Keep Year 11 and Year 13 leavers' accounts active for results day, UCAS and clearing

5 min read Updated 4 November 2026

Over the summer freeze no MIS imports run, so your leavers aren't marked for suspension and keep working accounts. That changes when sync resumes for the new year, on your resume date or on 1 September by default. The first MIS import after that marks everyone who has left your MIS for suspension. They're suspended about a day later (at the weekday 15:00 run), and their Google and Microsoft accounts are suspended at the next platform sync.

If leavers still need their accounts after that, for clearing, UCAS, or results day if you resume before it, turn Smartsync off for them. Smartsync-off accounts are never suspended automatically. You then suspend them yourself when they're done.

Before you start

You must be an admin for the current school.
Check your resume date on the End of year page — see Resuming sync for the new year.
Protect only the people who need it. Every protected account has to be suspended by hand later.

Choose when to do it

Before sync resumes. This is the safest option: nobody is ever marked for suspension. But you have to pick the leavers yourself. If you have a sixth form, your Year 11 list includes pupils who are staying on. Don't protect them. Smartsync off would stop the MIS moving them up into Year 12 and their new classes. Your MIS or school office can tell you who is leaving.
In the day after sync resumes. The first MIS import marks exactly the people who have left, so Realsmart finds the leavers for you. You have until the weekday 15:00 run once 24 hours have passed, which is at least a working day. If you miss it, they're suspended, but you can still make them active again (see What happens to a leaver's account?).

Steps

Step 1 — Find the leavers

In the sidebar, open Users & Groups → Users and select Filters:

set Year group to the leavers' year (for example 11 or 13), or use In group to pick their year group;
if sync has already resumed, also set User status to Pending suspension, so only people who have left are listed.

Check the list before you go on. If it includes people who shouldn't be protected, narrow the filters, or tick the right people one by one in Step 2 instead.

Step 2 — Select them

Tick the checkbox in the header row. If there's more than one page, the banner offers Select all N matching — choose it to include everyone.

Step 3 — Turn Smartsync off

In the action bar that appears once you've ticked people, open Status and choose Smartsync off. A message confirms the change ("Status set to LOCKED." — LOCKED is the system's word for Smartsync off).

To check, set Filters → Smartsync → Off: everyone you protected is listed. Anyone who was already pending suspension drops off the Users pending suspension panel on the Dashboard and won't be suspended.

Step 4 — Check their groups

Smartsync off also stops the sync changing these people's groups. They stay in the groups they were in at the end of last year: their year group, form and classes. Your MIS reuses names like Year 11 and 11A every year, and often class names too. When the new pupils join those groups, your leavers are still in them, so they'd also stay in the matching Google groups and be added to new Google Classrooms for those classes.

If that matters, take them out of their groups. Open each person (Users → Edit), select the Memberships tab, then Remove all, and confirm. Their account stays active. See Remove a user from a group. This suits a small number of people, which is another reason to protect only the leavers who need it.

When they no longer need their accounts

Put a reminder in your calendar. Protected leavers are never suspended automatically.

Step 5 — Find them again

On Users, select Filters, set Smartsync to Off, and set Year group (or In group) to the leavers. Other accounts you've protected, such as supply staff or governors, also show under Smartsync Off, so check the list before you go on. Select them as in Step 2.

Step 6 — Suspend them

Open Status and choose Suspended, then confirm. They can no longer sign in, they're removed from all their groups, and their Google and Microsoft accounts are suspended.

Step 7 — Turn Smartsync back on

With the same people still selected, open Status and choose Smartsync on. Nothing else changes for them now. It just stops them showing up as protected accounts in your Smartsync Off filter and in the End-of-term tidy-up.

From here they follow the normal leaver path, including the purge after your retention period. See What happens to a leaver's account?.

Alternative: turn Smartsync on without suspending first. The next MIS import marks them for suspension, and the normal process suspends them about a day later.

Good to know

Smartsync off freezes the account as it is. The MIS doesn't change their details or groups, and doesn't suspend them. It doesn't stop them signing in. See User statuses.
Admins are never suspended automatically, protected or not. Suspend leaving admins yourself.
Already suspended? If a leaver was suspended before you protected them, turn Smartsync off and then set them back to Active (Status → Active). Do it soon: see What happens to a leaver's account? for when suspended accounts are purged.

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