Swim schools: scheduling several teachers and lanes

A swim school with several teachers can run every lesson from one Book page. Give each group class a service by level and teacher, such as "Beginners, ages 5–7, with Tom", with places matched to the lane and the ratio you follow; give private lessons a service per teacher with one place. Parents book a place for each child, full classes leave the page, regular swimmers are booked into the same weekly class for the term, and when a teacher is off you move swimmers to a colleague's class. The school pays €5/month in total.

Book gives one booking page per business. Each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on the page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own number of places. There's no staff field, so the teacher's name goes in the service name, next to the level and age range. Slots of different services can run at the same time, which is what lets three teachers teach in three lanes.

Durations, places and prices are examples: set your own, following the ratios and rules that apply to you.

Set each class's places from the lane space and the number of swimmers one teacher can supervise at that level. Each online booking takes one place, so a parent with two children books twice, and a full class leaves your page. The page doesn't show places left, so if you want to keep a place for a swimmer moving up a level, set the capacity one lower and book them in yourself.

Book doesn't know which lanes you have hired or when the pool is shared with the public, and slots of different services can overlap, so it won't stop four classes being booked into three lanes. Build the timetable lane by lane from your pool hire first, then create the slots from it.

A new swimmer in the wrong level slows the whole class. Offer a short level assessment in a shared service, then book the swimmer into the right class yourself from the calendar. Say in each class description what swimmers should already be able to do, and ask parents to write the child's name and age in the note. First and last name are required for bookings you make, email and phone optional; with a parent's email, they get a confirmation with a calendar file.

Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so each teacher's classes become a series that ends with the term. For swimmers who come every week, book them into the same class for every date of the term from the calendar after their first lesson. Book sends no reminders, so those calendar entries are what keep the routine.

During school holidays, end the term series and open daily intensive courses as their own services, for those weeks only. A five-day course is booked day by day, since each slot sits within one day; say in the description that swimmers should book every day of the course.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note. The note appears in the parent's calendar file, so ask parents to tell the teacher about medical needs on your registration form at the pool, not in the note.

Parents can't move or cancel online; the school does it from the bookings list. If a colleague covers the class, keep the slot and tell parents who's teaching; if the class is cancelled, rescheduling works across services, so you can move each swimmer into another class at the same level with free places. Book doesn't email parents about changes, so message them yourself, then delete the absent teacher's free slots. Every booking syncs with the school's Google, iPhone or Mac calendar. Book doesn't take payments or manage term packs; say how families pay. Book costs €5/month for the school, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.