Families pick a meeting time with their child's teachers in their Bloomily app. You create the conference, give each teacher hours, publish it, and then watch the bookings come in. Everything below happens in Admin OS.

The recording uses one center’s example data and settings. Names, dates and times are examples. Follow the written steps where the labels differ.

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Before you start

1. Turn on Conferences. An organization admin or your Director can turn it on in Settings, under Access. Conferences is part of the Standard plan. Turning it on sends nothing to anyone.

2. Open Conferences. It is in your menu, often under More.

3. Put each teacher in their room. Go to Team, open the teacher, choose Assign rooms, tick their room and press Save rooms. This decides which families see that teacher's times, so do it first.

1. Create the conference

1. In Conferences, press New conference.

2. Fill in the form:

   • Title, and Details for families (families see this in their app).

   • First day and Last day.

   • How long is each meeting? and Gap between meetings, in minutes.

   • Booking opens. Leave it blank and families can book as soon as you publish. Times use your school's own time zone.

   • Booking closes. Leave it blank and booking never closes.

   • Rooms. Tick the rooms this conference is for. Pick none and it covers every room. Only families whose child is in a chosen room can book.

3. Press Create draft. A draft is for your staff only. No family can see it yet.

One conference or several? One conference can cover every class. Make separate conferences only when classes need different days, booking dates or details for families. Meeting length and gap can also be set for each teacher.

2. Give each teacher hours

Open the conference and choose the Availability tab.

1. Press Add teacher hours.

2. Fill in the form:

   • Teacher. Each person's role and rooms show under their name.

   • Which room's families? This only appears when the teacher works in two or more of the conference's rooms. Pick one room to offer these hours only to that room's families. Every room this teacher works in offers them to all of that teacher's rooms.

   • Day, Starts and Ends. The last meeting has to finish by the end time.

   • How long is each meeting? and Gap between meetings. Leave them blank to use the conference's own.

   • Meeting place. This shows to families with their time, like a room or a video link. It does not choose who can book.

3. Check the preview of the times these hours make, then press Add hours.

Each teacher's hours show in a box headed Teacher: and their name, with the number of times. Hours given to one room also say For: and the room.

Other things you can do with a set of hours

• Hold a time back takes one time out of the family app, for a lunch break or a gap a teacher needs. Open a time back up returns it.

• Change hours and Remove work until a family books a time in those hours. To change booked hours, cancel the booking on the Bookings tab first.

• Make the times again appears only when the times no longer match the hours and nobody has booked.

Good to know: Add teacher hours always adds a new set. It never replaces hours that are already there. To give a set of hours to a different teacher, Remove it and add it again for the right person.

For more detail, with pictures, see Conference teacher hours: add, change and hold back times.

Who sees which times

A family sees a time only when both of these are true:

• their child's room is on the conference, and

• the teacher meets their child's room.

You can choose a conference's families by room only, not by individual child.

3. Check it and publish

1. Open the Conference tab. Anything that needs your attention is listed under Before families can book, such as a teacher whose times no family can see.

2. Press Publish. The conference now shows in the family app.

You can publish early. Until Booking opens, families see the conference and the date booking opens, but they can't book yet.

Publishing itself doesn’t email or text anyone. If you’ve turned on Conference booking and reminders (see below), families get a notice in their app when booking opens. You can also tell families yourself, for example with a broadcast from Messages.

Unpublish hides the conference again. It is refused once a family has booked a time. Only a draft can be deleted.

4. Watch the bookings

Open the Bookings tab. The numbers at the top show times booked, still open and held back, and Not booked yet: children in these rooms with no time at all.

• Bookings lists every time a family holds, earliest first, with the child, the family and their email, the teacher and the family's note.

• Schedule shows one day at a time, with a column for each teacher.

• Teacher hours shows how full each teacher's hours are.

• Use the teacher and room filters to narrow the list.

Book for a family picks a time for a family yourself, for example a parent who never opens the app. It only offers children in a room the conference covers. Move and Cancel change a booking right away. Book for a family and Move list every teacher's open times, so pick one with the child's own teacher.

Booking, moving and cancelling from this page send nothing to the family. Tell them yourself.

After Booking closes, families can no longer book, move or cancel. You still can.

Who can open Conferences. Your office roles and teachers set up for all rooms can open it. A teacher limited to their own rooms can't. Some schools also show teachers their own times in Staff OS, under My Schedule, in Conference times. Not every school has this view yet.

For more detail, with pictures, see Conference bookings: follow up, book for a family, move and cancel.

5. Write notes after each meeting

The Notes tab lists every meeting. Needs a note shows meetings with no note yet, or only a draft.

• A note has six parts: Summary, Strengths, Areas for Growth, Action Items, Parent Questions and Additional Notes.

• Save draft as often as you like.

• Mark complete locks the note. It can't be reopened.

• Families don't see notes in the Bloomily app, and finishing a note doesn't email or text them.

For more detail, with pictures, see Conference notes: write and finish notes after each meeting.

Notices and reminders for families

You can turn on two notices that families get in the Bloomily app:

• Booking is open. Each family on a published conference gets one notice when booking opens, with the conference, its dates, and when booking opens and closes.

• The day before. The parent who booked gets a notice the day before their time, with the child’s name, the teacher, the time and the place.

To turn them on, go to Settings, then Notifications, then Report automation, and turn on Conference booking and reminders. They’re off until you turn them on.

The notices arrive between 9 AM and 8 PM on your school’s clock, in the app and as a phone notification. A family sees them only with notifications on for the Bloomily app.

The recording uses one center’s example data and settings. Names, dates and times are examples. Follow the written steps where the labels differ.

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Good to know

• Bloomily doesn’t email or text families or teachers about conferences.

• A time you book for a family from Bookings gets no day-before notice. Only a parent who booked it themselves does.

• Booking, moving or cancelling from Bookings sends nothing. Tell teachers and families yourself.

Common questions

A family says they see no times. Check that the conference is published, that their child is in a room on the conference, and that the teachers with hours meet that room. A child with no room sees no times. The Conference tab lists any teacher no family can see.

There are more times than I expected. You may have two sets of hours on the same day, for example after adding hours for a new teacher without removing the old ones. Open Availability, Remove the set you don't want, and check the count again.

Can I limit a conference to certain children? Not by child. A conference and a teacher's hours can only be limited by room.

Still need help?

• In Bloomily: open More > Help & requests to send a request to Bloomily.

• Email: support@bloomily.app