Private Music Lessons

To create private Music Lessons, you can use our Instant Book and Pay Module.

If you have rotational Music Lessons, then you cannot create this setup in SchoolsBuddy.

Example Scenario:

- We have 3 music teachers who teach Primary School, Mr. Henry Brown teaches Drums, Mrs. Phoebe Buffay teaches Guitar and Mr. Richard Bunsens teaches Cello.

- Each parent will be able to book 1-to-1 music lessons with each teacher from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 13:35 at the following times and costs for each times:

- 10:00 - 10:30 - £30

- 10:35 - 11:35 - £40

- 13:00 - 13:30 - £30

- 13:35 - 14:35 - £40

In order to begin building our setup, we have to create the container in the Instant Book and Pay Module.

Creating the container:

1. Sign Up Title: Add in the title, e.g. Private Music Lessons Term 2 2026.
2. Description: Add in information that is relevant to school private music lessons signup.
3. Allow booking cancellation: Set up according to your school protocol.
4. Block clashes: Set up according to your school protocol.
5. Maximum Bookable events per group: Leave this as 0, as you will have a group per music teacher.
6. Activities start dates: Set the dates for when you want the activities to occur, in this case for the whole school year. You can re-use the container to add trips as the year progresses. 
7. Activities end dates: Set the dates for when you want the activities to occur, in this case for the whole school year. You can re-use the container to add trips as the year progresses. 
8. Activities start times: The times are not important in this case as they can be set for each individual event later.
9. Activities end times: The times are not important in this case as they can be set for each individual event later.
10. Responsibility for confirmation: Select 'Parents Only', 'Students or Parents' or 'Students Only' according to your School’s preferences.
11. Sign up opens: Date and time when sign up opens (when parents can start booking)
12. Sign up closes: Date and time when sign up closes (e.g. if you are creating the container for the term/year, when is the last day that parents should be able to sign up for your trips)
13. Show select all button: This enables the parent/student to select all the lessons in one go if they're set individually.
14. Use organisation block dates?: This defaults to on and will use your block dates that have been set at an organisational level. Don't use these if your trips run in holiday for example.
15. Accept Voucher Payments: The option is for UK schools only. Only select this if childcare vouchers will be accepted for all trips. If you select this option, you will have the choice to be able to limit which group can pay by childcare vouchers (please see this article about Restricting the use of Childcare Vouchers.)
16. Send New Booking Alerts: If this box is checked, staff members who have this role will be notified when a new booking is made by a parent or student.
17. Terms & Conditions: You can enter any terms & conditions that apply to all private music lessons.  Private Music Lessons T&Cs will be entered at a later stage.
18. T&C's additional info (URL): If you have your school Terms & Conditions in a PDF file or website, you can add a link to it here.
19. Booking Data Form: We can create a form for you to collect any other information you require of the student at the time of booking.

When the correct details have been entered, click the green save button on the lower right of the screen.

Once saved, the Container will be created and you will be taken to Groups where you will be able to add groups to your container. To create groups click the Add button on the top right corner as seen below:

Creating the Groups:

1. Title: Add in the title, e.g. Mr. Henry Brown - Drums 
2. Description: Add in description if required
3. Available to / Pre-requisite / Un-available to: When selected, a pop-up box will appear on the screen which determines who can sign up. Use the drop-down box and search bar to locate the Year/Grade or Group that will be able to sign up. Select the Year/Grade or Group, click Add and Continue to confirm the setting.
4. Gender: Select the gender for the group
5. Lead Staff Member: Select a staff member who will be organising the group
6. Activity: This will not be visible to the booker but can be used for reporting purposes. Select an activity type. Please contact SchoolsBuddy if the preferred type is not available.
7. Default Location: Select a location. You can use this for a meeting point, e.g. 
8. Group code / Billing code: Use these if your school has specific codes to use for reconciliation.

Once completed, click Save to create the group.

Create 2 other groups for the 2 other teachers.

Adding Container Block Dates:

If you want to add block dates that don't apply at the organisation level, you have the option to add container-specific block dates in Block Dates. Add the dates by clicking on Add as seen below:

Once all groups are added. Navigate to Create Events.
 

Creating the Events:

Click on  +Add New on the top right corner as seen below:

1. Title: Add the appropriate title for your music lesson.
2. Vital information:  Add in vital information regarding the music lesson. Please note that vital information and additional information are both visible to parents when making bookings.
3. Additional information: Any further information regarding the music lesson.
4. Booking Options: Select Block as it will run multiple days.
5. Allow joining part way through series: Select this option to allow students to join at any time during the term.
6. Number of places: Set the number of places to "1".
7. Create for groups: Select the group you wish to create the event for.
8. Location: Select 'Use group default location' if you want to use the location when creating the group or select 'Specify location' to find a location in the dropdown box.
9. Event type: Select After School Club or any other type that might apply to your music lessons.
10. Cost Type: Select 'Chargeable' from the dropdown box if applicable.
11. Always Charge Full Price: Do not select this if you're only charging students for the lessons they will have and not for the full term.
12. Price per session: Add in price per session, you will have to add the price for each music lesson individually.
13. Payment Method: Select 'Default - Create Fees (and allow online payments if applicable)' to charge to the parent wallet and allow online payments if using. 
14. Frequency: Select multiple days in this case.
15. Activities start date: Set the start time to the beginning of your term.
16. Activities end date: Set the end time for the end of your term.
17. Days of week: Select only the day of the week for the current charges and times of the music lesson.
18. Start Time / End Time: Select the start and end time of music lesson, in this example from 10:00 to 10:30
19. If you leave the Sign up Opens / Closes dates blank, they default to the dates set for the container and the event start time if it is before the container's close date.
    
    

Click on Create Rule

We've created the event for Mrs. Phoebe Buffay who teaches Guitar for Monday from 10:00 - 10:30, now we have to create another event for 10:35 - 11:35, 13:00 - 13:30 and 13:35 - 14:35. Then we have to create the same events until Friday.

The event creation for the other teachers is the same, as the days and times are the same.

After creating the music lessons, you will be shown an overview of all the music lessons. If you need to make any changes then click the Edit button. If you need to create multiple similar events, then you can also use Copy.

Publishing Events:

1. To publish events. Click on Publish Events to be brought to the publishing screen.
2. You will see an overview of your event list which gives you a chance to double-check the details before publishing. Select the events checkbox, toggle the 'I confirm' checkbox and click on Publish. Please note that upon publishing the event will be visible to parents/ students as soon as the signup period opens. 
   
   
   
    
3. A 'Confirm Publication' pop up box will show and you will need to click Publish to proceed or Cancel button to return to the previous screen. Click Publish to generate the events. This may take a couple of minutes, depending on how many events there are to be published.
   
   
    

In case you have a different way of setting Private Music Lessons at your school that are not the ones mentioned in this help article, please do reach out to the team via help@schoolsbuddy.com in order to book a Training Session.