Acceptable use policy at sign-in

5 steps 6 min Updated 4 November 2026

School settings → Acceptable use policy lets you show your school's acceptable use policy (an e-safety or online safety agreement, say) to members when they sign in through SmartLogin. They read it, choose I accept, and carry on to wherever they were going. You choose who is asked, whether they're asked again each school year, and you can see who has accepted it and when.

What members see

The first time someone the policy applies to signs in through SmartLogin, they see a page. It comes after any two-factor step or required password change, and before they reach their apps. The page has:

the policy's title, your school's name, and a line asking them to read your school's acceptable use policy before they continue;
the policy text, exactly as you typed it, in a scrolling box;
a Read the full policy link, if you added one (it opens in a new tab);
an I accept button (with a note that choosing it means they agree to follow the policy), which records their acceptance and finishes signing them in, and a Sign out button.

Once they've accepted, they aren't asked again until you ask everyone again, or until the next academic year if you've turned that on (see Step 4).

Step 1: Open the page

Select School settings in the sidebar, then Acceptable use policy. You must be an admin with the Change school settings permission (full admins have it). If you're in the MAT overview, the page says Pick a school: choose the school from the switcher first, because each school has its own policy.

Step 2: Write the policy

Title — what members see at the top, for example "Online safety agreement". Up to 150 characters. It starts as "Acceptable use policy".
Policy text — the policy itself, as plain text. Leave a blank line between paragraphs. Formatting such as bold, bullet symbols and web addresses shows exactly as you type it; nothing is turned into links. It can be very long (tens of pages), but if you see The policy text is too long. Link to the full policy instead., shorten it and use the link below.
Link to the full policy — optional. A PDF or a page on your school website, starting with https://. Useful when the full policy is long: put a short summary in the text and link to the rest. Anything else gives Enter a full web address that starts with https://.

You need the text, the link, or both before you can switch the policy on. If you try without either, the page says Add the policy text or a link to the full policy before you turn it on.

Step 3: Choose who it applies to

Learners — learner accounts only.
Staff — staff and admin accounts.
Everyone except parents — learners, staff and admins.

Governor, observer and Ofsted accounts are never asked. Parents are never asked either: they use the Smart Parents app, which doesn't sign in through SmartLogin.

Step 4: Decide when to ask again

There are two ways to ask people to accept the policy again. You can use either or both.

Ask again each academic year (from 1 September) — turn this on to ask once a school year. Acceptances made before 1 September (UK time) stop counting on that date, so everyone is asked again the first time they sign in in the new school year. Nothing else changes.
Ask everyone to accept again — the button beside the policy, for when the policy itself changes. It moves the policy on to a new version, and everyone it applies to is asked to accept it the next time they sign in. The page shows the Current version and when it was Last changed. The button is greyed out until the policy has been saved at least once, and while you have unsaved changes (the page says Save the policy first or Save your changes first). A confirmation asks Ask everyone at (your school) to accept again? and you choose Ask everyone again.

Editing the title, text or link on its own does not ask anyone again, so you can fix a typo without everyone having to re-accept. When you change what the policy says, save it first, then choose Ask everyone to accept again.

Asking again never deletes anything. Earlier acceptances stay on record (with the version they accepted and when) but no longer count, so the report starts again from nobody having accepted.

Step 5: Switch it on and save

Turn on Ask members to accept it when they sign in, then choose Save changes. The page says Policy saved. Members it applies to will see it the next time they sign in. Members are asked from their next sign-in. Turn it off at any time to stop asking (the page then says Policy saved. It is switched off, so nobody is asked to accept it.). The policy and everyone's acceptances are kept, and the report still shows who accepted it.

Saving the policy and asking everyone again are both recorded in the admin audit trail.

Reading the report

Who has accepted, below the settings, lists every active account the policy applies to:

The three totals show how many people are in scope, how many have accepted, and how many have not yet accepted.
Each row shows the person's name, username, year group, a status of Accepted or Not yet, and when they accepted, in UK time.
Only acceptances that still count are shown as accepted: of the current version and, if you ask again each academic year, since 1 September.
Search by name or username, and use Filters to show only people who have (Accepted) or haven't (Not yet accepted) accepted, or particular year groups. You can sort by name, username or when they accepted. See Using filters.
Export CSV downloads the list as it's currently filtered (every page, not just the one on screen): name, username, year, status, accepted at, and the policy version the status refers to. You need permission to export data.

Only active accounts are listed: suspended accounts aren't, and nor are Realsmart's own support accounts (such as “smartadmin”), which are never asked to accept. Someone who joins later appears as Not yet until they sign in and accept. If nobody is in scope the page says Nobody to ask. While the policy is switched off, a note above the totals says nobody is being asked, and the acceptances already made still show.

When the policy isn't shown

The policy appears when someone signs in through SmartLogin: the Realsmart sign-in page, including apps and services that send people to SmartLogin to sign in. It isn't shown:

When someone logs on to a school computer that signs them straight in to your school's own Active Directory. Windows logons on school PCs don't pass through SmartLogin, so they never see the policy there. They'll be asked the next time they sign in through SmartLogin.
To anyone outside the audience you chose, to parents, governors and observers, or to Realsmart's own support accounts.
While the policy is switched off, or when it has neither text nor a link.

It's a notice rather than a lock: if SmartLogin ever can't check the policy, people are signed in as normal rather than being shut out.

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