Classwork in Smart Parents

When it's on, parents linked to a child in Smart Parents see a Classwork card for that child, with three lists:

• Due this week — work due in the next 7 days that hasn't been handed in;
• Missing — work past its due date, not handed in, in the last 30 days;
• Returned — work returned to the child in the last 7 days.

Each item shows only the title, the class name and the date. Parents never see the work itself, grades, teachers' comments, teacher names, or links into Google Classroom or Teams. The card says where the list comes from (Google Classroom, or Microsoft Teams once your school's Teams launchpad is live) and when it was last updated.

Before you start

• Smart Parents is on for your school (see Smart Parents settings), and you're an admin who holds Manage Smart Parents.
• Pupils see Due work on their own launchpad: Google Workspace → Launchpad widgets (Launchpad widgets) or, for Microsoft 365 and Teams, Entra sync → Launchpad widgets (Launchpad widgets (Microsoft 365)), with pupils in the audience. Parents see classwork only for pupils who see Due work themselves.
• Your DPIA and your pupil and parent privacy notices cover sharing classwork with parents. Your school is the data controller for this. A paragraph you can adapt is below.
• You have told pupils in the year groups you'll choose, using the pupil notice.
• The option appears on the Settings tab once Realsmart has switched Classwork on. If you don't see Classwork (homework and assignments), it isn't available yet: ask Realsmart support.

Switch it on

1. Open Smart Parents → Settings. Under Features, switch on Classwork (homework and assignments).
2. Tick the year groups whose parents can see classwork. None are ticked to start with, and pupils with no year group recorded are never included. That covers pupils whose MIS year label didn't come through: without it Realsmart can't tell a sixth-former from a Year 6 pupil, so they are left out (pupils in Year 12 or above are still sixth form). The page counts them.
3. Sixth form (Years 12 and 13, however your MIS labels them — L6, U6, Year 12…) is listed separately and starts off. Select Include and confirm a second time for each sixth-form year you want: sixth-formers are 16–18, so make sure your privacy notice covers them, and consider telling them first.
4. Read the counts — how many parent accounts are linked to how many pupils in those year groups, and, where your MIS contacts are in Realsmart, how many of those parent accounts don't match a contact with parental responsibility. You may want to review those on the Parents tab first.
5. Tick both boxes — your DPIA and privacy notices cover it, and pupils in these year groups have been told — then Update settings. Update settings stays greyed out until both boxes are ticked. A box asks "Share classwork with parents?" and says what parents will and won't see; select Switch on and save.

Switching it on, the year groups you choose, and both ticks are recorded in the audit trail.

The status line

Under the switch, a short list says whether parents see classwork right now — for example Parents see classwork for Years 7, 8, 9 (Google Classroom). (before you save it reads When you save, parents will see classwork for …) — or what's in the way:

• Off: parents don't see classwork. The switch is off.
• Not live: Smart Parents is off for this school. Turn Smart Parents on first.
• Not live: no year groups chosen. Tick at least one year group.
• Not live: Due work isn't on for pupils on the Google launchpad page. (or Microsoft 365). Switch Due work on, with pupils in the audience, on the Launchpad widgets page. The line has an Open Launchpad widgets link if you can change sync settings, otherwise it says "Ask whoever manages integrations." If your school uses both Google and Microsoft the line reads Not live for Google Classroom or Not live for Microsoft Teams.
• Not live: none of the chosen year groups see Due work on the launchpad. Due work is limited to other year groups on the launchpad: change that or your choice here.
• Not live: Teams not available yet. Teams classwork isn't switched on for your school yet.
• Not live: launchpad integrations are switched off. or Not live: the MIS year labels Realsmart needs to tell sixth-formers apart aren't available yet. These are Realsmart's to fix: ask Realsmart support.
• A last line, when your school has invited parents to Google Classroom's own guardian summaries, says parents who accepted may see both and they can disagree.

You can save while it isn't live; nothing reaches parents until it is. Even when it says parents see classwork, the app also needs Realsmart to have switched Classwork on there: if a parent can't see it, ask Realsmart support.

How up to date it is, and what "missing" means

Classwork comes from Realsmart's copy of Google Classroom (updated each afternoon, overnight, and whenever pupils open their launchpad), or from each pupil's Teams classwork. Parents see when it was last updated.

Something is missing only if it is past its due date, not handed in, and Realsmart checked it after the deadline. If the last check was before the deadline, it stays under Due as "Was due … · not checked since …" (or not checked yet) rather than being called missing. A Google Classroom pupil's own Missing list on the launchpad counts every past-due item that isn't handed in, so it can differ from what parents see.

If saving is refused

Nothing is saved when one of these appears:

• "Choose year groups from the list. Nothing was saved." A year group that isn't on the page was sent. Reload the page and tick from the list.
• "Confirm each sixth-form year group with “Include” before saving. Nothing was saved." Select Include beside each sixth-form year you want and confirm.
• "Choose at least one year group for classwork. Nothing was saved." Tick a year group, or switch classwork off.
• "To switch classwork on, tick both boxes: your DPIA and privacy notices cover it, and pupils in these year groups have been told. Nothing was saved." Tick both boxes under the year groups.
• "Settings changed since you opened this page: reload. Nothing was saved." Another admin (or another tab) changed classwork after you opened the page. Reload, check, and save again.

Remove a parent's access

Remove the parent's link to the child on the Parents tab (the cross on the child's name). It takes effect within a minute, and is recorded in the audit trail. To stop everyone seeing classwork, switch it off or untick the year group.

Classwork last viewed on the Parents tab shows, for each link, the last day that parent looked at that child's classwork (or never viewed); the parents export has the same column. Realsmart keeps a parent's viewing history for 180 days.

Google Classroom guardian summaries

If your school also invites parents to Google Classroom's own guardian email summaries, parents who accepted may get both, and they can disagree: Google's summaries can be more up to date than the app. The status line mentions it when your school has invited parents to summaries.

Paragraph for your privacy notice

Classwork in Smart Parents. If your child is in a year group we have chosen, parents and carers linked to them in the Smart Parents app can see the titles and due dates of their Google Classroom (or Microsoft Teams) work: work due in the next week, work that is past its due date and not handed in, and work returned to them in the last week. They cannot see the work itself, marks or teachers' comments. We do this to help families support learning at home. You can ask the school office to remove a parent's or carer's link to your child.

Notice for pupils

Give pupils in the year groups you choose a notice like one of these before you switch classwork on. Pupils also see a line on their own Due work card saying their parents can see their classwork.

For younger pupils (under 13):

Your grown-ups at home can now see a list of your schoolwork in the Smart Parents app: the names of the tasks, which class they're for, and when they're due. They can see if a task is late or has been given back to you. They can't see your work, your marks or what your teacher wrote. If you have a question about this, ask your teacher.

For older pupils (13 and over):

Parents and carers linked to you in Smart Parents can now see the titles and due dates of your Google Classroom (or Teams) assignments: what's due this week, what's past its due date and not handed in, and what's been returned to you. They can't see your work, grades or feedback. If you have questions or concerns — including about who is linked to you — talk to your form tutor or the school office.