Class Teams with Assignments

Turn it on

1. In the left sidebar under Platforms, open Entra sync and select Settings.
2. In the Provisioning section, check Sync groups is on. Class Teams are made as part of the group sync, so while it's off they aren't made or kept up to date. If you turn it on now, it also syncs a standard group for each group of the types under Group types to sync (every type, while none is ticked), so check that list first — see Choose which group types sync.
3. Choose the group types under Class Teams for these group types, or leave them all unticked to use Groups, where your MIS classes arrive.
4. To start with a few classes, choose them under Only these classes first.
5. Turn on Class Teams with Assignments, select Save settings, read the box and select Save these changes.
6. Check the permissions with Sync status → Test connection, then Test permissions (the rows it checks are under How it works).

How it works

Class Teams with Assignments makes a Microsoft Teams for Education class Team for each of your classes: the kind with Assignments, a Class Notebook and the class tabs teachers expect. As Education classes, they're also the kind of class team the Microsoft 365 launchpad widgets (Due work, To review, My classes) read. It's off for every school until you turn it on, in the Provisioning section of Entra sync → Settings.

New groups, beside your existing ones. Microsoft only lets a class Team be made from a brand-new group, so each class gets a new Microsoft 365 group with its own email address, starting cls- and then the class, your school's number and the school year (for example cls-9y1-ma-4165-2627). The address is on your tenant's default domain: Group email addresses on your domain doesn't cover class Teams yet. Your existing groups and Teams aren't changed or removed, so for a while a class may have both: its usual group (and standard Team, if Create Teams is on) and its class Team. A school starting out often uses class Teams from a new school year.

Which groups become class Teams. Each group of the types ticked under Class Teams for these group types — leave them all unticked to use Groups, which is where your MIS classes arrive — that:

• has at least one teacher and at least one pupil with Microsoft 365 accounts (so a group of only staff never becomes a class Team), at most 50 teachers and fewer than 1,000 people in all, as Google Classroom;
• is active (or protected), has Sync this group to Microsoft Entra on (in the Entra settings card on the group's edit page), and isn't a teachers of group.

This is separate from Group types to sync: a class Team is a group of its own, so you can have class Teams for your classes without also syncing a standard group for each.

Trying it on a few classes first. To start with one or two classes, choose them under Only these classes before you turn Class Teams with Assignments on: only those classes get class Teams, whatever their group type, and the rest of the school is left as it is. Type a class's name to find it; the list shows each group that syncs to Entra with at least one teacher and one pupil, with its type beside it, like 9Y1 Ma (Groups). When you're happy, empty the list to give every class of the ticked types a class Team (you're asked to confirm). A class you take off the list keeps its class Team, but the sync stops keeping its teachers and pupils up to date. Only these classes is set school by school, so it isn't on the MAT screen.

Who's in it. The same people as the class's Google Classroom and standard group: its teachers (the staff in the group, including staff in groups nested inside it) are the class's teachers and the Team's owners, and its pupils are members. As people join and leave the class, the sync adds and removes them. It only ever removes people Realsmart added, never someone your school added by hand, never a class's last teacher, and nobody at all while a safety pause is on.

What it needs. Each time the sync runs, before it makes anything, it checks the Realsmart app has EduRoster.ReadWrite.All and Team.Create (see the permissions table in Microsoft Entra settings) and that your tenant has an active Education licence (Office 365 or Microsoft 365 A1, A3 or A5). It reads your licences with Organization.Read.All. If anything is missing, nothing is made or changed, the rest of the sync carries on as normal, and your dashboard says what's missing (see Realsmart paused some changes). Test permissions checks the same three things: its rows are Create Education classes, Create class Teams and Education licence — see Test connection / Test permissions.

How long it takes. Class Teams move forward each time the daily sync runs. The first sync after you turn it on makes the classes and adds their teachers and pupils. Microsoft needs a little while before a new class can become a Team (Realsmart waits until the class is at least 15 minutes old), so each class's Team is asked for at the next sync and is usually ready the sync after that: about two days with the daily sync. Sync status → Quick run → Microsoft Entra moves it along sooner (Trigger a manual sync), though there's a cooldown between manual runs. At most 150 new classes are made in each sync, so a large school gets the rest over the next few syncs.

Teachers activate their class Teams. A new class Team starts hidden from pupils, as Microsoft's own School Data Sync class Teams do. Each teacher opens it in Microsoft Teams and selects Activate to let pupils in. Realsmart doesn't activate Teams for you.

If Microsoft refuses a class. Some tenants have a naming policy that blocks certain words, or another group may already have the address. That class waits and the others carry on; your dashboard lists it. Renaming the group in Realsmart usually fixes it, and the next sync makes its class Team under the new name. If Microsoft instead says your tenant isn't set up for Education (for example, it asks for an "Education" property to be removed), that's a licence problem rather than a name: no class can be made until an Education licence is active, and your dashboard says so. Entra sync → Issues has the details.

At the end of the school year. A new school year gets new class Teams. Last year's are archived or left active as you choose, with the same choices as Google Classroom: see Microsoft Teams at year end. It doesn't use or set up School Data Sync. Turning Class Teams with Assignments off stops new class Teams being made and existing ones being kept in step; it doesn't remove any.

Turning it on asks you to confirm, with roughly how many classes would get a class Team (or which of the classes you chose). On the MAT screen it can be pushed to several schools at once, like the other Provisioning settings; each school keeps its own Only these classes.

If class Teams aren't appearing

Related

• Microsoft Entra settings
• Microsoft 365 launchpad widgets
• Realsmart paused some changes
• Test connection / Test permissions
• Entra sync issues