Launchpad widgets (Google Classroom, Calendar and Gmail)

5 steps 14 min Updated 4 November 2026

Seven widgets bring Google onto your school's launchpad.

From Google Classroom:

Due work (pupils): their own work due in the next 7 days, work that's missing (past its due date and not handed in, from the last 30 days), and work returned to them in the last 7 days.
To review (staff): how many pieces of handed-in work are waiting in each class they teach, shown up to 99+.
My classes (pupils and staff): each of their classes, who teaches it, its latest announcement, and a link straight into Classroom.

From Google Calendar and Gmail — the "Today" widgets:

My calendar (staff, and pupils if you choose): their own Google Calendar events — today's alongside their timetable, and the next seven days in Coming up — with a Join button on video calls that are about to start. Each event shows as Busy until the person chooses to show it (staff can turn on Show my event titles on their Profile page).
School calendar (pupils and staff): events from up to five of the school's shared Google calendars — school events, sport, trips — for the next 14 days, in Coming up.
Unread mail (pupils and staff): how many unread emails are in their Gmail inbox, on the Mail tile.

And one that changes Google Classroom, for staff only:

Cover access (staff): from their My classes card, a teacher adds a colleague as a co-teacher of some of their own classes for a set time (up to 28 days), and Realsmart removes them when the cover ends. See Cover access.

For the other six, Realsmart only ever reads Google: nothing in Google is changed. For Unread mail it reads the count only, never an email. Every link opens Google itself.

Before you start

You need to be a school admin with sync settings permission, with the school selected in the switcher.
Google Workspace must be connected for the school: a Google admin user and domain under Google Workspace → Settings (see Google Workspace settings). The widgets read Google as that admin, and, for My calendar and Unread mail, as each person.
For the Classroom widgets (Due work, To review, My classes) and Cover access, Google sync must be live for the school: switched on under School settings → Sync services, and not in preview. They refresh through it. My calendar, Unread mail and School calendar don't need Google sync: a connected Google domain is enough (see Which widgets need Google sync).
The widgets are being introduced school by school, so you may not see them yet — ask Realsmart support if you'd like them for your school. Where your school has them, School settings → Launchpad has a Launchpad widgets card, and the sidebar shows Google Workspace → Launchpad widgets — or, if Google sync is off for the school, School settings → Launchpad widgets. Google Workspace → Classroom has a Launchpad widgets card too.

Steps

Step 1: Give Realsmart read-only access

Open Google Workspace → Launchpad widgets. Step 1 shows what your Google administrator needs to authorise, in Google Admin under Security → Access and data control → API controls → Domain-wide delegation (Open Google Admin opens that screen in a new tab):

With the launchpad reader — the page shows a client ID and a list of read-only scopes: the Classroom ones for Due work, To review and My classes, calendar.events.readonly for My calendar and School calendar, and gmail.labels for Unread mail (it can see label counts, not emails). In Domain-wide delegation, select Add new, paste the client ID, use Copy all scopes and paste them, then Authorise.
Without it — the page says the widgets use your school's existing Realsmart Google connection, and lists its scopes with the widgets each one is for. It already has the Classroom and Calendar access they need. Unread mail also needs https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly, which the existing connection may not have: add it to Realsmart's entry in Domain-wide delegation if the check says Unread mail isn't ready. Otherwise there's usually nothing to add; go straight to step 2.

Cover access doesn't use these scopes: it adds and removes co-teachers through the school's existing Realsmart sync connection, which already has classroom.rosters for the nightly Classroom sync.

Changes in Google Admin can take a few minutes (occasionally longer) to apply.

Step 2: Check access

Select Check access. Realsmart signs in to Google as your school's Google admin and reads one of each thing the widgets need. For My calendar and Unread mail it reads as one member of staff (their next event and their unread count), and it reads each of the school calendars you've chosen as the admin. It only reads. The result appears on the page within a moment, grouped by Google service (Classroom, Calendar, Gmail), with each widget marked Ready or Not ready:

Every widget is ready — carry on to step 3.
Some widgets are ready — the ones marked Not ready need the access shown with a cross. Grant it in Google Admin, then Check again.
Access check didn't pass — usually the client ID or a scope is missing from Domain-wide delegation, or the admin user is no longer a Google admin.
The check couldn't finish — Google didn't answer every check in time, so the check can't say either way. That isn't a failure: select Check again.
The check didn't come back — the sync engine didn't answer within 15 minutes. Select Check again.
This check is out of date — it was made before an update to the sync engine. Select Check again.
The sync engine couldn't check yet — the widgets aren't switched on in the sync engine yet, or it couldn't use the school's Google connection. Check again later; if it keeps happening, contact support.

The announcements row is optional: without it, My classes still works, just without each class's latest announcement. A school that hasn't chosen any school calendars yet isn't marked down for it: School calendar just shows No calendars yet.

Two other marks aren't failures:

Needs Google sync — a Classroom widget or Cover access at a school whose Google sync is off or in preview. Its checks may pass, but it can't be switched on until Google sync is live. With every check passed, the headline then reads Every check passed rather than Every widget is ready.
Check Classroom first — My calendar, School calendar and Unread mail are checked with the same connection that reads Classroom. While the Classroom checks fail, they aren't checked at all; fix the Classroom access first, then Check again.
Not checked — the check didn't get to a read, for example because there's no active member of staff with a Google account to test with yet. Check again later.

Cover access has a group of its own, Cover access (through the sync connection), with one row, Add co-teachers — read check: Realsmart lists one class's teachers through the sync connection. That proves Realsmart may manage class teachers; Google has no way to test a change without making it, so it can't prove adding one will succeed. A check made before this row existed leaves Cover access Not ready (select Check again) without marking the other widgets down.

Step 3: Choose widgets and who sees them

For each widget, switch Show on the launchpad on or off. A widget can only be switched on once its access check has passed; if it can't, the page says why under it.

Who sees it — Due work is for pupils, and To review and Cover access for staff; My classes, My calendar, School calendar and Unread mail can be for pupils, staff or both. Staff means everyone who isn't a pupil: teachers, admins, governors and the rest.
Pupils in — optionally limit a widget to some year groups. Leave it empty for every year. It never affects staff.
On their Launchpad — for pupils and for staff, whether people can choose the widget for themselves (see Let people choose their Launchpad widgets).

Select Save widget choices. If a widget can't be switched on, it stays off and the page says why — for example, the access it needs didn't pass, or the calendars it would show haven't been checked yet. Once the widgets are on, changes reach the launchpad within a minute.

Choosing the school's calendars

School calendar shows events from the calendars you choose, up to five: add each calendar's ID and a short name under School calendar, select Save widget choices, then Check again in step 2 so Realsmart can confirm it can read each one, and switch School calendar on. Until a new or changed calendar has been checked, School calendar stays off. See Add the school's Google calendars to Coming up.

Cover access

Cover access is off until you switch it on. It needs My classes on for staff, because teachers add cover from their My classes card. Switching it on asks you to confirm that Realsmart may add and remove co-teachers in Google Classroom through the school's Google sync connection; that confirmation is recorded in the audit trail.

A teacher can give cover only for classes they teach, to admins and mentors with a Google account (here, or at a school in the trust that shares your Google domain), for up to 15 classes at a time and up to 28 days. The cover teacher sees the class and can leave it early; the teacher who gave it can revoke it. A cover teacher is a full co-teacher: read what a cover teacher can do before switching it on.

Cover managers see and revoke all cover — including cover given from the launchpad — on Cover access (under Engagement in the sidebar; see Cover access). If you switch Cover access off, or turn the widgets off, while cover is still live, this page offers Revoke all; otherwise that cover stays until it ends.

Step 4: Turn the widgets on

Select Turn on and confirm. It works when:

Google sync is live for the school (on, not in preview) — needed only if a Classroom widget or Cover access is switched on;
the last access check passed, and finished in the last 24 hours (otherwise Check again first);
at least one widget is switched on; and
every widget you've switched on is ready — for School calendar, every one of its calendars.

If one of those isn't true, the page says which, and Turn on stays unavailable. The widgets appear on the launchpad within a minute.

To stop, select Turn off and confirm. The widgets leave everyone's launchpad within a minute, and your choices are kept for next time.

Step 5: Keep an eye on how they're running

Once the widgets are on, the top of the page shows How the widgets are running for the Classroom widgets:

how many of the school's active classes are up to date (refreshed in the last 20 minutes), refreshed earlier today (within 6 hours), older, or not refreshed yet;
any classes that didn't refresh last time, with the reason; and
when the widgets last refreshed a class (on demand or overnight), and when the last 16:00 Classroom import ran.

My calendar, School calendar and Unread mail aren't counted there. They're fetched for each person when they open their launchpad (and for staff each weekday morning) and kept only briefly, so there's no history to show. If Google refuses them — for example, a calendar or mail permission has been removed — the sync engine records it in Logs, and the widget shows its last data with its time.

Which widgets need Google sync

My calendar, Unread mail and School calendar read Google directly for each person, so they need only the school's connected Google domain (a Google admin user and domain under Google Workspace → Settings). A school that doesn't sync its staff to Google can check access, choose these three and turn them on with Google sync off.

The Classroom widgets (Due work, To review, My classes) and Cover access refresh through your school's Google sync. If Google sync is off for the school, or in preview (where it runs without changing anything in Google), the sync engine won't refresh them, so:

the page says Google sync is off: calendar and mail widgets only, each of them shows Needs Google sync in step 3 with its switch greyed out, and Turn on refuses them with The Classroom widgets need Google sync;
if they were already on, the health panel says Google sync is off instead of how fresh the Classroom data is, and pupils and staff see the last Classroom data Realsmart read. Your choices are kept, so they resume when Google sync is live again; or you can switch them off. My calendar, Unread mail and School calendar keep working.

Turn Google sync on under School settings → Sync services (see Enable or disable sync services). With Google sync off, the Google Workspace section isn't in the sidebar, so the page is under School settings → Launchpad widgets instead.

Under On their Launchpad, each widget can be Always shown (the default), Shown, they can hide it or Hidden, they can add it, separately for pupils and staff. People choose, and put their widgets in order, from the Widgets button on their Launchpad. Cover access follows My classes, so it has no choice of its own. See Let people choose their Launchpad widgets.

Every school in a trust

From the MAT overview, Launchpad widgets lists every school you administer: whether the widgets are on and which, what the last access check found and when, and whether a school needs attention or has Google sync off (a school with Google sync off but its Google domain connected is listed for its calendar and mail widgets). Select Open to switch to a school and change anything on its own page. Schools where the widgets aren't available yet say so.

Trust admins also see Trust defaults at the top: for each widget, for pupils and for staff, whether people can hide or add it, Off, or Each school decides, saved for new schools or applied to all of them. See Trust defaults.

How up to date the widgets are

There's no Google call when someone opens their launchpad: the widgets read what Realsmart already holds, show how old it is, and refresh in the background — a class's Classroom data after 20 minutes in school hours, calendar after 15 minutes and mail after 5. If Google can't be reached, people see the last data with its time. Every refresh rule is in How up to date the widgets are.

A pupil who sees Due work gets their Classroom work there instead of in Coming up — see Coming up and the Due work widget.

What Realsmart keeps

The widgets don't make a new copy of Classroom: they keep the Classroom data Realsmart already holds for Classroom reporting up to date, and only ever show titles, dates, states and links — never marks. Calendar and Gmail are never stored in Realsmart's database, only held briefly in a short-lived cache, and no email is ever read — only the inbox's unread count. See What the Google launchpad widgets keep.

"Needs attention"

If Google refuses Realsmart's access — the sign-in is refused, a permission has been removed from Domain-wide delegation, or the Classroom API has been switched off — the widgets can't refresh any class. When that has happened in the last 24 hours and no widget refresh has worked since, the page shows Needs attention, with when the refusals began, and the notifications bell shows Launchpad widgets need attention (see Notifications). The 16:00 Classroom import doesn't clear it: it doesn't use the widgets' access, so it can't show that access works again.

Pupils and staff still see the widgets, with the last Classroom data Realsmart read and its age. Check the access in Google Admin (step 1), then select Check again. The notice clears itself as soon as a widget refresh works again. A single class failing for its own reasons (for example, it was deleted in Google) doesn't raise it.

Troubleshooting

A widget's switch is greyed out. It isn't ready: read the line under it. Usually its access check hasn't passed (look at its rows in step 2, grant what's missing, then Check again), or it's a Classroom widget or Cover access and Google sync isn't live for the school.
School calendar stayed off when I saved, or "That isn't a Google calendar ID". See Add the school's Google calendars to Coming up.
"The check couldn't finish". Google was slow to answer. Nothing needs fixing: select Check again.
Unread mail isn't ready. In legacy mode the existing connection may not have https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly; add it to Realsmart's entry in Domain-wide delegation, or add the launchpad reader with its scopes (step 1), then Check again.
Turn on is unavailable. Read the line under it: usually a Classroom widget is switched on while Google sync isn't live (switch it off to turn on the calendar and mail widgets), the last check is more than 24 hours old, or a widget you've switched on isn't ready.
Pupils can't see Due work. Check it's switched on for pupils and, if you chose year groups, that their year is included. Pupils need a Google account that Realsmart knows about.
Classes show as not refreshed yet. New classes are refreshed the first time someone opens their launchpad, or overnight.
Your school is no longer in the pilot, or Google is no longer set up for it (Google sync off and no Google domain connected), but the widgets are still on. The widgets keep showing until they're turned off. The page no longer appears in the sidebar, but it still opens from the Launchpad widgets card on School settings → Launchpad or Google Workspace → Classroom, from the trust's overview, or from the bell, with only Turn off available.

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