Did you know you can use Google Calendar to book appointment slots? You can now even book short slots of 5 or 10 minutes. This would be great for teachers who would like to use it to book meetings with parents for parent’s evening/consultation sessions.
I’ve seen other solutions to booking parent meetings, my daughter’s school use a Google Form, for example, but using a Google Calendar does seem to be a very neat solution. If you have a Google Workspace subscription, you already have access to Google Calendar appointment scheduling.
This feature could also be used to book the ICT room or the iPad trolley. Just set up lesson-length slots through the day and repeat.
So here is how you can quickly set up a Parent’s Evening booking form:
Here’s How to Set it Up:
Open Google Calendar
Click on Create and Appointment Schedule
Give it a title, and set the appointment duration. Choose from the list, or set a custom duration.
To Create Weekly Appointments
If you want the slots to repeat weekly – then keep the “repeat weekly” selected
Otherwise, change this to “Doesn’t repeat”. For a parent’s evening, you would want this set to “doesn’t repeat”.
You can then set up slots where you want to have meetings available
Click on the times to change the start / end times
Click the crossed-out circle to block out a day/time as unavailable
Click the plus icon to add another time slot – for example to build in a lunch break set a morning slot, then add an afternoon slot
Click the copy icon to copy that appointment structure to the rest of the week (days marked as unavailable will stay unavailable).
Scheduling Window
You can control how far in advance an appointment can be booked, and also the minimum time – to avoid last minute bookings.
Appointment settings
You can add a buffer time to allow space between meetings
You can also limit how many bookings you have per day
For ad-hoc meetings over a period of time
For more precise control over the booking slots – choose Doesn’t repeat
You can then add the timeslots that you want to have available, one by one
Click Add a Date to add additional dates
Select Calendar
Choose which calendar you want the bookings to be made to.
You can also ask it to check for availability and not create bookable times when there is an event on that calendar.
Click Next when you’re happy with the settings.
Type of meeting
Choose how you want the meeting to take place
Eg Google Meet, In person or To be specified (e.g. if you want to use Zoom)
Meeting description
Add a description and any instructions here.
Booking form
Here you can choose what information you require from the person making the booking. By default it contains first name, surname and email address. You can add other items here – such as address or phone number.
Click Save when done
Viewing the Booking Page
To view your meeting booking page, open your calendar and click on the coloured bar at the side of the booking slot on the calendar.
Then click on Open Booking Page to see the booking page.
The booking page will then be visible. Someone with the link to this page can click on a slot to book it.
Sharing the calendar
To share this with others – so they can book appointments – click on Share in the top right corner.
Click on Copy Link and add that to an email or document
To make changes or delete the booking schedule
From the calendar click on the coloured bar
Click the pen to make changes
Click the bin icon to delete
And that’s it.
You could easily amend these instructions for longer meetings. You could for example set up 1 hour slots through the day that repeat weekly for room or equipment booking systems.
As an alternative, there are websites such as Calendly which offer similar functionality, with free and paid tiers, that would be worth exploring.
Have a play with it and see how it could work for you. Let me know what you think in the comments.
How to Create a Parent’s Evening Booking Page with Google Calendar
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