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Roles and permissions

4 min read Updated 4 November 2026

ADAdmin has six roles. A user's role controls what they can see and do, and for admins it can be narrowed further, person by person. Anything a person's role or access doesn't allow isn't just hidden from their menu — it's refused if they open the page directly.

Admin

Admins have access to the admin area for the schools they are authorised for — create/edit users and groups, run bulk actions, manage sync settings, view logs, import/export data, and more.

Not every admin has to be given all of it. An admin's exact access — full, or a reduced day-to-day set — is controlled per person on their Access tab. The Reduced preset allows managing and deleting users and groups, resetting passwords and viewing sync status, with settings, sync changes, imports, exports, logs, reporting and other admins' access all switched off — and those limits are enforced by the system itself, not just hidden from the menu. Switches can then be turned on or off one at a time. See Reduced admin access for the full breakdown.

Typical full-access capabilities (each is a separate switch on the Access tab):

  • Create and edit users and groups (Manage users & groups) and delete them (Delete users & groups)
  • Run bulk actions on users and groups
  • View sync status, trigger manual syncs, and change sync, platform and API settings (three separate switches)
  • View logs, recent activity and the admin audit trail (View logs & audit trail)
  • View the school's MIS data and the MIS sync preview (View MIS (Wonde) data). The raw Wonde data browser is a Realsmart-only tool and isn't part of this
  • Import data and export data (two separate switches)
  • Manage school settings (Change school settings)
  • View classroom reporting
  • Give cover access to Classroom classes
  • Reset other users' passwords
  • Manage Smart Parents settings and send notices to parents
  • Change other admins' access (Manage other admins' access)
  • Access MAT overview (if their account covers multiple schools)

At a trust, which schools each admin can reach is set separately, under Admin permissions in MAT overview — see Admin permissions — who can access which schools. Mentors and other staff only ever reach their own school.

Admins always need two-factor authentication, with no exemption — see Require MFA for staff and students.

Admins are typically IT managers, system administrators, or senior leaders with a system responsibility.

Mentor

Limited access — designed for classroom teachers and support staff. A mentor only ever works within their own school.

  • View their own groups (My cohorts)
  • Search for users and groups (they can find people but not open their admin pages)
  • Reset passwords for learners, on the Reset passwords page — if the school lets all mentors do it, or has named them on its allow list, and their own account isn't restricted. See Reset passwords
  • Write and send a parent notice (if Smart Parents is on for the school) — see Add a parent notice. A mentor can only write to the parents of learners in their own groups, and sees only the notices they wrote themselves. Managing Smart Parents settings (PINs, master switch) is admin-only.
  • Give cover access to Google Classroom classes (if the school lets mentors on its cover list do it, and they are on that list) — see Cover access.

Mentors cannot create or delete users, change group memberships, or access sync settings.

Learner

Minimal access — pupils and students.

  • View their own profile (My profile) and their own groups (My cohorts)
  • Cannot search for other users or groups, or use Help
  • Cannot access any admin features

Learners typically interact with the platform they are synced to (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) rather than with ADAdmin directly.

Observer, governor, and ofsted

Three lighter-weight, read-only roles for people who occasionally need to sign in and look something up, but never manage the system:

  • Governor — for members of the school's governing board.
  • Ofsted — for inspectors, typically only needed for the duration of a visit.
  • Observer — a general-purpose read-only role for anyone else who needs occasional access.

All three work the same way:

  • View their own profile (My profile) and use Help and the assistant
  • Search for users and groups (they can find people but not open their admin pages)
  • Cannot access My cohorts, sync, settings, or any other admin/management screen

Assigning a role

Roles are set when you create a user and can be changed on the Details tab of the edit user page. A member of staff who only needs to look after the school website doesn't need to be an admin: tick Website admin on their Details tab instead — see Let someone manage the school website.

Troubleshooting

"You don't have access to this". Your account's role, or an admin's Access tab, doesn't include that page. The page says Your account doesn't have permission for this page. If you think it should, your school administrator can sort that out for you. Ask an admin who can manage others' access to review your role or switches — see Reduced admin access. To work out why a menu item is missing, see Find your way around.

Sites Add a parent notice Sites Admin audit trail — who changed what Sites Glossary Sites Notifications (the bell)