Teacher Guide

If you have been given access to your school's system then - depending on what permissions your administrator gives teachers - you will be able to view, make and delete bookings with parents, create and edit your breaks, mark parent attendance, etc. This guide takes you through how to use the system to do these things.

The Teacher Interface

When you log in to the system you'll see an interface that looks like the below. Note that, unless the evening is being held by video call, you will not see the blue box, or any video-related items.  To see a specific guide on how to attend video appointments please click here.

At the top left of the screen, you will always see the SchoolCloud logo. You can click this at any time to return to this overview page. To the right of this will be your school's name and logo (if your system administrator has uploaded one).

• Just below your school's name you will see the name and date of the event/session you are currently viewing. You can view a different one using the blue Change button at the top right.
• On the left of the screen, you will find the navigation bar. This lists the different functions you have available to you. These depend on the permissions granted to teachers by your administrator.
• At the bottom of the navigation bar are login specific actions, such as editing your account and signing out.
• The three pie charts give you a quick visual percentage overview of: your current level of Availability; the parents that have booked/not booked appointments with you; and the attendance of those parents (if you have used the system to record attendance).

My Schedule

This section is shown by default - you can get back to it at any point by clicking My Bookings on the navigation bar. The name and date of the current event/session will show at the top of the page.

You may have several events in progress (or one event may have more than one session) and you can click the blue Change button at the top right of the screen to select a different event/session from a dropdown:

Underneath, in My Schedule, you will now see listed all the bookings made with you for the chosen event/session, along with your availability and other details.

At the top of the list are a number of actions you can take (explained in more detail later in this guide) depending on the permissions granted by your administrator to teachers:

• To print out a list of your current bookings click Print .
• To add an appointment with a parent click Add Appointment. Usually, parents will have added their own appointments themselves.
• To add a break for yourself, or otherwise edit when you are available for bookings, click Availability. Often, administrators will already have added your break.
• To alter the status of the Attendance column for all your appointments, click Bulk Change Attendance.

Under this the timeslots for the event are listed. Where you have no appointment you will either see available or unavailable - the latter means that you have a break at that time, or that an administrator has made you unavailable for some other reason.

The timeslots shown are the default length for the evening - even though your appointments may be longer than this length.

If the timeslot is a video appointment there will be a camera showing next to the time.If your appointment for a particular class or subject is longer than one default timeslot it will display like this:

If a parent has left a note at the time of booking, you will see the message icon next to their name like this:
Clicking on the icon brings up a box containing the message:

Each appointment shows:

• The time, the people involved, and the subject/class that it relates to.
• Whether an attendance for the parent has been recorded. This will be unknown, unless you are using the system to record attendance. You can click on this yourself and select Present or Absent if you are recording attendance. If your admin does the recording then (once the event has been archived) this column will display what they have recorded.
  
  For video appointments this is automatically set to Present when both you and a parent have connected to a call.

The menu icon on the far right, when clicked, gives you three options:

• My Notes allows you to add any private notes to an appointment. These will not be visible to parents. Choosing this launches this box:
• Edit that Parent's appointment (see below)
• Delete that Parent's appointment (see below)

Adding, Editing and Deleting Appointments

Please note that if you have been given permission to make bookings directly all such teacher-added bookings are only between yourself and the parent. You cannot make a booking that involves another teacher in the same appointment, even if your administrator has set up a particular class/subject for joint bookings. Joint appointments can be made only by an admin, or by the parent.

When you click Add Appointment the following page will load:

From the dropdowns on the left select the student, parent and subject required. Once you do so, the system will display the timeslots on the right and indicate whether you and the parent are available.

• Click a green available + icon to add the appointment. The parent will be sent an email confirming their appointments
• The slot you chose will turn blue, and all other slots will become unavailable (because you now have an appointment with the selected parent for the selected subject.

• There is also an option at the top of the page if a translator is required for the appointment

This is also the page you see if you are editing an appointment. Note that to amend an appointment you must delete the existing appointment and then rebook.

• If you delete an appointment then a red box will appear. 
• Note that when you click Delete Appointment the parent will be sent an email confirming the deletion, along with your reason, if you enter one.

You can also change the content of the parent or subject dropdowns to display availability for the new choice and allow a new appointment.

Viewing/Setting your Availability

The option of My Availability will be available if the administrator has given teachers the permissions to either Manage Their Own Breaks for an Evening or Manage Their Earliest & Latest Appointment Times - or both.

Note that if the evening is a Hybrid Evening (where some sessions are appointments in person and others via video call) you will also need to select which session you are changing.

Click My Availability. If you have the permission to update your earliest and latest appointments times or to make yourself unavailable you will see the details below.  

• To change your Earliest Appointment Start Time or Latest Appointment Start Time select the relevant times from the drop-downs and click Save.
  
  If there are already appointments made on the system outwith the earliest start time and latest end time you are entering you will see a message similar to below below and the change will not save. Please contact your administrator who will be able to enter the details for you.
• To make yourself unavailable for the evening select Not Available for Appointments. If you would like to display a reason to parents why you are not available enter details under Reason Shown to Parents. Click Save.
  
  Note that this DOES NOT delete any existing appointment that have been made with you. If those need to be removed, contact your administrator.

If your administrator has given teachers the permission to add their own breaks you will see the option as shown above (if you have already been made unavailable for the evening the break option will not show even if you have the permission to update this.)

• Any existing breaks already set up will show under Current Breaks.
• To enter a break select the relevant Start Time and End Time from the drop-downs and click Add Break to save. The break will show under Current Breaks.
• To delete a break click the bin next to it under Current Breaks.
• If there are already appointments made on the system during the break you are entering you will see a message similar to below below and the break will not save. Please contact your administrator who will be able to enter the details for you.

Waiting Lists

The system has an optional function to allow parents to add themselves to a Waiting List if a teacher has been fully booked. If the administrator has turned on the Waiting List for your system, and has given teachers permission to access it, you may see a message indicating that you have parents on your list:

Clicking Show Waiting List displays which parents are on it:

Clicking on the note icon allows you to see what the parent has added to their request (if anything):

If you decide that you want to see this parent, you can free up a slot and book them in by following the process outlined earlier. Alternatively you can ask your administrator to extend the time that you have available, so that you have more timeslots available.

Reports

Clicking on Reports on the navigation bar allows you to easily see information on the booking status of your students.

You will see a pie chart displaying the ratio between booked and no-booked. Below this is a list of those who have not booked, the list shows all students from any class that you are associated with. You can make bookings for those students directly from the list (if your admin has given you that ability) but a parent can only book with you if that class' bookings have been assigned to you on the evening in question.

Clubs & Events

If your school has our Clubs & Events product, and your admin has given teachers permission, you will see that option in the navigation bar.

Teacher access is limited to adding or removing a student on a club or event, and marking attendance.

To add and remove students

Select the Club or event, then the session, then click Add Student as shown below:

You can add the student(s) to that particular session, or to all sessions that are part of the overall event - as well as automatically mark them as present, if wished.

Click the bin icon at the end of the student row to remove that student from the session.

To mark attendance

Click the Attendance dropdown, which by default will show Unknown, and select the appropriate option.

As soon as you select Present or Absent that status, and the time and date it was set, will be added.

You can Bulk Change Attendance by using that option

Note on the sidebar there is also the option to Export All Attendance Data for that club. 

Changing your Details and Signing Out

If you want to change your password, email address or title, you can do so by clicking My Account at the foot of the navigation bar:

Edit the details you wish to change then click Update Account to save it.

When you have finished your activities in the system, click the Sign Out button.