in a separate section. This keeps the diary clear to make management of lesson bookings & shorter personal appointments easier.

You can change an all day personal appointment by clicking/tapping on the entry/ This will show the 'Edit' & 'Delete' options.

Changing

To change a personal appointment when in a diary view, you can click/tap on the entry and select the 'Edit' option.

Menu > My Diary > Personal Appointment Entry > Edit

From the personal appointments list you can use the 'Edit' option or on desktop simply click/tap the list item itself. See Personal Appointments List for more details.

Editing a Quick Appointment

This allows you to change the days for the appointment via a drop down box in the bottom left corner and add notes if this is relevant, you then just click 'Save'. This will make any changes you have requested. 

Editing a Complex Appointment 

There is more flexibility with editing a complex appointment as you have several options available to you as you can change the Repeat Interval, Last Repeat Date & Number of Times to Repeat, as well as changing the start & end times if required.

 

 Once you are happy with the changes click save and this will alter the bookings in the calendar.

Deleting

Dashboard > My Diary > Personal Appointment Entry > Edit

From the personal appointments list you can use the 'Delete' option.

You will be asked to confirm that you wish to delete the appointment. If you choose 'Yes', the appointment will be removed from your diary. For repeating appointments all related instances will removed.

Deleting a Quick Appointment 

Once you have clicked delete this will automatically take this appointment out of your calendar. 

Deleting a Complex Appointment

You have range of options available allowing you to modify the appointment if it is part of a series.

1. You can delete one day from the series and this does not effect anything else
2. The whole series from the start can be deleted
3. This and future items from a particular point would be deleted.