A free sign-up sheet for parent-teacher conferences

To run parent-teacher conferences with a sign-up sheet, make one appointment for each ten minutes you have, one family per appointment, and send every family the same link. Each parent books the time that suits them, sees nobody else on the list, and gets a calendar entry with a reminder.

This template starts with two evenings of ten-minute appointments, which you rename and re-time in a minute.

Start with this template Or start from a sentence

What you get

Short slots, one person each, names hidden from other participants.

First evening

4:00 1
4:10 1
4:20 1
4:30 1
4:40 1
4:50 1

Second evening

4:00 1
4:10 1
4:20 1
4:30 1
4:40 1
4:50 1

The number beside a line is how many people it takes. Everything here is editable, and nothing has a date on it until you set one.

How to run it

Put real times against the appointments before you publish, in the school's own time zone; the sheet shows every parent the time in theirs if they are away. Send the link two weeks ahead, in the newsletter and by email. A week before, look at who has not booked and send one reminder from the page.

Leave a five-minute gap every hour if you can. Conferences overrun, and a gap is the only thing that brings the evening back on time.

Why names are hidden

An appointment sheet hides names from other parents by default. Families do not need to know who else is coming in, and some would rather they did not. You see everybody, on your own page.

Two worked examples

A class of twenty-eight, ten minutes each, over two evenings from four until six: twelve appointments an evening plus four the next morning, and the morning ones go last, which tells you who works shifts.

A family with two children in different classes books two appointments, one with each teacher, from the same link. If they need to change one, the link in their confirmation does it, and the organiser page shows the change at once.

On the night

Print the sheet for the classroom door. It lists every appointment in order with the family name beside it, which is all a teacher needs at quarter past five.