Peripatetic Music Class timetable

To create a peripatetic class timetable you can use a Parent-Teacher Conference Sign up Container.

Points for consideration when setting up your container and events:

• How are your groups set? For instance, does a specific group of children have lessons each Monday? Can all year groups or abilities have lessons with a teacher on the days they are available? You may need to create custom groups to set who is eligible for lessons with a particular teacher (Step 2) 
• Do you want to manually book students in for all sessions or allow parents to choose their own times? You could set up the first week's sessions and allow parents to choose the day of the week, then add the rest of the sessions yourself by manually assigning timeslots. (Step 5)
• Parents will receive an email confirmation of the sessions and they will be shown in the diary in SchoolsBuddy. This will occur whether the parent has booked or the school has manually booked the student.

Step 1: Create a container under Parent Evenings:

We suggest creating a termly container because you can clone it next term if you are running a similar programme. Please see here for more information about how to create a Parent Teacher Conference container.

We recommend: 

• A title and description giving parents all the information they need about how you will charge fees and how long they have to book a place.
• Allow booking cancellation so that parents can change their mind within the sign up dates.
• Set the maximum bookable events per group to 999 (It must be unlimited or at least equal to the amount of weeks that students can attend sessions for).
• The meeting format can be switched for online or on site lessons.
• Use Organisation Block dates so that no dates are added in Half Term.
• Use the Terms and Conditions box to give information about cancellations and refunds

Step 2: Creating Groups:

If the lessons are only available to selected pupils on select days you will need to set up custom groups. If they are not, skip this step and you can use whole school/grade/class as required. To create custom groups please see here.

Step 3: Music Teacher Groups:

Now set up the session option groups within the Container.  These may just be for a teacher and instrument, but if you have specific timetable options for different year or ability groups you may need more Teacher groups e.g. Clarinet - Mondays - Mrs Stark, Clarinet - Tuesdays - Mrs Stark

1. Go to Activities & Clubs > Manage (Container) > Teachers
2. Click on +Add
3. Add a relevant title, e.g. Clarinet - Mrs Stark
4. Add a description if needed
5. Click Available to and select a group / grade / whole school
6. Set Gender
7. Set the Lead Staff Member as the teacher in charge
8. Activity: Music
9. Set Location. If this varies, you can leave it blank.
10. Click Save.

Repeat these steps or use the copy button to create the rest of the teacher groups.

Step 4: Create Events:

If you want parents to book the first week, just create events for week 1 initially. If staff will book everything you can create them all at once. If the teacher changes day each week, you will need to Copy their events and choose Frequency Single day each time.  If for instance they always teach lessons on Mondays, and only the time changes, you can use the "Multiple Days" Frequency and select Monday, creating lessons on every Monday between the Activities Start and End Dates specified.  

1. Click on Create Events > +Add New
2. Title: Music Lesson for example
3. Bookings per slot: Leave as 1 unless students can share e.g. lessons in pairs
4. Create for Groups: Check the boxes for all teachers/ groups on the same day/schedule e.g. Clarinet & Drums are both run on Mondays from 9:00am to 16:00pm
5. Check the box for Use group default location.
6. Frequency: Single day 
7. Event date: Choose the date of the first lesson e.g. Monday 11th January
8. Start and end Times: This will be showing the default times from the container but can be changed - they must be the same for all the groups you've checked 
9. Set Event time length in mins and any intervals needed between the lessons
10. Click Create Rule.

Next create events for the other days in Week 1.  Click Copy on an Event you have just created.

1. Change the Group to another teacher / group.
2. Check the Use group default location box.
3. Change the Event date to the correct day.
4. Change the schedule if the start and end times are different
5. Change the event time and interval if the lessons are a different length.  Click Create Rule.

As you are setting up multiple events you may see a Clash detected box, click Yes, create rule anyway if you do.  As long as the teacher is not scheduled more than once there should not be a problem running events for groups at the same time.

If you are opening the first week up to parents for booking, publish the events next. If not, continue to copy groups for the other weeks.

You can choose to set up the whole term in one go or do it week by week but we recommend creating all events at once as it will be easier to book the lesson slots later.

Note: If parents are booking the sessions depending on how far in advance you wish them to book will be when you create and publish the events. As soon as they are published and the container sign up opens they will be available for booking.

Step 5: Making Manual Bookings:

If parents have already booked the first session you will now be able to see a list of names on the first session by looking on the Staff Schedule tab.  Note the names to make the rest of the bookings for.  

If you have planned all the sessions already you will need this information to hand. If not, you can just make sure you select a different time slot each week.

1. Click on Activities & Clubs > Manage (Container) > Manual Booking
2. Start typing in a student name
3. Click on the name and a list of the Available Bookings will appear.
4. Click on the time slots for that student (the time slot will turn green)
5. When you are happy with the selection, click Book
6. On the next screen, click Confirm and record Fee (no fees attached).
7. A confirmation page will appear saying that Your bookings are being processed and an email confirmation will be sent (to the parents)
8. Click OK

Repeat this process for all the students.

Next: See our Quick Charge guide for charging parents a fee