Set up parent-teacher meeting hours, book an appointment and cancel it

PTM appointments let parents book a meeting with a teacher in SmartClass, in the meeting hours the school sets. The school first sets the rules and adds each teacher's meeting hours to the calendar; parents then book one of those hours and cancel it when needed.

Planning tip: Create the PTM hours before open lessons begin. For teachers who give an open lesson, start their PTM hours right after it ends.

Who does what

• School management sets the PTM appointment settings and defines the teachers’ PTM hours.
• Parents book an available hour, can cancel an upcoming appointment and can withdraw a request pending approval.
• Teachers see the appointments booked with them in Communication → PTM appointments.

1. PTM appointment settings

1. In the PTM appointments menu, choose Settings. The PTM Appointment Settings page opens.
2. Fill in the fields:
   • Start Time and End Time: the first and last hour the PTM hours calendar shows; meeting hours are defined between them. The end time must be at least one hour after the start time.
   • Show Weekends: with Yes, the calendar also shows Saturday and Sunday, and meeting hours can be added on those days.
   • Slot Duration: how many minutes one meeting lasts. Each calendar cell is this long.
   • Maximum number of appointments per student per week: the most appointments a parent can book for one student in a week, Monday to Sunday. 0 sets no limit; the most you can enter is 100.
   • Maximum number of appointments per teacher per week: the most appointments a parent can book for one student with the same teacher in a week. It does not limit the teacher’s total. 0 sets no limit.
   • Show Reserved Hours of Teachers to Parents?: with Yes, hours a parent cannot book, such as hours another parent has taken, still appear on the Book appointment page with the reason. With No, they are not shown at all.
   • Minimum reservable hour from the current time: how many hours ahead an hour must start to be open for booking.
   • Maximum reservable day from the current day [including weekend]: how many days ahead of today parents see hours, weekends included. 0 sets no limit.
   • Maximum appointment limit (Multi Participation): how many parents can book one hour that allows multi participation. Do not type 0: the Book appointment page treats 0 as one parent.
3. Choose Save.

2. Define PTM hours

1. In the PTM appointments menu, choose PTM hours.
2. Choose the teacher in the Personnel list. Translators are shown in red.
3. To let more than one parent book the same hour, turn on Multi Participants.
4. In the weekly calendar, click the cell when the teacher is available, or drag across several cells.
5. Answer Yes to Do you want to add a PTM hour for the teacher?. The range you chose is added as meeting hours, each one Slot Duration long.

A meeting hour is not added when it overlaps another PTM hour of the teacher or a lesson in the teacher’s timetable. You can drag an added hour to move it, or click it to edit or delete it.

3. A parent books an appointment

1. The parent chooses Book appointment in the Communication menu. The page lists Available appointment times for the selected student.
2. To narrow the list by teacher or date, the parent uses the All teachers and All dates lists above it.
3. The parent clicks the date and time link of an available hour. The Book appointment panel opens.
4. In Students, the parent chooses the students the appointment is about.
5. If the school uses video meetings, the parent chooses In person or Video call as the Appointment type.
6. If needed, the parent ticks I need a translator and writes in Notes.
7. The parent chooses Confirm appointment.

A parent can book only with the teachers of the student’s classes, the student’s counselor and the school’s managers. When the school reviews appointment requests, the page says so and the appointment waits for approval.

4. Cancel an appointment

1. Choose My appointments in the Workspace menu, or open the My appointments link at the top right of the Book appointment page. Appointments are split into Upcoming, Past, Pending approval and Cancelled.
2. In the row of the upcoming appointment, or of the request pending approval, open the arrow next to View and choose Cancel appointment.
3. Type the Cancel reason, tick I understand this appointment will be cancelled. and choose Cancel appointment.

The cancelled hour opens again for other parents. Cancelling a request that is pending approval withdraws it before the school answers.