Roles and permissions
Roles and permissions
ADAdmin has six roles. A user's role controls what they can see and do.
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. A reduced admin might, for example, only be able to manage users and groups and reset passwords, with settings, imports, exports, logs and other admins' access all switched off — and those limits are enforced by the system itself, not just hidden from the menu. See Reduced admin access for the full breakdown of what can be switched on or off.
Typical full-access capabilities (subject to the Access tab above):
- Create, edit, and delete users and groups
- Run bulk actions on users and groups
- Manage sync settings and trigger manual syncs
- View sync logs and the admin audit trail
- View Wonde data (the school's origin data from the MIS)
- Import and export data
- Manage school settings
- Access MAT overview (if their account covers multiple schools)
- Reset other users' passwords
- Manage Smart Parents settings and send notices to parents
Admins are typically IT managers, system administrators, or senior leaders with a system responsibility.
Mentor
Limited access — designed for classroom teachers and support staff.
- View their own cohorts (My cohorts)
- Search for users and groups
- Reset passwords for learners (if the school has enabled this and their account is not restricted)
- Create a parent notice (if Smart Parents is on for the school) — see Add a parent notice. Mentors can send notices themselves; managing Smart Parents settings (PINs, master switch) is admin-only.
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)
- Cannot search for other users or groups
- 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 set their own appearance/password
- Search for users and groups
- 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.