Book or change a parents' evening appointment
Written for: Parents and carers.
When your child’s school runs a parents’ evening, it sends you an invitation to book. You can choose your appointment times from the email link or from Appointments in the parent portal, and change or cancel them later if your plans change. The same steps work for other meetings the school invites you to book, such as a SEND review or a pastoral meeting.
Open your invitation
Section titled “Open your invitation”You can book in either of these ways:
- From the email: the school’s email names the event and your child. Click the button in the email to open Manage your appointment. You don’t need to sign in: the link only works for your invitation.
- In the parent portal: in the menu, click Appointments.
Each event the school has invited you to has its own card, showing the type of meeting, its name and when it starts.
Book your appointments
Section titled “Book your appointments”If you need to see more than one member of staff, or you have more than one child at the school, Student Radar suggests a set of times that don’t clash, with as little waiting as possible. A set of times is called a bundle. No time is held for you while you look: all the times in your bundle are booked together when you confirm.
- Under Choose appointments, look at the Recommended bundle. It lists each child and member of staff, the time, and whether it’s at school or Online. Under it you may see other options, numbered from Alternative 2.
- Click the bundle you’d like.
- Click Confirm this bundle.
To choose each time yourself instead:
- Click Choose manually.
- For each appointment, pick a time from the list.
- Click Check and confirm manual choices.
When your booking is confirmed, you’ll see Your appointments are booked with each time and place. “Confirmation and reminder messages are prepared automatically.” For an online appointment, click Join video appointment at the time of your meeting.
Change or cancel your appointments
Section titled “Change or cancel your appointments”You can change or cancel until the cancellation deadline shown at the bottom of the card, after Cancellation closes.
- To change your times: under Choose replacement appointments, pick a new bundle and click Confirm replacement bundle, or click Choose manually. Your old times are released when the new ones are confirmed.
- To cancel: click Cancel this appointment bundle. All the appointments in the bundle are cancelled.
Tell the school about recording
Section titled “Tell the school about recording”Under Recording preference, you can tell the school in advance whether you’re happy for the meeting to be recorded: No preference supplied, Please do not record or Open to recording. Your choice is saved as soon as you pick it. Recording is optional and off unless agreed, and the member of staff must ask everyone again before recording.
After the meeting
Section titled “After the meeting”After the meeting, the school may add a Reviewed family summary and any Agreed actions to the appointment, so you can look back at what was discussed.
- Booking closes at the bottom of the card shows the last time you can book.
- If one of your children isn’t included in the booking, you’ll see “Contact the school to arrange appointments for children without booking access.”
If something doesn’t work
Section titled “If something doesn’t work”| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| “No appointments to arrange” | You don’t have an invitation at the moment. New invitations appear here when the school sends them. |
| “Someone else booked one of those times. Fresh choices are shown below.” | Choose from the updated times, then confirm again. |
| “No complete clash-free bundle is available. Choose manually or contact the school.” | Click Choose manually, or contact the school office to arrange a time. |
| “The booking window is not currently open. Contact the school if you still need an appointment.” | Booking hasn’t opened yet or has closed. Contact the school office. |
| “This booking or cancellation window has closed.” | It’s too late to make changes online. Contact the school office. |
| “Too many booking attempts were made. Wait a moment and try again.” | Wait a minute, then try again. |
| “This appointment link is no longer active” | Your invitation link has expired or been replaced. Ask the school for a new one, or book in the parent portal. |
| “This link is incomplete” | Use the full link from the school’s email. Try clicking the button in the email again. |
| “Please sign in again to manage appointments.” | Sign out and sign in again. |
| “Appointments could not be loaded” | Click Try again. |